Steve's Insanely Hot GPZ 7000 Settings

[flakmagnet]

Steve,

I also like a ragged-sounding tuning when I detect. And it takes a lot of attention to stay with what a rough-tuned detector is telling you - however - there is nothing that says you have to do it that way all the time. If the myriad sounds gets overwhelming after awhile, there is nothing that says you can't tune to a more quiet level for awhile.

Jasong not sure running the tuning ragged necessarily means 'wide open.' It's not a matter of all one way or all the other…a small point which you undoubtedly know, but good to clarify

fwiw

[Steve Herschbach]

On November 17, 2015 at 10:01 AM, jasong said:

I agree to an extent, but the timings are there for the same reason the hardware and software filtering inside the detector are there and for the same reason we don't have amplifiers with 100x more gain even though we can easily build them. Noise is real and it will mask targets otherwise we'd have detectors that hear a 1 grammer at 10ft - we can make one, we just can't hear the signal in all the noise. 

There is a point where adding more ground noise doesn't add anything new to the conversation so to speak unless I'm missing something obvious here... There is only so much ground information you can get before it's not saying anything new in the noise, it's just getting louder. EMI increases along with it and unless you like listening to lightning or meteorites in the atosphere from 500 miles away, it's not saying anything useful. The usefulness is in increasing the noise so you also increase the target response as far as I can tell, but at some point there is diminishing returns and it seems to be part of a detectorists skillset is in determining where that point is at.

The human ear and brain perceives sound non-linearly - which is why the decibel scale is logarithmic. What that means is that a sound that is 10x louder really only sounds 2x louder to us. So volumes that are double really only sound like very faint variations to our brains. Same with frequency shifts (tones). Volumes or tones that only vary slightly are difficult for our brains to differentiate when the noise floor is raised to the same level as the target. There is also the psychological effect that I forget the name of, but our brains get "used" to repetitive senses and automatically dull them out - like how you get used to a smell and don't notice it but someone who just walks in does, or you get used to temperature of a cold lake after diving in, ears are the same.

Anyways, I guess my point is just that running full blast in some cases may be just as counterproductive as running in Fine Gold in places where there is no need for it.

Absolutely, totally agree 100%. It can't be said too many time that there are no absolutes in metal detecting. 

[mn90403]

Can anyone make an audio file of any of this 'noise vs signal/target' info?

 

What is the audio scent you are after?

[vanursepaul]

Wow,, i was thinking the exact same thing!!!!

I would love to have a library with all you different successful nugget shooters posting one or two audio files (or as many as you want)

Seeing is believing , but hearing teaches.

I'm sure everyone would love to hear what you are hearing just to know how you different people normally run your detectors.

If you came to an abnormal area it would be lovely to hear what you do to compensate....audio files could be no more than 15-30 seconds, but could have a BIG impact to us rookies...

Actually, it should be just as easy to get a video clip from a smartphone vs recording an audio---but if being anonymous is important to you---audio would be great too.

I don't want to know where you found your nuggets----i would just like to hear a clip of how your machines sound the way you each tune them for a normal hunt in your respective areas.

If you didn't want to post them up for the world to hear you could PM anyone you want to help.

I think it is a GRAND idea ..... and a great way to finally get on Santa's Nice List......

Good hunting!

_________________________________

I would show you a 3 foot deep hole i dug this weekend chasing ground noise, but i was a little embarrassed when i took a little break and looked back at the "excavation site." 

What i saw was that i had, 2 different picks, a long handled shovel, a ML2300, a Garrett Pro pointer, and a ML7000----(if I only had taken the 7005 with me!!!)

Everything I owned in my truck was laying out on the ground!!! Hahahahaa.....

[Jonathan Porter]

On November 15, 2015 at 4:43 AM, vanursepaul said:

JP........Am I to understand that we are to keep the coil OFF the ground when using the GPZ,,,, on Normal at least?

How high ? Just enough to keep it from "saturating"?

TIA

paul

Like Steve has said, depends on the ground you are working. Most people adjust their detect height without even thinking about it. In the case of Normal Ground Type mode on the GPZ 7000, those modes are very aggressive so will saturate more readily than Difficult mode. I generally keep my coil around the 30 mm mark even in quiet ground.

JP

[Jonathan Porter]

I've been experimenting with a few things with the GPZ in our highly mineralised ground here in Central QLD which I feel is showing real promise for those wanting to lever the power of Normal Gold modes in the noisy variable ground.

I had a faint variable target response yesterday using High Yield Difficult, to be honest I was convinced it was just ground variation because my traditional 90 degree method did not improve the response and the signal was only manifesting from one direction and even then it was intermittent, combined with a lot of these types of responses around the area convinced me it was just ground signal.

Flicking to High Yield/Normal the response boomed but so did all the localised ground variation responses in the immediate area. So after some experimentation with Volume, Sensitivity and some other Secret settings I came up with a way to actually detect the area and to be able to make some informed decisions on some of the ground response that were worth investigating. 

This method requires more work because trust needs to be earned, however it did in this case work very well and allowed me to operate in a mode normally reserved for quieter soils. I'll keep readers of this forum in the loop as I investigate this further. Suffice to say my variable little ground noise turned into a half gram nugget at 8 inches in nasty soils, and I was able to detect the area quite easily using High Yield Normal, in fact it was actually more stable and refined than Difficult just with added feedback from the ground.

There is a lot of power bundled up with the GPZ, it just takes some sweat and effort to leverage it properly.

JP

[fredmason]

Jonathan; I can't hardly wait to learn more of your hard-earned secrets!

Hearing is as varied as humans...almost every one has ears but none hear the same sound in exactly the same way. While asking Bill Southern what settings he uses on the GPZ he explained how he selected his tone setting. He said that setting the tone changed the volume(perceived loudness). He would rotate through the tones until the sound seemed loudest to his hearing.

That made sense because a loss of hearing in some tones will lessen or eliminate hearing the signal. If you have not experimented with the tone settings you may be missing sounds and not know it. This is not unlike listening to musical scales or singing...if there are gaps in the sound you are listening to it may be your hearing not a break in the detectors audio.

As to one's hearing becoming dulled or inured to the detector try taking a break occasionally or change the tone slightly to awaken your hearing...besides that irritating mosquito hum gets very tiresome...the highest pitch is not always best...

fred

[Jonathan Porter]

On November 17, 2015 at 2:04 PM, fredmason said:

......... While asking Bill Southern what settings he uses on the GPZ he explained how he selected his tone setting. He said that setting the tone changed the volume(perceived loudness). He would rotate through the tones until the sound seemed loudest to his hearing...........

 

fred

Changing the Tone does affect the overall volume but that's not why you should choose a particular Tone to detect with. Low Tones will always sound louder regardless of your hearing because that's the nature of the Tones "Wave". Your detector has a Volume control for a reason, if the Tone you like sounds too quiet then adjust the Volume control to compensate.

I personally prefer 60 on the GPZ, the reason being the Threshold sounds smoother and brighter (and quieter too because of the higher frequency) and with the way the GPZ audio is pre-configured with the signal control (this was adjustable on the 5000), the tonal variation between the Threshold and Tonal peak of the signal compliments the target response really well. 

Main thing is to be prepared to use the detector for at least an hour at a time to condition your brain to any changes in Tone, it takes at least that long to get your brain accustomed to any changes.

JP

[mn90403]

Paul,

I think a 7000 remote (without headphones of course) could be attached to a GoPro or other camera and look at a coil swinging and give all of us a much better idea of 'noisy' vs 'quiet' and fewer words would have to be stated.

If a picture is worth a thousand words then what would the audio be worth?  (An audio file would be worth a thousand nuggets!)

We could have posts which say:  Was or wasn't there a target in this swing?  (The answer could be given in another thread of hot rock or nugget.)

Mitchel

[vanursepaul]

Either way would be a blessing...

I like to hear jp trying to decide what the target is as he is digging..

I never forget the video where he dug for sooo long and was sweating like a DOG...it was comical for me to watch and listen but his frustrations turned to joy when the nugget finally gave itself up..he looked like he dug up a swimming pool!!! Lol