Not only was I pleasantly surprised by the turnout for the AMPS Deva meeting at Twickenham on 21st September, but I was very pleasantly surprised to be driving home with one of the demo machines at the end of the demo. I have to say now that I was deeply impressed by Glenn (Sanders') demonstration of the machine, and was very keen to have a go a.s.a.p. - a few words at the end of the meeting, and there I was driving home with a very different concept in 'tape' recorders. I could not wait to play with my new toy.
For those who are not familiar with Deva here is a very brief description:
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Deva is a standalone digital recorder which records onto internal hard disk drives, and/or external SCSI drives (e.g. Jaz). There are 4 x analogue i/p and o/p channels, or 2x stereo AES i/p and o/p channels, and you mix internally to record to 1, 2, or 4 channels simultaneously. You can make a separate o/p mix. DEVA supports t/c at all the usual rates. The machine I used could record 2.5 track hours on the internal disk, though I note from Zaxcom's web site (http://www.zaxcom.com) that the new drives will support 7.5 track hours at no extra cost!! Mic i/p's are on XLR, almost all the other i/p's and o/p's are on multi way 'D' connectors which will almost guarantee that I shall not be making up my own Deva leads. Deva runs on an internal NPI type battery for about 2 hrs (NiCad) - so we should be able to improve this figure to 3 hours at least with any of the various new Nickel Metal Hydride NPI's which are on the market now.
I took the Deva out to work on a daily basis (run in parallel with my DAT machine) for about 3 weeks. We did a fair bit of travelling, a range of weather and humidities, and some very arduous days (started on docs and then the first week of a drama). I was most impressed. Deva is small, so much so that a few interested bystanders on the crew were reluctant to take the machine seriously. This issue is easily resolved by doing the fantastic Deva pre record trick. lt is not a new idea, but it does impress : Deva can be set up in the software to record all incoming audio into a RAM memory buffer, and then to record from the buffer if so required. This means that the machine can start recording ("to tape as it were") up to 10 seconds BEFORE I push the record button on the machine. This I can immediately see is useful for the pre roll of the train (or car) coming round the bend, or for the wild track of the town clock (which invariably does NOT ring when the minute hand gets up to the 12). lt would also be useful for the time when the docs director runs up to me and says "Did you get that just now?", however - perhaps we should not let the management know that we can now do this- they'll have us arriving last, and expect us to be ready first!
Deva takes about 10 seconds to get booted up when you first turn on. The screen gives you a message to wait until it is ready to go. There is a small clock face type indication which spins round to let you know that the processors are all running OK. As with most modern digital machines, it is wise at this point to check the set up of the machine (sample rates, tracks used, i/p & o/p setup for audio and t/c etc.). This is the point at which you really get to grips with a new machine. I had not been able to extract a manual from either Glenn (Sanders - Mr. Zaxcom and the machine's inventor) or Harris Studio Products (UK agents) so it was a voyage of discovery to see whether I was able to make head or tail of the software.
Although I am a complete ignoramus when it comes to computers, I have always been reasonably able with audio-type software. I found that I was able to find my way around Deva's software with relative ease. The only thing that I had trouble with was when trying to set my own values as start times for the t/c and ubits. I did manage to do it, but it was late at night in a hotel room (post meal, wine and bar) and I never managed to remember the key sequence.
lt was whilst trying to retrace those (tipsy) steps that I managed to make Deva crash - I was getting frustrated and had resorted to some very bizarre key sequences at which point Deva just stopped everything - a classic computer crash type scenario - even the little clock logo stopped turning. A quick power off, and back on, solved the issue - I tried to make Deva fall over again but it was not to be. This was the only wobble in three weeks of use. I showed the machine to various friends, and always did the violent shaking demo, which is almost as impressive as the pre record trick. Deva never flinched again so I put the crash down to me, not Deva.
Audio quality is superb - Deva currently uses 20 bit A-to-D's though 24-bit are promised soon (machines will be upgradeable). The clarity of sound is fantastic - I particularly noticed it with complex, busy waveforms like applause, but generally it just sounded effortless, light, airy and transparent in my headphones. Access around the disk is virtually instant - if you stop recording, you merely press PLAY to immediately start playing what you just recorded. If you then push REC the machine will automatically stop playing and start recording at the end of what you were just playing back - so you have to work really hard to accidentally erase anything.
Here are a few other likes and dislikes in brief:-
LIKES:
Not quite DISLIKES but could be improved!!:
This leaves the issue of the disk format. There has been some worry about the practicality of the hard disks on which the audio is recorded. I must say that I was originally sceptical about their robustness. I now have no worries in that respect at all. I never once heard so much as a blip in terms of audio - and we did try very hard (and failed) to make it jump on numerous occasions.
The issue of how much they cost and how many to have is an interesting one. Zaxcom have just announced on their web page (http:/www.zaxcom.com) that the disks now hold 7.5hrs of audio track time. Zaxcom's UK agents Harris were unable to quote an exact price for a disk but said that it would remain as planned for the smaller disks which is a US price of $600 translating to under 400 in the UK. This is an improvement in the order of x3 at NO EXTRA COST. This more or less ensures that we should only need one disk per day to record on whilst on location. If we assumed that disks are used at transfer to synch up and make clone t/c backups of some description (perhaps CD-R with t/c stamps, or DAT (loss of quality - only 16 bit), or maybe Jaz or similar, then they could well be returned to location for re-use with the directors rushes the next day. If we send in one disk per day, and they take two days to be returned, then we would still have 5 disks on location at any time. I would have thought that 5 disks at any time on location would be a good buffer zone to cope with slip ups in deliveries. There is the question of how we charge productions for the disks, but I calculate that if I were to rent my disks to a production at the same price that they buy my DATS, it would pay for my set of Deva disks in an average working year, whilst costing the production no more than the tape stock would have done.
Deva seems to do everything that Glenn told us it would at the AMPS meeting in October. lt is small and light, sounds great, was very reliable in my experience, and is very easy to learn and use. The media issue would appear to be resolving itself (no pun intended) with the new storage times etc. I desperately want one, but need to find a production to get it on!!
SIMON BISHOP AMPS
P.S. Deva cannot sing, but does vibrate subtly when placed on your lap!