Sound Devices 788T

[GrooveMerchant]

How awesome is this unit?! I am thinking of one of these for tracking purposes - to then feed through RME conversion and summing to Folcrom. Also thinking of stereo / surround mixes and live gigs too. Main thing though is portability - I've been in many rehearsal spaces and gigs and even a regular 19" shallow rack can be more cumbersome than necessary. This 788t footprint has me excited - but how are the clean preamps and A/D, D/A conversions? I saw 6 outs on the hardware so basically a 5.1 savvy setup - I'll still need my RME DAs. I'm digging the CL-8 and CL-9 also.

[GrooveMerchant]

Does the 788t run much cooler with the solid state drive?!

[ghellquist]

Read the manual, it is downloadable from the net. A lot of questions are answered there. Then if you still consider it, rent for a day or two. A lot of the film renting houses has the machine for rent, for a relatively small cost (compared to buying the wrong thing). And by the way, it is a sizeable investment so better be sure.

// Gunnar

[BradLyons]

The 788T is an incredible product that is built like a tank, sounds like it costs, and just works! One thing to understand though is--this is NOT a multi-tracking recorder, but rather a straight shot recorder. What I mean is it will record on up to 8-tracks at once, but you can't go back and add additional tracks later. One of my clients is a top recording artist who absolutely LOVES the Sound Devices recorder for getting his ideas down on the road---we looked into this and were sad to learn it does not function that way. Again, not sure if you knew that so I wanted to make certain.

[GrooveMerchant]

Still very useful even if I just track with it. No overdubs is okay, I could do that via my other boxes, but great to have a tiny tracker. Yes, the manual is deep, I've been checking it out. Well-written, but pretty burly. I'm continuing to dig on preamps but mics are back on my radar huge. Great mics to capture the sounds at the source and feed to this 788t.

[BradLyons]

Let me be clear...by overdub I meant you can't add a track to what is there. It's either record them all at once or re-record everything again. With that said if this is straight shot recording and you need up to 8-tracks, need high-quality converters, mic-pres, and portability---IMHO you won't find a better solution.

[rumleymusic]

Let me be clear...by overdub I meant you can't add a track to what is there.

I don't think that is a big concern for most of the people on this forum. That is not what the recorder was built for, or among the list of priorities for a location recordist.

[bishopthomas]

I just did live sound with the Black Crowes the other day. The FOH engineer (Scooby, great guy) was using one to record every show. He has 4 channels of mics at FOH, two channels on stage facing the audience, plus the FOH mix. They make every show available within 24 hours for sale on the Internet. He seemed very happy with it, as has everyone I have ever encountered that uses one.

[marvin100]

I use one and I'm super impressed. Incredibly easy, incredibly versatile, incredible preamps. Plus it's built like a tank, the userbase and message board straight to SD is awesome, and it lights up like a sexy, sexy Wurlitzer.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

We just used 5 of these to record a 40 piece steel drum band. They worked flawlessly for the two days we used them. The only thing that was worrisome was that they get extremely hot in operation and we had to put 2" by 2" wooden pieces in between them to keep them from super overheating. We recorded on the internal hard drives, on the internal removable cards and on external hard drives and not one error. The microphone preamps are super good. All the machines were locked together with time code and that too was perfect.

[BradLyons]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

We just used 5 of these to record a 40 piece steel drum band. They worked flawlessly for the two days we used them. The only thing that was worrisome was that they get extremely hot in operation and we had to put 2" by 2" wooden pieces in between them to keep them from super overheating. We recorded on the internal hard drives, on the internal removable cards and on external hard drives and not one error. The microphone preamps are super good. All the machines were locked together with time code and that too was perfect.

Now that sounds cool---is there a chance you could make a mix available to hear?

[Arthur Stone]

I use the 702 for tracking and as a master recorder (plus many other uses) and it is superb.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by BradLyons

Now that sounds cool---is there a chance you could make a mix available to hear?

Sorry but the client will not approve such a use of their material since it is going to be released on a CD and DVD later this year.

[BradLyons]

Well then I guess I'll need a reminder to purchase it later :-)

[marvin100]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

The only thing that was worrisome was that they get extremely hot in operation and we had to put 2" by 2" wooden pieces in between them to keep them from super overheating.

You needn't have bothered--they're designed to get hot, the body itself is the heat sink. There have been very, very few reports of the 788 failing due to heat, and there's a long report of a user who spent a month or so in a 100F+ mine with a 7-series in constant use with no problems at all.

[boojum]

Originally Posted by marvin100

You needn't have bothered--they're designed to get hot, the body itself is the heat sink. There have been very, very few reports of the 788 failing due to heat, and there's a long report of a user who spent a month or so in a 100F+ mine with a 7-series in constant use with no problems at all.

I think the "heat problem" is a canard which has been discussed and dealt with at the SD forum and elsewhere. As marvin100 has said, the 788T is designed to run hot. The 744T runs hotter and does not fail. Instances of the 788T being used in desert conditions at 100+ temps with no problems and now this one of the same in a mine. The SD 788T is a rugged, go-anywhere and work-anywhere machine. The initial doubts and critical predictions of the naysayers have been put to rest. They work; they work well; the work well under rigorous circumstances. Check the thread on the Audi sound gathering. They work at ~200 KPH in the trunk of an Audi.

I have had one for a couple of years and like it a lot. It is not perfect. But is is pretty close.


PS - I think if I had five 788T's stacked I might be tempted to put spacers between rather than risk a dropout. I would also run the five without spacers recording into all eight tracks each for a non-critical test just to see how they would do. From my days as a programmer I can assure you that one test is worth a thousand opinions.

[MichaelPatrick]

Originally Posted by GrooveMerchant

How awesome is this unit?! I am thinking of one of these for tracking purposes - to then feed through RME conversion and summing to Folcrom. Also thinking of stereo / surround mixes and live gigs too. Main thing though is portability - I've been in many rehearsal spaces and gigs and even a regular 19" shallow rack can be more cumbersome than necessary. This 788t footprint has me excited - but how are the clean preamps and A/D, D/A conversions? I saw 6 outs on the hardware so basically a 5.1 savvy setup - I'll still need my RME DAs. I'm digging the CL-8 and CL-9 also.

It's awesome and the preamps and converters are top notch. Here's a link to a shootout with the Nagra VI.

Nagra VI / Sound Devices 788T shootout

It was hard to sonically distinguish the 788T from the more expensive audiophile Nagra VI recorder which has fewer channels and half as many preamps, and it's physically 4x the size. The Nagra has a hard disk and a CF card but can't record to both at once.

I hope to get a CL-9 so I won't have to take an analog mixer out just to mix during capture. The 788T lets you write 8 iso tracks while assigning pre or post fade mixes from any inputs to 2 or 4 internal tracks; that's 12 channels at once. Sound Devices may someday have a version of code that can record 12 iso channels by combining some digital and analog inputs.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by marvin100

You needn't have bothered--they're designed to get hot, the body itself is the heat sink. There have been very, very few reports of the 788 failing due to heat, and there's a long report of a user who spent a month or so in a 100F+ mine with a 7-series in constant use with no problems at all.

Thanks for the heads up. We were worried that a stack of 5 might be the straw that broke the camel's back and decided to provide some air spaces for cooling. We also had a slow running fan directed at the stack. As I said we had ZERO problems which is what we were hoping for..

[marvin100]

Originally Posted by MichaelPatrick

It was hard to sonically distinguish the 788T from the more expensive audiophile Nagra VI recorder ...

I'm an SD guy, but to be fair, the Nagra isn't more expensive in Europe.

[Brackish]

Originally Posted by GrooveMerchant

How awesome is this unit?

Have you ever held a piece of SD gear in your hands before?
The build quality is really impressive.

[John Willett]

The one thing against the 788T is the menu structure.

A friend has bought one and we were doing surround tests in St. Albans Cathedral recently.

He complains a lot about the awkwardness of this (and the battery ran flat pretty fast, but I don't know what he was using).

I know many people love the 788 and it is definitely a great machine, but this is it's weak point.

But - if you want a small, portable, very high quality, recorder with 8-inputs - it really is the only choice.

[mgoorevich]

SD is the best recorder I ever used! And I used allot.
The only thing I would like to be improved is the buttons.
Maybe it's only here in Tel Aviv where humidity is about 100% and 35 degrees celcium in the shadow...but the stop button became irresponsive. I need to press in very hard or keep pressing till it works.

[boojum]

Originally Posted by John Willett

The one thing against the 788T is the menu structure.

A friend has bought one and we were doing surround tests in St. Albans Cathedral recently.

He complains a lot about the awkwardness of this (and the battery ran flat pretty fast, but I don't know what he was using).

I know many people love the 788 and it is definitely a great machine, but this is it's weak point.

But - if you want a small, portable, very high quality, recorder with 8-inputs - it really is the only choice.

For the record, other that John Willett who does not own or use a 788T, there are not many reports here of menu problems. I do not have a problem with the menus and have not. Yet this same old canard is trotted out at every possible opportunity.

As for the battery "problem" we have half a story presented, again, as a demonstration of a "problem." What would be useful would be to hear from the owner rather than a gossipy hearsay rehash.

For some reason SD folks do not snipe in Nagra threads. On a purely personal level I find the sniping boring and uniformly uninformative about the machine but very informative about the poster. Perhaps that is the lesson.

'Nuf said.

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by boojum

For the record, other that John Willett who does not own or use a 788T, there are not many reports here of menu problems. I do not have a problem with the menus and have not. Yet this same old canard is trotted out at every possible opportunity.

As for the battery "problem" we have half a story presented, again, as a demonstration of a "problem." What would be useful would be to hear from the owner rather than a gossipy hearsay rehash.

For some reason SD folks do not snipe in Nagra threads. On a purely personal level I find the sniping boring and uniformly uninformative about the machine but very informative about the poster. Perhaps that is the lesson.

'Nuf said.

For the record, I am *not* sniping at all.

The 788T is an excellent machine and I have never said otherwise.

This was something that that came up on location while using several different machines.

The 788 menu is a long scroll and some people don't like it and a menu tree would be easier.

But it does not affect the quality of the machine or the recording - and - as I said, for an 8-track portable with 8 mic/line inputs, it's the best there is.

Please don't try and read what I'm not saying.

[MichaelPatrick]

Originally Posted by John Willett

The one thing against the 788T is the menu structure.

A friend has bought one and we were doing surround tests in St. Albans Cathedral recently.

He complains a lot about the awkwardness of this (and the battery ran flat pretty fast, but I don't know what he was using).

I know many people love the 788 and it is definitely a great machine, but this is it's weak point.

But - if you want a small, portable, very high quality, recorder with 8-inputs - it really is the only choice.

Menu structure works great for anyone who takes enough time to learn it. It's like a fighter jet cockpit, you should expect lots of controls because you simply can't have that many options without them.

As for battery, it can also take power from other 12v sources. If you want, use the attached Sony type L-mount battery just for seamless power transfers between AC and larger external batteries. That's what I do, and so do lots of sound-for-picture pros.

[boojum]

Originally Posted by John Willett

For the record, I am *not* sniping at all.

<snip>

The 788 menu is a long scroll and some people don't like it and a menu tree would be easier.

<snip>

Please don't try and read what I'm not saying.

John you are an accomplished professional with an excellent CV. You knew more twenty years ago than I will ever know about the recording game. Why not share that knowledge with us? And let the folks with the problems share theirs? When you have problems running a piece of hardware or software it is one thing. When you *hear* of someone else having problems it is another thing and dubious at best. To me, and I may be way off track here, there seems to be a bias to your reports. If I am mistaken please forgive me. If I am not, please correct it.

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by boojum

John you are an accomplished professional with an excellent CV. You knew more twenty years ago than I will ever know about the recording game. Why not share that knowledge with us? And let the folks with the problems share theirs? When you have problems running a piece of hardware or software it is one thing. When you *hear* of someone else having problems it is another thing and dubious at best. To me, and I may be way off track here, there seems to be a bias to your reports. If I am mistaken please forgive me. If I am not, please correct it.

You are mistaken, sorry.

There was no bias and I do not consider working together on a session with several recorders "hearing something".

I said the 788T is an excellent recorder and probably the best choice if you need 8 inputs in a portable.

Sent from my iPhone using Gearslutz

[MichaelPatrick]

John, regarding their apparent difficulty using the menu, let me suggest that your challenged friends read about "Menu Shortcuts" in the user manual. Shortcuts make it easy to quickly select frequently-used options.

[meltemi]

Originally Posted by MichaelPatrick

The Nagra has a hard disk and a CF card but can't record to both at once.

The copy function of the Nagra VI allows you to record on harddisk and do a background copy of your recording (channels selectable) on CF card at once.

[Petrus]

Originally Posted by MichaelPatrick

John, regarding their apparent difficulty using the menu, let me suggest that your challenged friends read about "Menu Shortcuts" in the user manual. Shortcuts make it easy to quickly select frequently-used options.

Also possible to make custom setups for specific use cases and load them instantly. No need to scroll the menus at all.