Monday, April 01, 2013

This is the Thing


Tascam DR 680.

Good for Pandora Machine, good for Tyrannosaurus Mouse, good for Russian Chamber Chorus of New York, good for The Imaginary Opera, good for the City Samanas, good for Pleasure for the Empire.

It can handle line in levels of +24dBu.

What doesn't it do? Timecode. I cannot even begin to express how little I care about timecode. I actually own an Ambient timecode smart slate (with timecode transmitter). And yet. Still. I don't care. I do not care about timecode at all.
The other much smaller issue is that the Tascam DR 680 does not have an onboard slate microphone. Honestly, it's been a long time since I've had a slate mic. We'd have to dedicate one of the inputs to a slate microphone in those rare instances where one really needs a slate mic. For me those are only the instances where the actors are 100' away from you on a long lens yet you're slating near the camera. I'll open up a slate microphone in order to get the smack of the clapper sticks nearby. Other than that, meh.
Six analog inputs will get you through most scenes. Even ensemble scenes in TV.
We're gonna need a couple more Lectros to get us through those scenes...

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