Using TC Field recorder with EX-1

[Dennis Joseph]

Hey Folks!

I had a quick question that some of you sound gurus might be able to help out with. I'm looking at picking up a Sound Devices 702T for recording a live band. I'm going to have the Recorder hooked up to the mixer as the sound guy handles all the mixing.

I have heard conflicting stories as to why one needs/does'nt need TC... when using it with the ex-1 especially because there is a $900 different in price for having TC. I plan merging the video captured off the ex-1 and the sound from the CF in final cut studio... will I see any problems?


Can anyone shed some light on this subject? Your feedback is appreciated.

D

[Bill Ravens]

it's so much simpler to just use a slate.

[Dennis Joseph]

Originally Posted by Bill Ravens

it's so much simpler to just use a slate.

It's interesting that you say that. I read that somewhere.

In that case, what benefits would I say with timecode? if any?

Also, I should mention that there is 1 Sony Fx-1 and 2 EX-1's being used.

[Dave Morrison]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the EX-1 doesn't have a TC out anyway, IIRC.

[Daniel Epstein]

If you can afford the Timecode version get it unless you don't plan on using this piece of gear on any other project in the future. You will want the timecode feature when you can use it.
During the concert to keep things in sync with at least one of the cameras I think you can send video to the audio recorder so they are genlocked and shouldn't drift. The major problem you might have with three cameras and 1 audio recorder is the frame rates will be slightly different and they will drift relative each other since they are not genlocked. Over an hour this adds up so you will probably have to adjust your edit offsets over the length of the concert to make up for this.
Slates are very hard to use in live events like a concert but you can set the cameras to Free Run Timecode even if they don't output it and during the concert you should stay close enough in sync to be able to figure it out. Make sure at least camera mic audio is being recorded to each camera for sync marks in post. hth

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Daniel Epstein

Slates are very hard to use in live events like a concert but you can set the cameras to Free Run Timecode even if they don't output it and during the concert you should stay close enough in sync to be able to figure it out. Make sure at least camera mic audio is being recorded to each camera for sync marks in post. hth

Daniel is right. When doing a live concert with three EX1's lately, we set all of them to Free Run, and started the TC running simply at "one, two, three...go!". It's also very important to make sure each camera has the clip names starting with unique first 4-character prefix.

With the Vegas tool "Lay out tracks using media timecode", I had all clips automatically put onto 3 separate tracks (one for each camera), and regardless of whether the recording was continuous, or stopped/restarted - spread in time according to the TC they contained. Then, it was enough to align all 3 to a single audio spike (we just clapped our hands right after first starting recording) - and voila ! - all 3 cameras' tracks got synchronized untill the very end of an almost 2-hour long event.

Also, the CAM1 (mine :) was recording the sound from the audio mixer via line input, while the other 2 cams - just the reference sound from their own mics.