Field Recorder

[Billy McCannon]

I’m starting a feature documentary on the Red. Won’t have the budget to have a soundman for a good part of the shoot so I need a user-friendly field recorder. I fancy a Sound Devices 702T but I expect it might be over speced for my capabilities and it’s more then I want to spend by a more then a bit.

What are the options?

I like the idea of being able to record to a card rather then a HD.

Tascam HDP2 looks like a good fit – has anyone got experience using this with the Red and how will does sync to the camera?

Anything else I should consider?

 

[David Battistella]

I’m starting a feature documentary on the Red. Won’t have the budget to have a soundman for a good part of the shoot so I need a user-friendly field recorder. I fancy a Sound Devices 702T but I expect it might be over speced for my capabilities and it’s more then I want to spend by a more then a bit.

What are the options?

I like the idea of being able to record to a card rather then a HD.

Tascam HDP2 looks like a good fit – has anyone got experience using this with the Red and how will does sync to the camera?

Anything else I should consider?

Yes.

The RED camera is an excellent choice to record multitrack audio. You could use a small 2 track Sound Devices mixer.

David

 

[Billy McCannon]

Thanks David for the prompt reply, it is a real option but I'd prefer not to be tethered to the camera. Also, I need field recorder for pickups/audio only interviews.

 

[Billy McCannon]

Everyone posting on these boards who owns a Tascam seems to speak highly of them whilst bowing to the superiority of the SD 702T particularly with regard to TC sync.

As I understand it the HD-P2 will read Red generated TC. I'd like to know how that works in the field.

What cable do I need? Once I have sync can I disconnect the cable and retain sync when the camera is stopped and restarted?

I presume I can do this using free run time code. I've used free run time code on DVX shoots and it's not my favorite.

What other options will the SD 702T give me with regard to sync?

 

[Rob Gardner]

We use a Tascam HD-p2 when shooting double system and for its price it works quite well. Its plastic case suggests it would not take the pounding of extended production, but it performs and it is a great back-up.

 

[Billy McCannon]

We use a Tascam HD-p2 when shooting double system and for its price it works quite well. Its plastic case suggests it would not take the pounding of extended production, but it performs and it is a great back-up.

What kind of sync do you use when shooting Red?

 

[Brian J.M. Rytel]

Another direction

Another direction

Depending on the resources you have available (and the conditions you are likely to shoot in) you may consider a laptop based recording system. Many productions are using a laptop to unload the Compact-Flash Cards. Depending on your shooting style, the RED Drive can fill up fairly fast to.

On the mid-price range you could consider a MOTU Traveler, which gives you four mic+1/4" pre-amps with phantom power, and four more line/unbalanced inputs. It can SMPTE sync, and you can bus-power it from a firewire port or you can use an external battery (4-pin XLR?). It also has a number of digital I/O. These run about $830.

On the low-end you could pick up the Mackie Onyx Satellite ($200), which has only two mic preamps, but has a neat docking feature, and is also bus-powered.

I haven't found any high-end bus-powered/battery interfaces, when I do I'll throw it up here to.

 

[Tom Visser]

You should probably check out the other audio related thread on some computer vs location equipment debate...

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22588

But if you consider an interface with an XLR-4 DC power jack battery powered, in addition to the MOTU traveller, there is the Metric Halo ULN2, which has awesome preamps, and the Sonic Solutions 305, which is based on the Metric Halo platform, but in addition to 8/8 AES I/O, also has 8 ULN2 quality preamps and SMPTE LTC time code I/O. For Apple users, there is the DC power option for the Apogee Ensemble.

To get this DC power, you could take an Anton Bauer style 2pin connector and solder it to an XLR-4, allowing you to use the standard RED batteries for power.

 

[Brian J.M. Rytel]

...But if you consider an interface with an XLR-4 DC power jack battery powered, in addition to the MOTU traveller, there is the Metric Halo ULN2, which has awesome preamps, and the Sonic Solutions 305, which is based on the Metric Halo platform...

Having not heard of these companies before I am glad to know of more options, I want to add that you meant Sonic Studio, not solutions.

Both are similar in features, the Metric Halo is pricey (~$1,700), the 302 (~$3,200) only has 2 pre-amps to the Traveler's 4, but the 305 (~$6,400) has four. I understand that comparing to the cost of a Zaxcom unit or Cantar these are inexpensive, but I was suggesting this solution to save a few dollars. I have checked, and the traveler does have a 4-pin XLR power connector.

 

[Tom Visser]

Having not heard of these companies before I am glad to know of more options, I want to add that you meant Sonic Studio, not solutions.

Both are similar in features, the Metric Halo is pricey (~$1,700), the 302 (~$3,200) only has 2 pre-amps to the Traveler's 4, but the 305 (~$6,400) has four. I understand that comparing to the cost of a Zaxcom unit or Cantar these are inexpensive, but I was suggesting this solution to save a few dollars. I have checked, and the traveler does have a 4-pin XLR power connector.

Yeah, my bad, meant Sonic Studio. Those interfaces are mainly designed to allow one to use the SoundBlade software, but it also happens to be one of the few battery powered interfaces that has both TC I/O, AES I/O, and optional mic pres depending on which of the 3 series boxes you choose. I think that they also offer a Lundahl or Jensen transformer option if you need it. Supposedly people are able to use aggregate Apogee Duets now with certain firmware versions (up to 2), although it is not officially supported. Given that these boxes are $500 a pop, getting 4 channels of Apogee Ensemble level preamps for $1000 is a pretty good deal and are buss powered via Firewire.

 

[Tom Visser]

The MOTU Traveller is an excellent unit. It does not have "pristine" preamps, but I would rate them above the Digidesign LE interfaces. Their clock implementation is so so. One of the really cool things about the Traveller, and all MOTU interfaces for that matter, is that you can feed raw LTC SMPTE time code into any audio input. The MOTU software will basically convert that to MTC time code which you can use to lock onto if you are using a compatible DAW that recognizes MTC. Having actual physical knobs to turn is really important too, which the traveller has, albeit rather small. It is one of the qualifications that eliminates most computer interfaces. We who work in cinema / TV / docu fields rather than music production studios, need desperately to ride gain for challenging sequences or to quickly change setups on the fly. The Traveller also aggregates well in OS X if you want to use more than one and would be a perfect front end for the Vosgames Boomrecorder application. If you insist on using a computer (hopefully on a cart), I would much recommend at least using software that was custom designed for us rather than something like ProTools, Cubase, DP, or Logic.