Digi On Location?

[Nathanael]

There are lots of them out there:

-Edirol R4 and R1
-Sound Devices 744t and 722
-Marantz PMD660 and PMD670
-Fostex FR-2
-M-Audio has some new thing out now.

The r4 looks pretty descent... There seems to be a slight lack of analog outs happening though. Evidently you've used the machine. How are the mic preamps? Does it chase timecode? Is there any main plus or minus about the device?

I would probably miss the "any situation work-around" i/o of a sound devices mixer, but I'd definately be willing to let that go if it's a solid machine that xfers with timestamps and no issues to my PTLE osx 6.4 or final cut... or both?

Thanks for the info.

N.

[gallery]

I'm brainstorming on how to do Timecoded PT production sound. My prod co. doesn't own dat machines and is doing a low budget shoot - renting as little equip as possible while maintaining a secure procedure with no accidental MOS takes and so forth.

I was thinking about throwing a small LE rig w/ a powerbook on the cart (we have one already - no cost). Recording thru the mbox or 002 and busing to the camera for backup. My main question is, can PT LE record incoming timecode? I know it can read it, but if I'm doing say, a free-run type of shoot, will PT actually record the changes in the incoming TC? If I don't do a TOD shoot, can I actually sync PTLE to a camera or device that's spitting out TC?

I know I could just throw some numbers up on a slate and eyeball to the clapper, but this can be teedious and expensive in post.

Has anybody done PT on set before? Can I get some ideas, input?

Thanks much,

Nathanael

You can do *precisely* what you asked using 002 and Metacorder, which turns your 002 into a dedicated Location Sound recorder.

http://www.metacorder.info

[Don Barto]

I do a lot of location audio, and I do a lot of audio post with LE. On two occaisions I have used LE on a PowerBook and Mbox to record video shoots — one, a concert, the other, more of an on-location ADR excercise. Why? Because I just wanted to.

Pro Tools works well enough out in the field, but it is very fragile and very cumbersome — the laptop itself, that is — particularly when you need to go really mobile. Chasing timecode from a camera is easy when you have any of the various SMPTE-to-MTC interfaces — with or without DV Toolkit. You can even do it wirelessly if you have a spare wireless mic and a line level input adapter cable. But it doesn't all travel that nicely — and forget about working in direct sunlight or foul weather; actually forget about working outside AND forget about shooting longer than the laptop's battery will allow — unless of course you have 3 or 4 spare laptop batteries all charged up and ready to go.

My vote goes to the new breed of hard drive field recorders. Without having tried a single one of them first-hand yet, I am very confident any of them will blow Pro Tools-on-a-laptop away as far as being able to do the job very nicely, with a minimum of special concern or attention.

[RobMacki]

I have talked to Digidesign for years at every NAB or AES I go to. I always point out that they have a potential market they are completely ignoring. After all hard disk recorders are a fact of life in field and location audio, and we all know the great majority of post production audio is done on Pro Tools. If Digidesign produced something similar to the Portadrive or Deva that recorded directly to Pro Tools they would have a winner on their hands in my opinion.

I always ask them 'who do I have to 'kiss' over at Digidesign to get this?'. I usually replace the word kiss with a more descriptive term. In the meantime they however put a lot of time and money into the Venue. Why not a location recorder? We can only hope.

You're preaching to the choir, but preach it!
I have a shoot coming up in November where I will be using a Deva with Sony F900 HD camera I believe @24fps. We will have to lock audio, it's all in pre-pro now. We may go with a Clockit system. I'm also thinking of Metacorder with an Mbox or MOTU Traveler as back up.
I find it interesting that Digi had a rep at the C.A.S seminar. The market for this is smaller than all the other lines they cary but maybe they will step into it.

[KingTor]

I think it's an interesting idea, but I, for one, would rather have Digidesign concentrating on developing the high end market, and leaving this particular niche market to other companies. It's clear to me that a dedicated device that records to hard drive enabling you to directly import data into ProTools is far superior to a portable ProTools rig, and for Digidesign to develop such a product would distract them needlessly from seeing their current crop of new products grow in popularity and success.

Someone suggested that the Venue was a distraction to Digi's core business and argued that the market in live consoles is saturated, I believe. I totally disagree, and offer this one thought in defense of my position: people were saying the same thing about studio mixing consoles when the Pro Control came out, and look how well the Pro Control 2.0 is catching on. (Oops, I mean the "ICON.") So even if Venue isn't a huge success, it's laying the groundwork for a potentially HUGE market later. Imagine having the capability to mix a live show and record the multi-track for studio mixing at the same time.

C'mon. That'd be SWEET. Can I get an "amen?"

But I digress. Sorry. I believe that it's totally possible to record on location locked to timecode with ProTools LE and the DV option. I still don't think that it's the best tool for the job, though.

[philper]

>>But it doesn't all travel that nicely — and forget about working in direct sunlight or foul weather; >>actually forget about working outside AND forget about shooting longer than the laptop's battery >>will allow — unless of course you have 3 or 4 spare laptop batteries all charged up and ready to go.


If you want to hear about how (many) location sound people are using laptops and
FW interfaces and Metacorder on location, outside, in weather and on DC, check in at the
Metacorder users group (Yahoo). Video assist people having been running quite complex location shoots
for years off laptops in all the same weather I've been out in, and they make it work.
For sun there are Hoodman shades made specifically for various laptop models, for DC there are
small very efficient sine invertors and 80 AH batteries. How extreme will conditions be
on most of your shoots? And if your work involves music recording, 8 channels (as on a Deva etc)
are way not enough.

Philip Perkins CAS

[BothMan]

I just finished a 4 day shoot using a laptop,002, a motu and DV toolkit.

It was a 3 camera Sony HD shoot all locked with me chasing TC. I sent audio to 1 camera, but since the Sony's are prone to dropouts I of course ran a backup. 2 backups infact. I had 3 talent wired so I wanted discreet tracks in case of RF hits. I ran a stereo mix to my Fostex FR2 and also sent discreet to the 002. It all ran perfectly. I was even using my old pismo laptop. It only dropped offline once the whole shoot.

The coolest thing, I had around 10 RF hits (tons of interference on the stage) and I looped them right there. Try that on a Deva.

I plan on doing more testing and still running it as a second backup. And I really think it depends on the type of shoot that you are doing.

Paul

[tomcat]

this looks like a dream come true. anyone know if it is available or how the pres and converters sound?

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...2496-main.html