Phil Skins - Edirol Europe, looks at the R-09HR, R-44 and R-4 Pro audio recorders
There was a time when the world of moving image production relied on double system sound to achieve the best results. Film cameras, initially, could not record sound and image together, which meant the only way to match image and sound was to record them separately and sync these up in post. As technology developed mag-striped film was created, enabling sound and picture to be recorded at the same time, however the results were inferior to double system recording.
Video has not been restricted in the same way as film production. Picture and sound are recorded simultaneously with video production, however while this is a huge advantage in terms of convenience, the fact the mics and recording devices have to be chained to the camera can be limiting. To have sound separate to the camera means the camera operator can roam free while a sound recordist, or sound device which has been set-up in advance, can be left to do the audio recording.
With film recording intricate systems were developed to ensure that sound and picture were locked together. Sync drift in the edit quite was a nightmare no-one would ever want to deal with. Crystal sync Nagras, matched to the motors in the film cameras were developed and while this worked and could achieve excellent results, the operation was cumbersome at best.
Jump forward more than a quarter of a century and it is now possible to work with double system sound, without any sync drift, with convenient recording devices which are extremely high quality and portable.
Edirol, a division of Roland, produces several models of audio recorders. These are very useful for videographers, providing the flexibility of double system sound without much of the hassle of the old way of working.
Phil Skins, from Edirol Europe, runs us through the options in the movie above.
