Tascam DR-680 wow!

I ended up getting a DR-680 myself, and I'm really happy with it. I got one pre-modified from Busman audio for cleaner pres. I actually like the sound plugged straight in better than going through my MixPre. Well, that depends on the mic I guess. I think I liked my AT4053b better going through the MixPre because the AT4053b is a darker mic. My tests were just recording guitar, and 3 of the 5 mics tested were Rode mics, which are a tad bright to begin with. I found the MixPre had a mid-high boost, and lost some of the lows. The Busman mod is called the "Transparent" mod, and it makes the response more flat, and has a better soundstage when recording live music in stereo. Here's my test:

 
That's some pretty intense shooting heat though. I"d be interested to see how the Edirol handled it cause drives don't like the heat either. This is the debate I have ... Which of these two units to get.

A lot of sound guys are not really caring too much about TC. TC is certainly something I don't worry about at all... for my projects. Especially if everything is running sycnhed audio anywhere,... pluraleyes can handle the synching for me.
 
TC was used on film shoots back with the two track nagras. It wasn't so much needed on production, but a smart slate would be jammed from the nagra, or some other timecode generator, and clapped in front of the camera. The displayed timecode on the slate was then used to help sync in telecine with the timecode nagra. Then came the timecode DAT machines, and then the Deva, and now more Devas and the Cantar, and the SD units, and others. On the tv shows and features I've been involved with, TC is what holds everything together for picture editorial, and then sound editorial. I've worked on projects as a sound designer that did have TC and ones that didn't on the audio, and the ones that didn't were a headache to deal with, but we're talking about big budget projects with lots of tracks of audio all over the place. The real bonus with TC is being able to just spot in your audio. If everything is done correctly, you don't have to jigger the audio around to get it to line up, it just drops in where it's supposed to in less than a second, and you are good to go. I know it saved my ass on "Uncharted: Drakes Fortune" for the mocap sessions. It would have taken many times longer to get that stuff together without it.
 
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