Mixing / mastering onto a portable digital CF recorder? Sonic penalties?

[666666]

I have a situation coming up where I will be mixing in analog and need to record the final stereo mix to digital. We will not have an extra computer available in this location to use as a recording device.

I have access to a TASCAM HD-P2 portable digital recorder (link below). It records to a compact flash card. The plan would be to use a high-end outboard AD converter / clock in front of it of course... and record at 96k.

Is there any reason why the sonic quality would be any weaker recording to a small portable digital recording device like this (to a CF card) as opposed to recording into a good DAW on a computer?

I would think that as long as the AD converter and clock are good, the recorder itself should perhaps not matter and thus the little portable unit should work fine. Is this correct?

I have used the HD-P2 in the past and felt it worked very well and sounded fine, though I never had a chance to do any ultra critical A-B tests with it. I may not have the time / opportunity to "test" it before I plan on possibly using it for the mix.

In sum, is there any reason NOT to mix down to a portable compact flash digital recorder such as a Tascam HD-P2 (provided you are using a good outboard converter and clock)?

Thanks


TASCAM HD-P2

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by 666666

I have a situation coming up where I will be mixing in analog and need to record the final stereo mix to digital. We will not have an extra computer available in this location to use as a recording device.

I have access to a TASCAM HD-P2 portable digital recorder (link below). It records to a compact flash card. The plan would be to use a high-end outboard AD converter / clock in front of it of course... and record at 96k.

Is there any reason why the sonic quality would be any weaker recording to a small portable digital recording device like this (to a CF card) as opposed to recording into a good DAW on a computer?

I would think that as long as the AD converter and clock are good, the recorder itself should perhaps not matter and thus the little portable unit should work fine. Is this correct?

I have used the HD-P2 in the past and felt it worked very well and sounded fine, though I never had a chance to do any ultra critical A-B tests with it. I may not have the time / opportunity to "test" it before I plan on possibly using it for the mix.

In sum, is there any reason NOT to mix down to a portable compact flash digital recorder such as a Tascam HD-P2 (provided you are using a good outboard converter and clock)?

Thanks


TASCAM HD-P2

I think your plan makes perfect sense. Is there a way you can get the recorder before hand and do a null test (for bit-transparency) on its digital input, and a reliabilty test for the machine? Other than that I think you're good to go; it's the ADC and the clocking to it that govern the sound. I'd still recommend recording to two of these machines or to a safety, or at least two passes to two different flash cards...

Bob

[666666]

Originally Posted by bob katz

I think your plan makes perfect sense. Is there a way you can get the recorder before hand and do a null test (for bit-transparency) on its digital input, and a reliabilty test for the machine? Other than that I think you're good to go; it's the ADC and the clocking to it that govern the sound. I'd still recommend recording to two of these machines or to a safety, or at least two passes to two different flash cards... Bob

Thanks Bob! Much appreciated. I will see about trying to get the recorder soon enough to test it etc. And running passes onto two different CF cards surely makes a great deal of sense. I have used this recorder in the past and so far it's proven to be very reliable... not a single issue... I'd say that overall it's an excellent unit. It still blows my mind that you can record over 4 hours of 24/96k stereo or 13+ hours of 16/44.1k stereo onto a piece of media smaller than a matchbook (8GB CF card). Pretty neat.

(By the way Bob, I've purchased your Mastering Audio book and love it... even purchased a second copy for a friend... it's the most interesting and informative pro audio book I have ever come across... excellent job!)