Makin' Tracks: Audio Tape Recorders (page 4)

Full-blown DAWs

The most popular full-featured DAW is Digidesign's Pro Tools III for the Mac, available in four-track and eight-track systems. This system allows you to automate tracks, and includes such tools as Pro-Deck to record discrete multi-tracks and Pro-Edit to manipulate the audio on those tracks as you like. It works with SMPTE time code and is frame-accurate. A SMPTE slave driver board is available as an option for $1295.

Digidesign Session 8 ($2900 to $3900, depending on configuration) is an 8-track digital audio workstation designed to work with PC computers. It's similar in design and function to Pro Tools for the Mac, and includes a routing window to patch various audio inputs. While not as powerful or flexible as Pro Tools, it is the only DAW that Digidesign currently makes for the PC platform.

Digital Audio in Your Future?

Just as computers seem to have taken over video editing, so too are computers and digital recording ubiquitous in the audio world. It's easy to see why: rather than using the audio equivalent of a razor blade and scotch tape to edit audio, you can digitally cut and paste on an intuitive timeline interface.

DAWs are less costly than non-linear video editing systems. This is because digital audio requires less hard drive space than video.

You can copy recordings made with a portable DAT in the field onto a multi-track digital ATR. You can then add music and effects, as well as lip-sync dialog. You can also copy several tracks onto another track right on the digital ATR.

If you have a digital audio workstation at your studio, you can cut and paste to your heart's content. The lower cost DAWs limit you to two or four tracks, but you can program cuts, fades and mixes, then revise it all with a few mouse clicks.

But to simply sweeten your audio track, you need not go to the expense of digital. Just get a Walkman recorder or another portable ATR, take a microphone, headphones, plenty of spare batteries, and (most importantly) your discerning ears. You'll get great recordings of nat sound and sound effects without having to go digital. Mix them to one of the low-cost analog multitrack ATRs and you'll have a robust, sweet sound that has the realism and dynamism of a rich movie soundtrack, all shot with your modest camcorder, your sharp eyes and your perky ears.

This list is only a sampling. It is not intended to be comprehensive.

Alesis
3630 Holdrege Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90016
(800) 525-3747

Creative Labs
1901 McCarthy Blvd.
Milpitas, CA 95035
(800) 998-5227

Digidesign
1360 Willow Rd. #101
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(415) 688-0600

Fostex
15431 Blackburn Ave.
Norwalk, CA 90650
(310) 921-1112

JVC
41 Slater Dr.
Elmwood, NJ 07407
(201) 794-3900

Macromedia Inc.
600 Townsend St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 252-2000

Marantz
1000 Corporate Blvd. Suite D
Aurora, IL 60504
(708) 820-4800

NoahJi's
3591 Nyland Way
Lafayette, CO 80026
(303) 499-1975

Philips
P.O. Box 14810
Knoxville, TN 37914
(615) 521-4316

Pioneer
600 E. Crescent Ave.
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
(201) 327-6400

Raster Ops
2500 Walsh Ave.
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 562-4200

Roland
7200 Dominion Circle
Los Angeles, CA 90040
(213) 685-5141

Sony Corporation
1 Sony Dr.
Park Ridge, NJ 07656
(201) 930-1000

Sunrize
2959 Winchester Ave.
Campbell, CA 95008
(408) 374-4962

Tascam (Teac)
7733 Telegraph Rd.
Montebello, CA
(213) 726-0303

Technics
One Panasonic Way
Secaucus, NJ 07094
(201) 348-7000

Turtle Beach
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
York, PA 17404
(800) 645-5640

--S.S.

The Audio-for-Video Alphabet Soup

Here is a list of terms and abbreviations the pros often use in the audio-for-video world:

• ADAT: Multitrack digital audiotape recorder that uses S-VHS tapes.
• DAT: Digital Audio Tape.
• SMPTE: Time code standard adopted by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.
• DCC: Digital Compact Cassette.
• MD: MiniDisc disk audio recorder.
• >ATR: Audio tape recorder.
• SCMS: Serial Copy Management System, a chip in digital recorders that prevents direct digital copying of originals.
• DTRS: Digital Tape Recording System. Digital multitrack ATR using Hi8 tape.
• MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface. The standard for copying music from instruments onto computers or digital audio tape recorders.

--S.S.