Richard Daniel Goes.... 

GIZMO GAZING 

One of the things that I really enjoy is trawling through magazines, newspapers, catalogues and web sites looking for new stuff that might be useful to us in the sound game. Recently I have noticed a speeding up of consumer technology’s move towards our ‘professional’ territory with both new hardware and software. From shooting, to editing, to final delivery, it’s all getting smaller, faster and cheaper. Also the equipment, because of its cheapness, is no longer the huge capital investment it once was; if fact, if it doesn’t work it’s probably cheaper to throw it away and buy another one. So here are a few items that I have selected for your entertainment. 

First check out the new HHB Portadisc MDP500 portable MiniDisc recorder (www.hhb.co.uk). I have always like the concept of MiniDisc for location use. The disk is rugged, light and well protected and has large label on it for clearly marking content information. It is also easy to send in an envelope and pretty damage proof. The Portadisc looks just the job as it includes phantom powering for the mics, an internal speaker and optical digital inputs and outputs for copying, plus a six second prerecord buffer so you wont miss the clapper board. It has a USB port so that it can be connected to a laptop to transfer files to and from the recorder, and to provide editing facilities that would be useful for ‘playback’ sessions on location. As with many semi pro products, the main thing that it lacks is timecode recording but this might be overcome by using the Aaton burst timecode approach where a few frames of code are recorder on the audio track at the start of each recording. On transfer this code can jam a timecode generator and provide continuous code to the copy. This brings me to the Ambient Recording Clockit Sync Module for DAT (and MiniDisc?) recorders. This unit can genlock the word clock of the DAT recorder to its very accurate timecode generator which can be jam synced from a master clock. Text data logging to a PC is on the way. This may be useful for Sony 24P shooting! 

Bored with using conventional recorders? Well why not try recording sound on your lap top’! Checkout the Sound Devices USBpre (www.sounddevices.com) box which enables you to connect, via an USB port, two channels of analogue audio such as microphones (including phantom powering), and line inputs in any combination. The unit has a level meter and full headphone monitoring. All this is powered directly from the USB port. This sounds ideal for recording onto Pro Tools V5 on location. 

Not sure whether it’s working? Checkout the TerraSonde Audio Toolbox (www.terrasonde.com). When I saw the original Toolbox I couldn’t believe what it offered, and it was purple! 

This is a handheld test set, battery or mains powered with lots of plugs and sockets, and includes a distortion meter, an impedance meter, a sine wave sweep generator, a phase generator, a continuity tester, SPL meter, frequency and harmonic analyser and so on. It has a PC/Mac serial interface for the transfer of measurements to your computer for the printing of charts. A very entertaining and unusually designed piece of hardware. 

Moving along into the editing domain, checkout the Apple PowerMac 733MHz G4 computer (www.apple.com/ukstore) with its distinctive shape, optional flat screen and see-through speaker system made by Harman. This beast includes their new SuperDrive DVD Recorder and iDVD software where you can import your videos with sound, edit them and transfer them direct to DVD, all for about £3000. If you are PC based checkout products by Pinnacle and Matrox who sell video editing systems for both the consumer and professional markets. (Ed: the same Apple G4 computer can be used as the basis of a DVD authoring system from £5000; or in afull video editing configuration using Ciné Wave around £10,000). 

Tired of carrying around all those CD sound effects libraries from cutting room to cutting room, and cannot afford a server system? Then checkout the Hango PJBox. This is a handheld MP3 player which can hold up to 320 hours of stereo audio on its 20 Gigabyte internal drive all for the princely sum of about £700. Creative and Archos also make similar devices for even less! 

Had enough of all this high tech stuff and feel like a trip down memory lane? Do you remember when the word ‘disc’ meant one made of vinyl? Checkout www.dansettes.co.uk for the latest in portable battery operated record players. Look for the one called the Fonorette which ejects the (45rpm) disc at 100mph!. Finally, it would be amusing to read this article in a couple of years time and see how things have moved on since now.

Happy Gizmo Gazing. 

DANCING SHADOWS

SOUND IN MOTION PICTURES

Earlier this year BBC Radio 4 broadcast, in surround sound, lour episodes of an excellent series investigating the use of sound in motion pictures. 

Produced by Mark Burman and presented by Christopher Cook, a number of ‘top drawer’ sound designers / sound editors along with extracts from the movies they talked about. Amongst those interviewed were Walter Murch. Frank Warner, Alan Splet, David Lynch, Mike Le Mare and Graham Hartstone with excerpts from The Conversation, Saving Private Ryan, Eraserhead. Das Boot. Blade Runner and others. 

Unfortunately the programmes were broadcast on a weekday at i.3Opm so probably only a few members got to hear them. Patrick Heigham has a tape of the four episodes which he says members may borrow if they care to contact him on 01372 457492