Does the Sound Devices MixPre-3 or 6 have dual record like Tascam DR-60?

[Budgieboots]

Hello,

I'm interested in investing in the next "step up" for portable audio recording after years of using a Tascam DR-60 which has faithfully served me.

The Sound Devices MixPre-3 or 6 look to be pretty good - but I can't figure out if they have the wonderful dual record functionality of Tascam, where you can record the same track simultaneously at -10db to avoid clipping.

Do the Sound Devices do this? I've looked everywhere online but can't seem to find information on this.

 

[Cary Knoop]

I don't think you have to worry about that with the Sound Devices recorders, they are low noise and very high dynamic and their limiters are great.

 

[IronFilm]

Tascams have neither the analogue limiters of Sound Devices or the more sophisticated hybrid limiters of the Zoom F series, thus it is an extremely important feature for the Tascams but less so important in other recorders.

Although I still feel it is a nice feature to have as a "just in case" level of insurance to back you up. Especially as the MixPre series is aimed at newbies and solo videographer, who'd be even more likely to find such a feature to be useful.

 

[Budgieboots]

Thanks for the info. I was reading that if you say, recorded on the sound devices so that your peaks were -30db — you could still boost it by 20db in editing and have it sound clean. Whereas with the tascam if I did that, it would sound pretty bad.

Is that true though? If you make a mistake like that can you boost in post as hard as that and still have it be usable with sound devices?

 

[Throwback]

Tascams have neither the analogue limiters of Sound Devices or the more sophisticated hybrid limiters of the Zoom F series

David, I enjoyed this: making it sound as if the current F4/F8 limiters are preferable to the analogue SD ones in the Mixpre-series recorders! Having listened to and used both, they certainly aren't, which, given how they work, is no surprise. The imminent F8n sounds like it should offer an improvement, but let's wait and see.

Cheers,

Roland

 

[Throwback]

Thanks for the info. I was reading that if you say, recorded on the sound devices so that your peaks were -30db — you could still boost it by 20db in editing and have it sound clean. Whereas with the tascam if I did that, it would sound pretty bad.

Is that true though? If you make a mistake like that can you boost in post as hard as that and still have it be usable with sound devices?

You can indeed boost significant in post with no problems. Alternatively, if only using two channels, you could record the ISO tracks more conservatively than the LR mix, effectively giving you what your Tascam offers, albeit rather better sounding. Having been a Mixpre-3 user for over a year now, however, I would, as Cary has said above, not worry about dual recording: just record at a decent level and rely on the first-rate limiters to catch any unexpectedly loud noises. You will be surprised how good the limiters are. You might enjoy this video about the limiters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-7gUUaXuY0 . Oh, and here's a video about headroom/boosting in post by the same chap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y34zANsXV5U

Cheers,

Roland

 

[doubledark]

if they have the wonderful dual record functionality of Tascam, where you can record the same track simultaneously at -10db to avoid clipping.

I purchased a XLR "Y" cable - one mic, two outputs. Set the +48V phantom power (if needed) on just one of the XLR channels; set one channel at normal dB and the other at -10dB

 

[Throwback]

I purchased a XLR "Y" cable - one mic, two outputs. Set the +48V phantom power (if needed) on just one of the XLR channels; set one channel at normal dB and the other at -10dB

Most of the time a splitter will be fine (if you can live with the reduced channel count), and the impedance drop won't normally be an issue. Easy to forget and have phantom power on both channels, though: again, this is normally fine, but there can be issues arising at the mic's own preamp stage and even with the bias. I'd simply avoid this, set conservative levels and rely on a first-rate analogue limiter.

Cheers,

Roland

 

[Alex H.]

The pre-amps in the SD have lots of headroom and excellent limiters. Further, the MixPre series recorders do record iso tracks for each input, plus a mix. The iso tracks are your backups, and if you gain stage everything properly you’ll have clean isos in case something in the mix happens to get out of control.

The -10dB safety can be helpful, but it’s largely a holdover from the days of 2-track recording (either second system for narrative, or in-camera for ENG) when we were sending a mix and had no other safety net. The smaller Tascam recorders offer this and it’s still useful because you’re dealing with one or two mics and no mix past that. Multitrack mixer-recorders make the -10dB safety technique largely unnecessary.

 

[IronFilm]

David, I enjoyed this: making it sound as if the current F4/F8 limiters are preferable to the analogue SD ones in the Mixpre-series recorders! Having listened to and used both, they certainly aren't, which, given how they work, is no surprise. The imminent F8n sounds like it should offer an improvement, but let's wait and see.

Cheers,

Roland

Ha! I should have written that the other way round with the order swapped, to make it more clear I was referring to the Zoom F series relative to the Tascam we are discussing