Tascam DR-680 portable audio recorder

[Mondo Ghulam]

I have the 680 and its been a solid, good sounding unit. I've had no complaints regarding it's sound quality and in several cases have been very happily surprised by what I'm getting from it. I'm feeding it with 2 sony diversity wireless units, soon to be 4, so it's valuable to have 6 inputs (4 xlrs)

Usage wise, there's a made-for-680 portabrace bag which is great and provides easy access to all parts of the recorder whilst in use. I wish the same could be said for some of the control/menu/ergonomic choices on the unit itself. For some obscure reason there are 2 separate menu functions, one of which is accessed via the top of the unit, which would typically be covered. It's a peeve rather than a deal-breaker, for me, as once setup you don't really need to frequent that part of the recorder too much.

I'm currently exploring timecode options, so far I've narrowed it down to an Ambient Lockit box, which I'll jam-sync the Scarlet with. Apparently you can take a feed from the lockit and record it to channel 6 of the tascam. In post you can use WaveToBWF to convert the audio-recorded timecode to a bona fide timecode track.

There's some good information here:

http://jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?/t...-dr-680-owner/

and the wave to bwf tool can be downloaded as a demo from here:

http://www.videotoolshed.com/product/64/wavetobwf/3

Good luck!

[Michael Jarvis]

Never really had a problem with noise with good mics and ensuring that the noise to volume gain ratio is set during the gain stage of the pre. As a rule of thumb, I always use the best cables, and decent mics. For shotguns and less expensive large diaphragm mics I find that RODE makes some decent stuff. I have had nice success with them. They mimic the classic Sennheiser shotguns but are a lot less and actually slightly more quiet. When I have it dialed in I usually have a completely quite signal...except for the audio of coarse.

I would love to get a timecode machine...but honestly...I am a little worried that timecode itself is a very expensive method that could be made obsolete for some purposes via methods like this. Totally not knocking the need for it and the traditional methods used in the industry...I actually love it...its just a few extra complicated steps in post and new post software make it possible for me to do the same job at a fraction of the price. And....most importantly....your not locked into the type of preamp you use. Yea...Sound Devices are killer....I love them...I will actually trade you my car for one. I would love to have it in the bag....but whats stopping me now from using my API preamps (which they do not make a timecode unit) or my Avalon pres....or Neve Preamp....

These are pro sound preamps that can now spill over to the live video set very easily. In stead of investing into timecode...invest into just the preamp itself. I am sure lots of people will no like that workflow...but it works....and gets a great result, and is easy.....so its worth mentioning.

I am afraid if I buy a $8000 timecode recorder I will not have a need for it 5 years down the road because software has replaced the need for it.

Summary...get a killer pro audio portable studio...track separate....pipe a signal to each cam wirelessly via sennheiser. Take a rough stereo master from the recorder and use pluraleyes to sync all cameras to that rough track (only takes a few minutes). Open up the audio in the DAW of your choice. I use ProTools. Edit...polish...chop...mix...compress...filter.... finish. Import the newly mixed audio and replace the master scratch. Now you have solid audio with every camera synced. You don't need timecode...clap board...and did not have to do any manual sync in post and saved thousands of dollars and got the same result.

This is just one way. Of coarse there are many. Just being creative with the workflow.

[Mondo Ghulam]

Hey,

Just getting back to this thread with an update I thought I'd share. After doing much research into various sync approaches, I took the plunge for a dedicated timecode box.

On previous projects, I have obtained only a 40-50% success rate with Pluraleyes and wanted to avoid the time-suck that manually syncing the remaining files became (for me - ymmv)

Having watched the RCX Pro auto-match, I had my heart set on something as straight-forward and quick as the process demonstrated.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'd considered Ambient and also Denecke. In the end I went with TimeCode Buddy, a UK-based company. It's a new product, showcased at NAB and my order just arrived today: TC Buddy Wifi Master. I'm UK-based so this was really good for me.

To get pain-free sync using second system audio, I planned to do exactly what Mark Vesterkov proposed in his thread on JWSoundGroup : http://jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?/t...-dr-680-owner/

To recap the plan:

1. TC Buddy Jam-Syncs the Scarlet
2. TC Buddy outputs TC as audio to CH6 on the DR680
3. Using WaveToBWF, the Audio channel is converted to bonafide AUX/Timecode.
4. In RCX Pro, the auto-match process syncs video and audio.
5. For BNC to 1/4" TRS Audio, a custom cable was needed ( Big Dirty Cables, UK )
6. For Jam-Sync to the camera I'd use the RED 3-BNC to 4-pin lemo cable

And.. the plan worked!

As I'm always writing/reading TC to/from the same channel, WaveToBWF does the conversion almost instantly - you can tell it which channel it's on and this is much quicker than brute-force scanning the files. So at a days end, it will literally will take seconds to add accurate timecode to the audio and RCX Pro zips through them too.

In normal use, I'd Jam-Sync the Scarlet before the first scene of the day, after lunch and late afternoon, but I'm keen to see what happens on a free-run. I'll be doing a 16-hour test of the Scarlet + DR680 + TC Buddy, with single Jam at the day's start just to see what occurs. As for the audio, there appears to be no contamination from the TC Channel.

I'm extremely pleased with this, as it has added bona-fide timecode to a great sounding sub-£700 multitrack unit for a total of £822 including VAT (TC Buddy + Cable)

I should also add that Timecode Buddy were very helpful in answering my questions about this setup and Ali at Big Dirty Cables stunned me with the delivery, quality and competitive pricing on his audio cable.

Good luck!

[Mondo Ghulam]

To follow-up my previous post, I've just completed a 7-hour test of the Scarlet jammed once with the TC Buddy Wifi Master at the start. By day's end, everything is spot-on. If there is a difference or drift between the two, then it's so slight as to be un-noticeable, sub-frame certainly.

As a control, I manually set the sync point on both audio and video in RCX & the timecode for AC & EATC matched.

One thing that did concern me, was a visual discrepancy of 1-3 frames between the Absolute Timecode of the R3D and the read-out on the Buddy - as filmed by the Scarlet. I tested this further, observing that this discrepancy exists whether the camera is continually jamming or if it is momentarily jammed with the buddy. The same is also true when streaming TC via WiFi to an iPad.

EDIT: Figured out the offset on the ipad - there's a setting to adjust this but you need to know your TC Buddy password to change it.