DAT for film?
- Thread starter LoveDVX
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khmuse
Tech Guru
Any sound recording device that is highly speed accurate will work fine as a field recorder.
Nagra's (early ones like a 4S) were analog recorders with highly accurate transport speeds (and the ability to use a pilot tone system) but nowadays, hardly anyone uses analog recorders for film work. If you need a timecode sync capability (to drive a sync slate) then that will reduce your choices, but if you are just going to use the sticks on a standard slate to give you an event to line up with, you can use just about anything. One thing that you might find to be an advantage, and assuming that you are recording digitally, is to use a 48kS/s sample rate (as opposed to 44k1) as this will go into your NLE without requiring a SRC process.
Any DAT and a lot of newer solidstate field recorders will accomplish the task for you. If you want to give us an idea of your budget, you might get so more specific suggestions. Also, for most projects, this would be something that you might want to rent as opposed to purchase unless you will be using it a high percentage of the time.
Nagra's (early ones like a 4S) were analog recorders with highly accurate transport speeds (and the ability to use a pilot tone system) but nowadays, hardly anyone uses analog recorders for film work. If you need a timecode sync capability (to drive a sync slate) then that will reduce your choices, but if you are just going to use the sticks on a standard slate to give you an event to line up with, you can use just about anything. One thing that you might find to be an advantage, and assuming that you are recording digitally, is to use a 48kS/s sample rate (as opposed to 44k1) as this will go into your NLE without requiring a SRC process.
Any DAT and a lot of newer solidstate field recorders will accomplish the task for you. If you want to give us an idea of your budget, you might get so more specific suggestions. Also, for most projects, this would be something that you might want to rent as opposed to purchase unless you will be using it a high percentage of the time.
do you shoot 24 for theater release or for tv , that might change your approach to what sample rate to use in the field
you can sync regullar way with sticks for every device which hold 11 minutes without a drift
, minidisc , dat ,cf recorders , hard disk recorders or computer based systems
you can work without the sticks at all if your camera equipped with tc and you are recording with tc device
you can sync regullar way with sticks for every device which hold 11 minutes without a drift
, minidisc , dat ,cf recorders , hard disk recorders or computer based systems
you can work without the sticks at all if your camera equipped with tc and you are recording with tc device
Thanks for the feedback but I actually tried using a Marantz recorder on a short film recently and although the quality was very high, for a $500 deck, it drifted in post after just a few words. I'm trying to avoid this next time so any actual experience using something like the Tascam DA-P1 would be great to hear about!
khmuse
Tech Guru
Hey CineCell,
Was the Marantz recorder a DAT or an analog deck? I would be very surprised to learn that virtually any DAT lacked a crystal controlled master oscillator. If you camera wasn't a sync type (usually crystal controlled) it could have been what was drifting. There is a really simple test for speed stability for an audio recorder. Just record a sine wave from a good, stable oscillator. Then play it back and any speed change will be very obvious as it will cause a noticeable pitch shift. If you have access to a frequency counter, you can quantify the error.
If you are in doubt as to your equipments speed stability (either sound or picture), then try this technique. Get a head and tail slate (with sticks) for every take. Then, just sync up the head slate and see how far out you are (leading or lagging) at the tail (say 2 frames lagging after a 400 frame take). Using just a bit of math (398/400 = .995 or 99.5% which is .5% slow) , you can then calculate the speed difference between the picture and sound. Use this error number (+.5%) with your DAW to make a simple correction and you will then have nearly perfect sync.
Was the Marantz recorder a DAT or an analog deck? I would be very surprised to learn that virtually any DAT lacked a crystal controlled master oscillator. If you camera wasn't a sync type (usually crystal controlled) it could have been what was drifting. There is a really simple test for speed stability for an audio recorder. Just record a sine wave from a good, stable oscillator. Then play it back and any speed change will be very obvious as it will cause a noticeable pitch shift. If you have access to a frequency counter, you can quantify the error.
If you are in doubt as to your equipments speed stability (either sound or picture), then try this technique. Get a head and tail slate (with sticks) for every take. Then, just sync up the head slate and see how far out you are (leading or lagging) at the tail (say 2 frames lagging after a 400 frame take). Using just a bit of math (398/400 = .995 or 99.5% which is .5% slow) , you can then calculate the speed difference between the picture and sound. Use this error number (+.5%) with your DAW to make a simple correction and you will then have nearly perfect sync.