Anything Better than Sound Devices 722

[PHILANDDON]

Curious about a GREAT all in one two channel recorder. Great Preamps, Converters, Mixing/Summing capabilities is a plus. Anything better than the 722?

[mosrite]

I can't say anything about any other modern portable recorder but I can say that I was very impressed when I used the 744. Great preamps and ADC. In fact I did one of my favourite recordings to date using it. There doesn't seem to be any compromises with that machine.

[T.RayBullard]

Originally Posted by PHILANDDON

Curious about a GREAT all in one two channel recorder. Great Preamps, Converters, Mixing/Summing capabilities is a plus. Anything better than the 722?

hey Phil..

there are a number of options here.(yes, the sd 722 is great)



the tascam hdp2, marantz pmd 671, fostex fr-2 are also rumoured to be very good.

I do know that www.oade.com does mods to the pmd671 and the tascam hd-p2..and the fr-2. <<< those machines even with the mods, will be cheaper than the 722.

oade is a genius, and has been modding gear for a long, LONG time.

I suggest chatting with Doug(douglas@oade.com , sales@oade.com ) or calling him..

he will square you away, as he has an extensive knowledge of recording gear.

[ghellquist]

Philandon - what is your question really? How do you define great? In what respect?

The 722 is indeed a very nice product. I have one and like it a lot. I have no problem recommending it. Is it great? Yes, for my uses. Could it be bettered? Probably. You could probably have a smaller case, longer battery life, larger storage disc, better AD-converters, better preamps, more inputs and more features at a lower price and with even better reliability. Currently you cannot have all of these "betters" at the same time though. So back to the question, what defines great for you?

If what you are looking for is portable and expensive, maybe one or more of these could be great:

Nagra V - http://www.nagraaudio.com/pro/index.php
Zaxcom Deva - http://www.zaxcom.com/
Aaton Cantar - http://www.aaton.com/products/sound/cantar/
Sonosax MiniR82 - http://www.sonosax.ch/

Gunnar

[T.RayBullard]

all of those below are more than two channels. the sonosax 2 channel is not going to happen. the Deva is 10-12,000.00
Nagra, around 10. Cantar--15

I suspect he is not looking for an expensive unit , or one that is more than 2ch.

the sonosax 8 channel is going to happen, but abandon all thoughts of the 2 channel. non existant now or ever...

Originally Posted by ghellquist

Philandon - what is your question really? How do you define great? In what respect?

The 722 is indeed a very nice product. I have one and like it a lot. I have no problem recommending it. Is it great? Yes, for my uses. Could it be bettered? Probably. You could probably have a smaller case, longer battery life, larger storage disc, better AD-converters, better preamps, more inputs and more features at a lower price and with even better reliability. Currently you cannot have all of these "betters" at the same time though. So back to the question, what defines great for you?

If what you are looking for is portable and expensive, maybe one or more of these could be great:

Nagra V - http://www.nagraaudio.com/pro/index.php
Zaxcom Deva - http://www.zaxcom.com/
Aaton Cantar - http://www.aaton.com/products/sound/cantar/
Sonosax MiniR82 - http://www.sonosax.ch/

Gunnar

[aracu]

If the 722 isn't complete enough, how about a 744 with 2
channels of your favorite pres, and 2 of the sound devices
(very good) pres.

[audiogeek1]

We have a 744t and a cantar. I like the interface of the 744 better than the cantar. Though I have never done an a b comparison I think they both sound great and do excellent things. I have been using the cantar lately because of the Pro Tools compatability. Wish they would add sound devices stuff to the list.

Just my opinion

Mike

[David Rick]

I took delivery of a 744T about six weeks ago with the primary idea of using it as a backup for my Sequoia rig when doing concert recordings. It works fine for that, whether I'm taking an analog split behind preamps or an AES split behind the converters. If you don't mind looking like a geek, you can take the machine out to dinner afterwards and pass the headphones around the table.

But I didn't fully appreciate the machine until this weekend when I stuck it in a messenger bag and followed a march through downtown Denver with a boom mic. Only then did it become clear how carefully the designers had done their homework. The meters were easy to read, I could record M/S and monitor in stereo, and no matter where I was in the menu system, if I hit the REC button, the machine would go into record.

At the end of the march, I grabbed a line out from the PA and recorded that on channel 3, while continuing to use the M/S boom mics for crowd noise. While moving around, I recorded to compact flash (8GB RiData). When I was next to the PA, I plugged into the generator and recorded to hard disk. (The 744T recharged its battery while that was happening.) Even with switching back and forth between media types, the file names kept incrementing with the correct take number.

Back in my production room, I plugged in a firewire cable and the 744T showed up as a removable hard disk on my editing computer. Drag, drop, and go for coffee while Windows copies the files. I recorded to mono WAV files to save space when muting channels. The polyphonic WAV option always creates 4-track files. I'd like to have the option to do, say, one stereo WAV file and one mono, but I admit that would complicate the menus.

The only really bad thing I have to say about this machine is that the special adapter cables cost a mint -- especially the timecode sync cable. But I guess anyone who can afford one of these to begin with can afford to spend a couple hundred extra on the necessary cables.

David L. Rick
Seventh String Recording

[T.RayBullard]

you can just get a cable geek to build one for you for a lot cheaper.

Originally Posted by David Rick

I took delivery of a 744T about six weeks ago with the primary idea of using it as a backup for my Sequoia rig when doing concert recordings. It works fine for that, whether I'm taking an analog split behind preamps or an AES split behind the converters. If you don't mind looking like a geek, you can take the machine out to dinner afterwards and pass the headphones around the table.

But I didn't fully appreciate the machine until this weekend when I stuck it in a messenger bag and followed a march through downtown Denver with a boom mic. Only then did it become clear how carefully the designers had done their homework. The meters were easy to read, I could record M/S and monitor in stereo, and no matter where I was in the menu system, if I hit the REC button, the machine would go into record.

At the end of the march, I grabbed a line out from the PA and recorded that on channel 3, while continuing to use the M/S boom mics for crowd noise. While moving around, I recorded to compact flash (8GB RiData). When I was next to the PA, I plugged into the generator and recorded to hard disk. (The 744T recharged its battery while that was happening.) Even with switching back and forth between media types, the file names kept incrementing with the correct take number.

Back in my production room, I plugged in a firewire cable and the 744T showed up as a removable hard disk on my editing computer. Drag, drop, and go for coffee while Windows copies the files. I recorded to mono WAV files to save space when muting channels. The polyphonic WAV option always creates 4-track files. I'd like to have the option to do, say, one stereo WAV file and one mono, but I admit that would complicate the menus.

The only really bad thing I have to say about this machine is that the special adapter cables cost a mint -- especially the timecode sync cable. But I guess anyone who can afford one of these to begin with can afford to spend a couple hundred extra on the necessary cables.

David L. Rick
Seventh String Recording