Mixer in front of Tascam DR-680. Necessity or luxury cost?

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xhridhar

Active member
We are shooting a feature. Sound guy is insisting that we need a mixer( such as SD Mix Pre- D ) in addition to our current recording device which is a Tascam Dr-680.

Is he right? Is it an absolute necessity or just a convenience or luxury cost?

Of course, one needs the right sort of equipment to make a feature but I am wondering if the mixer is going to make the difference between acceptable sound quality vs rubbish sound quality? I am aware that to get a great sound quality one needs highly skilled professionals and they must have the best sound equipment in the world.

Keen to hear a helpful opinion from any of you, experienced professionals.

Cheers
 
Depends.

If you are doing only one or two tracks, you don't need to ride the levels too much, you don't need the better limiters of say a Sound Devices mixer, you don't need additional gain you might not need a mixer.

Riding the levels of more than one track (or maybe two) on the 680 is difficult unless things are really calm on levels and movement.
The limiters on the 680 are ok, but nothing like a SD product.
The 680 supplies a decent amount of gain form the pre-amps, but depending on your mics, and where they are placed, you might need more.

Question: If your DP said he wanted a mattebox and some filters because he thought he could do a better job, what would you say? A mixer is a lot less than a mattebox.

Seems strange that the "Sound Guy" doesn't have a basic bag-kit which might-should include a mixer. Is he a real "Sound Guy", or a grip with a stick? Food for thought.

Grant
 
Grantly has implied, but I'll spell out clearly, that sound quality is only one part of the need for a mixer; precise, intuitive control is another major one, possibly more important. Perhaps more than anyone else, the "sound guy" is paying attention to many things at once, adjusting many things at once, and if you're picturing him as the boom op, exerting himself physically and with great delicacy at the same time as well. All this while bearing the burden of having to stay out of everyone else's way and rarely having his needs addressed. So imagine having a device that eases his mental and physical burden… and allows him to do things by, eg, feel without having to expend visual attention… and maybe you won't begrudge it so much.

The new iPhone shoots 1080p video that's pretty nice… would you tell yor DP to use that, because the difference between it's imagery and an AF100 isn't the difference between total rubbish and acceptable?

Absolute necessity? Of course not. But neither are lights, camera support systems, or decent actors.
 
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I own and operate a DR-680. I currently use a PSC Alphamix in front of it. I am considering adding a SD Mixpre for a scaled down kit when I don't need the extensive routing and monitoring provided by my Alphamix. I would not want to go out with the DR-680 alone. While the preamps are nice, my mic selection requires substantial gain to achieve proper dialog levels and with the 680 alone, I have to push the internal preamps very hard to achieve those levels. Having a quality mixer/preamp in from of the DR-680 allows me to run two gain stages in the lower noise region of their operating range.

It also depends on the shoot. I recently shot a sit down panel discussion and ran all the lav channels directly to the DR-680 (sennheiser G3 systems), and two overhead mics thru the Alphamix (for clean gain) and then to channels 5 and 6 of the 680. The configuration allowed me to go beyond the 4 channels of my Alphamix but this was a sit-down situation where I was not wearing the harness/bag and could switch my PFL monitoring at a more leisurely pace than if I was recording an action scene with lots of movement, actors on lavs + a boom swinging. For this type of shot, have the quickly accessible monitoring options on the mixer would be key (in additional to the gain afforded for the boom mic). I can't think if any scenerio where I would not want a channel or two of clean mixer gain to use in conjunction with the 680.
 
i have been using my 552 in front of my dr680 for any multi channel stuff and based on using that device without a mixer, its pretty tough. i'm letting a friend borrow it at the moment for an indy feature, he tried using it as a standalone unit the first couple of days and was not happy with it. he then switched up and used his 302 and a mix pre on the front end. he's a lot happier with his ability to get great sound quality with a lot more ease.
 
Sounds like there is a verdict. Non of this is a knock on the 680, it is very decent recorder for the money. And as I mentioned, you can monitor one track at a time just fine.

Grant
 
Many thanks to all of you for giving me a good perspective along with a clear answer. I have purchased a Mix pre-D now
 
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