We record to a Sony Vaio laptop and to "other" devices just to be on the safe side when we record.

I have never had a real bad crash of our laptop but I will have to say that the fire wire connection has always been a source of concern.

We own two Mackie ONYX mixers and a Presonus Fire Box all with fire wire outputs.

We also have a couple of DATs and one DA-88 for multichannel work.

Going on a remote is stressful enough. Having to worry about what you are recording on just adds to that stress level.

Best advice is to get the best you and your clients can afford and rely on it day in and day out. Our client base will not support Nagras or anything of that level. We do what we can with what we have and simply DREAM about all those other play toys out there that the big guys use.

Best of luck!

FWIW

DAMN!!!

I go away for a couple days and look what I miss out on!

I happen to fall into the camp of those who have used computers without any major failure in the past several years. I have a box which I built myself into a small form factor case based around Windows XP pro (which I installed and tweaked myself) and have never had a failure! (Hear me knocking on wood right now???!)

The only failure I ever had with the device came during a recital recording of one of my regular clients only a few months ago. However, I realized as soon as I got home and went into disaster recovery mode that my hard drive was over 60% fragmented and that was clearly the cause. (Sequoia simply stopped recording on tracks 3 and 4 of 6 and then 30 seconds later stopped recording all together. A quick restart of Sequoia and I was up and running again. More thankfully, I was running a redundant rig at the time).

Anyway...back onto the story.

While I love the concept behind the HHB, Deva, and Nagras, I've always felt a little cold about the preamps (and in some cases, the ADC). In all fairness, I've never used a Nagra so I can't comment on it. I use a lot of ribbons on location and often need the whole knob for gain. Most field recorders' pres get pretty noisy in that last 10% of throw.

I think I've decided to go with Zilla's alternative - the 8 channel pre with summing mixer and I'll likely get the new Korg DSD box and use that as my backup rig (and in some cases, my primary rig!)

The funny thing is, even with a smaller primary and back up rig, my biggest tote to carry is my cable case! With nearly 100lbs of cable in the Pelican 1610, it's a b*tch to carry and it's not likely to go away any time soon. In that case is a 100' 8x8 xlr-m -- xlr-f snake, a 50' 2-channel XLR snake, a 25' 2 channel XLR snake, the stock Royer SF12 cable, 6 50' XLR leads, 6 25' xlr leads, all of my AES cables for hookup between the AES16 and various components and a small (very small) assortment of interconnects for odd-ball scenarios.

Oh yeah...my 1500VA UPS is in there too. I think that adds a little weight! I could take that out, but I'm not that brave - it's saved my @$$ way too many times! (Friggin theaters with dimming outlets backstage!!!)

Anyway - I'm tired and I'm going to bed.

Simmosonic wrote: Between you and I that gives laptops a 50/50 chance at best. ...Difficult to argue with failure.

I think the truth here is an operator's affinity for any given device.

In the "old days", there was always the engineer who could operate the studer without issue. But then there was that other engineer who's machine always went into record instead of rewind. Or that scrubbing on that machine caused him to cut the tape at the wrong place. Those darn "unreliable" studers! Yeah, right.

Same is true for any device. Some people will be at home, others will never get there; and that's ok. What is important as that the engineer is comfortable with the technology and can concentrate on more important things.

For me, I spend a lot of tech-time stabilizing my laptops for a single purpose: recording. I don't know many people who can resist using their laptop for multiple tasks. Just think how a nagra would behave if you were updating its OS every week and used it for internet cruising, email, accounting, photo-shopping, gaming, etc..

The economic benefits of laptops are just to great for me to pass on. In one device you have a multi-track recording, mixer, editer, effects, cd-burner, and document labeler. I can edit, mix and make ref cd's in the field. I don't have to wait until I get back to the office to start post-production. That allows me to use my time more efficiently, therefore increasing my profit.

OK, the chocies are:

Battery powered rig:
#1-Deva, or HHB.... roll the dice for it. Both about $13,000.
What would you do with 123db dynamic range the Deva has?

#2- AC powered rig:
Alesis HD24XR.....Mixing board..... Chevy van with ty-dyed curtains..
and a bumper sticker that says..."Security by Smith&Wesson"
HD24XR actually looks pretty good.

#3- Laptop... battery rig.

#4- Keep going the way you are, taking just the equipment that's
needed.. no more.

I' m a big fan of running on battery. Saves time, and you now what you got. I'm still in the dedicated recorder camp, although a laptop could do it if you had some 2or 4 track backup, like a dedicated recorder(again).....SD 702,
SD 744.

DavidSpearritt wrote: Now I want a very high quality multi track rig that fits in a backpack. Its going to be based around the beautiful new Nagra 6...

Any info about when the Nagra VI might be available?

Due to be released NY AES - should be available Feb 08 according to John from Nagra who I spoke with last week.

Larry Elliott

Zilla wrote: I think the truth here is an operator's affinity for any given device.

There is a lot of truth in that comment. Many of my fears of laptops for recording are due to being an early adopter, when things didn't work as well as expected. It's hard to be forgiving of a technology that has burnt you in the past, let alone give it a second chance.

I have absolutely no problems whatsoever with my laptop for word processing, internet, etc. This particular laptop, an IBM ThinkPad T43 running Windows XP Pro, is the best PC I've ever owned, full stop. If it is as reliable for recording as it is for everything else, perhaps I have nothing to worry about.

I have been thinking about getting an M Box or similar to use with my laptop, to supplement my Nagra V. Often, while travelling, I get involved in recording projects that would benefit from a proper multitrack rig (by which I mean, the ability to overdub, drop in, etc.). It's not something I want to invest a lot of money in, however, so a simple M Box would do the job... Maybe in 12 months time I'll be here singing the praises of laptop recording?

Spoke with John Owens at SMPTE and saw a CAD picture of the Nagra VI front panel, talk about vapourware!

Anyway he confirmed the timing as Larry has stated, and the design in quite some detail. Although it has no modulometer, the big colour display looks great, rotary gain pots that are all software controlled, and the master transport control is still the famous rotary switch, hooray. The combinations available for input choice of line, 4 mic, and AES are ideal.

I think they will update the page on the website with new info soon. It will suit me just fine for serious multitrack work despite what Simmo says. :)

The DEVA I referred to was the DEVA V, saw this at SMPTE also, and the Aaton Cantar all at the Lemac stand. Got the full rundown on the Cantar, didn't appeal to me, just too quirky for my taste, a steep learning curve perhaps, but to me this is a sign of poor ergonomic design. The DEVA is a nice box, albeit a bit utilitarian, but simply way too expensive.

DavidSpearritt wrote: I think they will update the page on the website with new info soon. It will suit me just fine for serious multitrack work despite what Simmo says. :)

Just playing Deviled Avacado (or whatever that food/game is called).

Six tracks would probably serve many of my needs, but it seems that whenever Mr G and I have to schlep out the multitrack system, we're using seven tracks or more. (Having said that, for three or four tracks we simply sync two Nagra V's via AES and sort it out later, works very well.)

Simmosonic wrote: Six tracks would probably serve many of my needs, but it seems that whenever Mr G and I have to schlep out the multitrack system, we're using seven tracks or more.

Yeah a lot of times I need 8 or 10, but often pairs of these can be static mixed together into 2, where rebalancing in post is not required. The tracks that I am worried about rebalancing afterwards are mostly less than 4 channels, usually spot or stereo vocals and the main outriggers.

I am having Warren Huck make me up a minimalist high quality 6 channel line mixer to do this, so the Nagra 6 can then be used with 10 inputs, 6 mixed to stereo and 4 additional post adjustable channels.

This will cater for 95% of my work.

BRH wrote:
#2- AC powered rig:
Alesis HD24XR.....Mixing board..... Chevy van with ty-dyed curtains..
and a bumper sticker that says..."Security by Smith&Wesson"

NIRVANA!

DavidSpearritt wrote: I am having Warren Huck make me up a minimalist high quality 6 channel line mixer to do this, so the Nagra 6 can then be used with 10 inputs, 6 mixed to stereo and 4 additional post adjustable channels.

Cool, if you're happy to premix things on location, that ought to work well.

I'm tempted to buy that Portadrive I lugged around the Himalaya with me. Having sat and reviewed the files and, in fact, the whole experience, I'm thinking very fondly of it. But anyway...

I've been linking 2 Sound Devices recorders together lately, which works well and is very portable. An easy way to add separate tracks to mix
later. An advantage is having the 2 built in separate ms decoders.

Simmosonic wrote:
I'm tempted to buy that Portadrive I lugged around the Himalaya with me. Having sat and reviewed the files and, in fact, the whole experience, I'm thinking very fondly of it. But anyway...

Well that seems to be an interesting idea :D

..."Security by Smith&Wesson". Well, they know you aren't inside hiding ready to shoot. Which is why I came up with an even more effective, completely green and environmentally safe crime deterrent system that utilizes no power, requires no maintenance nor wiring and costs under $200.

Unfortunately it causes the state police and Department of Transportation officials to always pull me over at those weight/inspection stations. Maybe it's because they believe I am a biohazard??? You don't suppose that the sign on the back of my Bard " wall mount" air-conditioner or, the signs on the driver and passenger door would cause any concerns, would you? The sign on the air-conditioner simply indicates " WARNING LEAVE REFRIGERATION UNIT RUNNING TO PREVENT BACTERIAL ODORS" and you can tell it's not running. And the sign on the driver and passenger doors that say " DIRTY BABY DIAPER PICKUP SERVICE " . The police and Department of Transportation officials think it's brilliant! Regardless of where I parked at from NYC to the inner city of Baltimore, Washington, etc., it's never been bothered with.

Why wouldn't I want to include a sign that says something like " Danger Toxic Waste "? Because some mentally deranged son of a bitch who wants to wreak havoc and terrorize some city/community with this " toxic waste" and only finds my fully restored 36 input, 1974 vintage all discrete Neve audio console, might decide to piss on it out of anger. THAT WOULD GET ME REALLY UPSET!

So when I'm not using the truck with the Neve, I now go out with with the Alesis HD 24xr, with 20 API microphone preamps and 4 du jour I preamps. I also included the 24 Channel Roland line level mixer that can also generate an eight track stem output and/or stereo backup to the laptop. Which also gives me the ability to burn reference CDs and/or DVDs to deliver at the end of the performance.

It's all good!
Ms. Remy Ann David

I'm wondering if actually wearing a diaper will lighten your load....?

BRH wrote: I'm wondering if actually wearing a diaper will lighten your load....?

Only at first...

Sorry, that was a crappy thing to say!

lell010 wrote: Well that seems to be an interesting idea :D

Er, when I wrote 'fondly' I meant it in the context of 'favourably', not as in 'fondling'.

Ahem!

I could never afford to buy a Portadrive at retail. But I might be able to get a better deal on that particular one seeing as it is no longer new, and I know it intimately (er, in the context of 'inside and out', not as in 'fondling').

I think I'll stop now...

BRH wrote: Sorry, that was a crappy thing to say!

I can't follow this scattered logic...