tascam dr 100: RED ONE recording?

[omar robles]

I apologize if this has been covered before. But a friend of mine who shoots with a canon 7d swears by the TASCAM DR 100 for his sound recording. I mentioned to him that a friend of mine wanted to buy sound equipment to record sound for my film. I asked what a good recorder for the red one camera would be and he mentioned the TASCAM would be good to record double sound. I mentioned to him that i think those recorders are only good for dslr cameras and he told me sound is independent of image. Is he right? Would the TASCAM DR 100 be quality enough to use on a feature with?

thanks in advance

O

 

[Christopher Barrett]

I have one of those for my down and dirty interviews. It's a drag for 2 system sound because you can't do timecode. I actually get passable results patching it straight into the R1 for embedded audio. It seems to have a lower bias and I often have the Gain cranked all the way up. I can't imagine doing a feature with one, as you only have 2 channels.

The one thing that really sucks is there's no external charger for the OEM batteries, so you have to be religious about recharging the on board Li-On unit... even though it also takes AA's, mine won't seem to run off them alone.

Cheers,
CB

 

[omar robles]

What about the TASCAM HD P2? Would that be better for quality sound?

thanks for the response by the way

 

[Christopher Barrett]

Tough call. Timecode is awesome but still only 2 Channels. No personal experiences with the unit. We just did a short with the DR-680 and patched it into the R1 for a Sync Track. That worked nicely. I'd love to work with the Sound Devices 744T or 788T, but that's quite an investment considering I'm not a sound guy.

 

[Sam Eilertsen]

I've worked with the DR-100 a fair amount. It's not a bad recorder, but if you're shooting a feature and can afford a RED, you really want something better. On a low budget feature, sound quality is generally more apparent than video quality. I highly recommend the Sound Devices recorders.

 

[Tom Visser]

I apologize if this has been covered before. But a friend of mine who shoots with a canon 7d swears by the TASCAM DR 100 for his sound recording. I mentioned to him that a friend of mine wanted to buy sound equipment to record sound for my film. I asked what a good recorder for the red one camera would be and he mentioned the TASCAM would be good to record double sound. I mentioned to him that i think those recorders are only good for dslr cameras and he told me sound is independent of image. Is he right? Would the TASCAM DR 100 be quality enough to use on a feature with?

thanks in advance

O

The DR-100 has mediocre to poor preamps so would not be suitable to plug external microphones into... at least, you would be better off plugging microphones directly into the R1, no hassle of double system that way. Also, the line input gain (stereo mini unbalanced), has an unusually low input gain, so you have to add quite a bit of noise by gaining up on the device or utilize an outboard mixer that has the ability to send higher than normal levels to the unit. I have used Zoom H2 attached to the tape outputs of Sound Devices mixers in the past with very good results. Most of the other portable recorders would probably do better than the DR-100 off of a professional mixer's tape outputs due to the gain anomaly. The HD P2 would be an excellent choice although the Tascam DR-680 would represent a better value. Even without timecode, your could just record timecode to one of the audio channels.

 

[Mark Allen]

Tom you feel the pre-amps in the R1 are better than the DR-100? I've actually been debating this week to go with a DR-100 (since it seems better than H4n) or a SD micpre with something like an H2 or just running the micpre into the R1 (or Canon 60D, my other camera) directly. Sounds like you may have done this and have a strong opinion? (60D has no line input unfortunately, just mic, so it would require a dampening cable and would still go through the 60D preamps which is why I was thinking about the H2 or tascam comparable model. Thoughts?

 

[shashbugu]

I used record directly to a laptop using boom recorder and a Motu traveller, but lately the new Motu traveller MK3 I got is battery poweredf. So I use it as MIX-Pre directly to the R1 gives a better than broadcast level of dynamic audio, complete with SMPTE timecode output if you use a backup recorder and an out of this world limiter. More importantly you can filter out power hum on the fly without doing it in post. Very ballsy throat level sound, Its amazing how companies like Motu create a great interface pre-amp with limiter but forget toss in a Compact flash or SD recorder for another hundred bucks. Sound Devices are doing everything right.

 

[Tom Visser]

Tom you feel the pre-amps in the R1 are better than the DR-100? I've actually been debating this week to go with a DR-100 (since it seems better than H4n) or a SD micpre with something like an H2 or just running the micpre into the R1 (or Canon 60D, my other camera) directly. Sounds like you may have done this and have a strong opinion? (60D has no line input unfortunately, just mic, so it would require a dampening cable and would still go through the 60D preamps which is why I was thinking about the H2 or tascam comparable model. Thoughts?

I do "feel" that the R1 preamps are in fact better than the DR-100, although not a scientifically derived "feeling". The best thing you could do is to use professional preamps, such as SD, and then send to a properly calibrated input on a recorder, whether that be camera or an external recorder. I'm not knocking the DR-100 on the whole, but very specifically to a problem that the line inputs have with respect to gain levels and above average noise. The recorder may sound better than an H2, when used as a stand alone recorder, but for using as a line level backup recorder, the H2 actually does a better job.

 

[PatrickFaith]

Sorry for coming to this thread late ... hope anyone is still looking at it(I'm moving from shorts to indie feature length .... ):

For the scarlet, if your just recording two mic's ... would the quality of just hooking the mic's into the red's brain xlr plugs be excellent ( I will be using a Seinheiser 416 & neumann condenser mic, I'm perty fanatical on sound quality)?

Also, with Jibs & dolly's ... etc ... i'm worried about yanking the crap out of the scarlet with a mic cable that will inevitably hooks to something. I followed the thread, but my brain's exploding on getting the Tascam HD-P2 or one of the Sound Devices 702T (also exploding my indie pocket book ... but I know from past screw ups not to skimp on sound).

Thanks in advance for your time in looking this over

 

[Tom Visser]

I'm of the camp that believes a hell of of a lot better can be done with a good mixer into a camera that has decent audio inputs than a field recorder (for the same amount of a limited $$$). You throw an interesting twist in that you say that you only need 2 mics, which I sort of am a bit dubious... you are only doing docs / sit down interviews? Without further information, I'd say that you best bet would be a Sound Devices MixPre-D. If you needed 3 mics (typical ENG boom with 2 labs) a Sound Devices 302 or 442 would be up your alley. A 552 adds 1 more channel for a total of 5 plus a rudimentary stereo recording capability. The 702t is very limiting when not used in conjunction with a mixer, unless it truly really is a two mic situation where you never really need to deliver a mono mix.

 

[PatrickFaith]

I'm of the camp that believes a hell of of a lot better can be done with a good mixer into a camera that has decent audio inputs than a field recorder (for the same amount of a limited $$$). You throw an interesting twist in that you say that you only need 2 mics, which I sort of am a bit dubious... you are only doing docs / sit down interviews? Without further information, I'd say that you best bet would be a Sound Devices MixPre-D. If you needed 3 mics (typical ENG boom with 2 labs) a Sound Devices 302 or 442 would be up your alley. A 552 adds 1 more channel for a total of 5 plus a rudimentary stereo recording capability. The 702t is very limiting when not used in conjunction with a mixer, unless it truly really is a two mic situation where you never really need to deliver a mono mix.

Good advice, all ready I'm running into situations where i need to have some wireless mic's hooked to the main mic's. I only record in set btw, so I like your mixer suggestion. I currently use a Digidesign F03 that does have word sync, but that's just a bit too big to move around to different sets with a sound cart.

 

[brian leisring]

I would agree with everyone who is advising against these little two track handhelds and advising towards the sound devices. If you are looking for the quality obviously get a 788T, however.. there has reently been a good alternative to that if you don't want to fuss with bussing, mix, etc. The Nomad recorder that just came out is very user friendly and has a mixer built into it for around 4ooo. I would look into that option.