Marantz PMD560

For the past several years, Marantz Professional solid state recorders have been revolutionizing the worlds of broadcasting, journalism, and portable professional recording. With no moving parts, solid state technology has virtually made repair and maintenance a thing of the past.

Now, Marantz Professional brings the flexibility and reliability of this format to the installation market at an affordable price-with the PMD560. More and more, audio is being delivered online, through email, webcasts, and pod-casts. Even CD recording-once the "hip new thing,"- has become the de facto standard. The equipment you install has to be capable of rendering your audio in the high-quality digital formats that end users want, need, and frankly expect.

The PMD560 is designed precisely for this purpose. Mounting into an economical 1U rack space, the PMD560 records audio directly to an inexpensive Compact Flash card. It can easily be configured to record mono or stereo in two of the most common data formats, PCM (uncompressed) and .mp3. If you use more than one format, the PMD560 offers three programmable presets for your favorite setups - press one key, and the PMD560 is configured to your specifications. RS-232 is provided for machine control and automation, and editing and playlist creation can be done directly from the front panel. Marantz Professional has even included a USB connector right on the front panel to facilitate transfer of sound files to your PC.

See? We told you we were paying attention.

Key Features

• Solid State Design
• No moving parts-no maintenance
• Records uncompressed 16-bit PCM .wav files at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz.
• Records mono .mp3 files at 64 kbps
• Records stereo .mp3 files at 128 kbps
• 3 Presets allow instant configuration of recording format
• Uses inexpensive, widely available Compact Flash media (CF)
• A 1 GB CF card can hold over 1 hour of uncompressed stereo
• A 1 GB CF card can hold over 17 hours (stereo) or 36 hours (mono) .mp3
• RCA line I/O
• "Copy Segment" cut-and-paste editing to a new sound file
• 99 "Virtual Tracks" for EDL-style editing
• Front Panel USB port for easy file transfer
• RS-232 port for automation and machine control

Solid State Technology

By storing audio data on Compact Flash (CF) media cards, all of the mechanical hassles of tape recorders are gone forever-as are the costs of servicing and maintaining them. Not only that, but CF storage allows you to choose different recording formats, and makes transferring audio files to computers a snap.

Long Record Times

No more flipping tapes! A single 1 GB flash card can hold up to 36 hours of uninterrupted audio (monaural .mp3 at 64 kbps). For music recording, the same size card can hold more than 17 hours high-quality compressed stereo (.mp3 at 128 kbps). If you need the unmatched quality of uncompressed audio, you can get about one and-a-half hours worth of 16-bit linear PCM audio at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz on the same 1 GB card.

Editing and File Transfer

Using older technology, preparing your final product was an involved process, sometimes involving multiple steps of transfer and format conversion. With the PMD560, you record in the format you need, and moving that recording to a computer is easy. In some cases, it's as simple as pulling the CF card from the PMD560 and plugging it into the card reader on your computer. Alternatively, you can use the USB port on the front panel to transfer audio files to a PC. It's already in your format of choice, so once it's in your computer, it's ready to post to the web, burn to a CD, or edit in your favorite editor.

Exclusive-"Virtual Track" Mode

In addition, you can make your edits and playlists right on the PMD560. Marantz Professional's exclusive "Virtual Track" mode allows you to create up to 99 virtual tracks-internal playlists of audio segments. You simply tell the PMD560 what segments of a file to play, and in what order, and it does it-without altering the original file in any way, and without using up more card memory. Need to webcast part of a meeting to your sales team? Want to play a few interview segments during your presentation? What about podcasting the six best songs from the holiday concert? Editing is easy with virtual tracks.