I took a whirlwind tour of the National Association of Broadcasters
convention exhibit hall this morning. In the sea of HD plasma
displays, among the herd of million dollar satellite uplink trucks,
and beneath the forest of camera booms, most all audio gear used for
nature recording was represented.
The Location Sound booth has a nice collection of audio field
recorders for side-by-side comparisons. I was impressed with the
ergonomics of the Tascam HD-P2, and the bright blue-on-white LCD
display is easier to read than its competitors.
The Nagra ARES BB+ over-the-shoulder recorder is a wonderfully solid
unit that is a lot smaller in person than you might expect from the
photos online.
The new Zaxcom DEVA 5.8 (yes, they have gone away from using Roman
numerals), was looking good: 8 XLR inputs, recording to internal hard
disc, DVD-RAM and Compactflash. Unfortunately it weighs 7.5 lb/ 3.4
kg without battery. No problem, that's what a Nagra reel-to-reel used
to weigh!
The HHB folks told me that they are working on a replacement for the
Portadisc that would have a similar form factor, but would not use
rotating memory for storage.
Sony was showing their PCM-D1 recorder with a new battery box that
provides 48V power through two XLR connectors. Unfortunately the mic
signal travels from battery box via a dangling cable to the PCM-D1's
Message: 3.
Subject: 5mm external mic port.
The Fostex folks claim that the FR-2LE recorder has been sent to their
North American distributors. This intriguing model should appear in
the retail channel in a few days. List is $600, and I expect the
discounting to start soon.
Speaking of discounting, the Korg MR-1000 one-bit recorder (MSRP
$1200) is supposed to be available for less than $1000 online. I
haven't found the outlet yet, however.
I think I saw Dan Dugan being carried off by Brazilian samba dancers.
But what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?
--oryoki
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