Do I need a DAT?
 

I am working at a small studio; my job is working on production sound and post production sound. We mostly do wedding, MV for indi band and Internet video (short drama and documentary). For short drama, I would use boom mic plug into Azden FMX32 filed mixer then connect to camera. It works fine for me.

Now I am working on a short film project, 80% of audio will be in post-production. I am thinking should I get a DAT for this project. I would use that for location sound reference and ambient noise. Also some foley may need to record outdoor with DAT.

So should I get one?

I have not used a DAT in a number of years.

Go with a solid-state recorder... they are the future of location recording. Something like a Tascam HD-P2 should start you off well.

I'll second John's comments. DATs have largely been edged out of the market by file-based recorders writing directly to internal hard-drives and/or memory cards. DATs are still available but both the recorders and tape stock are expensive and they offer few if any advantages over the file-based alternatives.

Zoom H2 or H4
 

Or what about using a Zoom H2 or H4? (there are other makes of these devices also.) Basically, they are flash media based digital recorders (not even a hard drive) with built in microphones and mic input sockets. The advantage is that you can put them where you want to record the sound/independent of the camera (theft considerations aside!) I don't own one (yet - thinking about the H2) but they might be suitable for your needs. I actually use an Archos AV420 (20GB hard drive media player/recorder) with microphone attached to it's line in socket (via a tiny mic preamp) for my off camera Audio stuff at present. Not sure if Zoom's are available in NZ but Google them to get more info.... or I'm sure someone who has direct experience will let us both know if they are any good.

I recently worked on a feature film and we used the Zaxcom Deva as our recorder. At the end of the day, we would mirror (AKA copy) all the audio onto a DVD-RAM disc for Telecine to do the dailies. The first day I turned in a DVD-RAM to the film truck, the guy asked me what that was. When I told him the daily audio, he looked puzzled. I asked what he was expecting and he told me a DAT tape. I told him that I hadn't used DAT in 3.5 years and Telecine would know exactly what to do with it (they did).

DAT was wonderful technology in 1980, but today recorders are hard to find, repairing them even tougher. Go with the recommendation of a solid state recorder.

Wayne

Seems like DAT is quite out of date.... I will look into those digital recorder. Thank you!

You could always make a BIG investment, and get a Sonosax. Nothing else quite like it! I'm no sound guy, but even I had equipment envy when I saw this little gem: In person, it's really impossible to believe how much it can do as well as it does, especially being so small! It's TINY!

http://www.libermansound.com/catalog...products_id=79

If you have that kind of money, I'd err on the conservative side and get a Sound Devices 744T. (or less expensive 702T)
http://www.sounddevices.com/products/744t.htm

The eight channel feature does look interesting though. I wonder if it writes poly wav files. The four channel 744T makes poly wav files, if you select that. That means you have one file icon that has four separate synchronized tracks. FCP sees the file on import and automatically drops all four on separate tracks on its timeline.

I like my 744T a lot. I records to BOTH HD and CF at the same time.

Just got the new firmware update which lets the recorder also record to a $200 external DVD drive that's powered from the 744T as well. Haven't tried that yet, but it also works for making daily audio available fairly quickly.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Sound Devices rocks! That's the way to go.

A funny story: some dude is selling an old Tascam DAT recorder on Ebay calling it the "wave of the future".

Thought you guys might get a chuckle out of that.

My one and only complaint about the 744t is that it only has two preamps in it, so you can only use two channels to power microphones. I find the 702/722 useful as a backup to the Deva, but the 744 just needs to add two additional preamps to be super useful. OK, There is only more thing I don't like about the 7xx series, it's the menu system. But, that's more of something you either like, or dislike. I'm spoiled by the Deva and really like the touch screen. But it's not for everybody, which is why I think SD did a smart thing with the 744/722. However, the menus are now getting extremely long.

Wayne

Wow! How old was that post? :)

I still have two working SV 3900 Panasonic DATS. My SV-255 "went away" last years sometime.

Regards,

Ty Ford

I agree SD7xx menus are long, but there is also a possibility of loading presets. I have not tried those yet, have to give them a shot.

2 weeks ago the latest.

Are they still using DAT for playback on music videos? I haven't encountered any.