Here is a copy of the review I wrote for “Line Up” magazine.

SOUND DEVICES 788T MULTI-TRACK DIGITAL AUDIO RECORDER

The year was 1989 and I was recording a BBC “Whicker’s World” series in Hong Kong using, for the first time, a new fangled DAT recorder.

I had a Sony PCM2000 recorder with no time code, attached by a multitude of cables to my trusty SQN mixer in a bag about the size and weight of a small skip. I was also doing a parallel recording of everything on a Nagra because there wasn’t yet proof that DAT was going to run in sync.

Was this the future? Although the sound quality was first rate I suspected not, because instead of a compact Nagra recorder I was now needing to haul around, over my shoulder, a mixer and separate recorder. 

This was about as much of a leap backwards as was the introduction in the eighties of the umbilical connecting the original video cameras to a separate Beta recorder weighing 20 Kg which took us back to the days of the sync lead connecting the Nagra to the Arri BL camera of the sixties!

I came back from that Hong Kong trip and made a call to Rob Finch at SQN which went something like: “ Hi Rob, What I really need is an SQN mixer which records in stereo. When are you going to make one?”

That was nearly twenty years ago and it has taken this long for me to get something even better than my, wished for, machine.

During those twenty years I used HHB Portadat with an SQN mixer bolted on and Fostex PD4 recorders which were fine for three inputs but they were never as comprehensive as I wanted them to be.

A couple of years ago I did a review of the Nagra 5 for “Line Up” which I was hoping would fit the bill but I was sadly disappointed again because of the need for a separate mixer. 

I was looking for a recorder/ mixer  which I could use over the shoulder, on a trolley or at a simple music session and which had flexibility and adaptability.

I should add at this moment that, having been brought up through the BBC in the seventies and eighties I was one of those people who liked to see wheels turning when recorders were working and I still feel very uneasy visiting a dubbing theatre or editing room which doesn’t have a projector or a  Steenbeck.  I’m a Meccano age mechanical chap at heart! I also have a well founded suspicion that any computer based machine is eventually going to perform an unexpected trick, fool you and eventually win. So as you can see there is an inbuilt resistance to computerised recorders.

So to today:

John McCombie of Pink Noise Systems www.pinknoise-systems.co.uk/  kindly loaned me one of the first Sound Devices 788T recorders to arrive on these shores along with the wonderful CL8 control unit/ 8 channel mixer. I know that the two and four channel models have been available for some time but I never went down that route mainly because they still needed to be attached to a mixer to give flexibility.

Sound Devices 788T recorder

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

The 788T looks fantastic and feels as though it’s made in Switzerland by Rolex or Nagra. I’ve had it sitting on my lounge coffee table for a couple of weeks and just love looking at it (how pathetic is that?). It falls into the same aesthetic group as my AXBT mic and my Nagra SN recorder . A joy to behold.

As I’ve said in previous articles, being a typical male, I hate instruction manuals and only like to refer to them as a last resort. I feel that if something is designed well and you have a modicum of common sense, you should be able to get it to perform at least basic functions. This, to me, is a very good test of how well a machine is designed. The 788T passed much of that test.  Just by plugging in a mic and headphones, working out the powering and mic settings and employing that well known military man “General Fiddling” I succeeded in making a simple recording to the internal hard drive and playing it back without the other military man “Major Confusion” upsetting the applecart. However there is so much more to this machine than a simple mixer/recorder, that eventually I did need to consult the manual, the updated version of which is available on line.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE RECORDER

On the left side panel there are 4 female XLR and 4 male TA3 mic/line input sockets and a headphone level knob. If you want to use your conventional XLR mic cables you need to get an XLR to TA3 adaptor loom made up to allow the use of inputs 5 to 8.

On the right side are 4 analogue balanced outputs on TA3 male sockets, a Firewire 800 port, Firewire 400 port, USB2 port, a sync input socket taking video sync and word clock reference, external power input on a Hirose 4 pin connector, headphone sockets (both quarter inch and 3.5mm), timecode in/out  on 5 pin Lemo connector and unbalanced analogue output on 3.5mm jack. There is also the multi function rotary switch used for menu selection and operation by pressing or turning.

The front panel has a control knob for each channel input. These pop out when pushed and are then used for enabling the channel and adjusting the gain and trim sent to be recorded. In the absence of the CL-8 module, these act as the gain controls. The knob is surrounded by an LED illuminated ring . This lights in various colours and intensities to show the state of each input.

Between the two rows of gain knobs are four toggle switches (each controls 2  input channels) By pushing this switch to select a channel, input details can be edited by using the “soft keys” around the display and the rotary switch. This switch also acts as a PFL control during headphone monitoring.  Once you have become used to the fact that all the keys around the display act as “soft keys” in certain modes and that the keys refer to the nearest item to them on the display then operation becomes simple and speedy.
The display, though small, contains all the information you could possibly need and has an adjustable backlight. (I just wish my eyes were better).

On the right hand side of the front panel are the LED level meters. There are blue lights to indicate which tracks are armed to record.and eight lines of metering LEDs: one each for left and right outputs and one for each of six isolated  tracks A to F..  Since the latest software upgrade to v1.6, the machine can now record 12 track with two additional AUX tracks added. The metering on the LCD display can be switched to show either C,D,E & F or G,H Aux1 and Aux2. At any time, the recorder can be put into record by simply pressing the record button.  A user settable pre-record buffer can  record for a fixed period prior to pushing the record button.

I would not want to try to use the 788t over the shoulder without the addition if the CL8 mixer attachment.  This gives “SQN like” control of the gain of the master left/right mix tracks, even with gloves on, plus routing, phase, limiter and high pass filter. It also enables the slating mic. It connects via the USB port on the recorder and has a duplicate USB port through which a USB keyboard can be attached for entering metadata and for controlling functions such as record, play and rewind as selected by the user.

The CL-8 unit can be mounted either above or below the recorder unit depending on your preference or could even be remote from the recorder connected by a USB cable extension. I prefer it attached to the top of the recorder as it is then not hidden by my spare tyre when over the shoulder!

Latest news is that Sound Devices are looking into the possibility of manufacturing a linear fader module for the 788T

                                               788T with CL8 Controller, USB keyboard and external hard drive.

OPERATION:

The first thing to master before recording is to route the input to the channel/track or tracks which you wish to record it to. The routing is very flexible allowing any input to go to any combination of tracks allowing great flexibility. At any time you can flick the input toggle switch to check exactly which tracks that input is going to. The left and right tracks are always post fader but the aux. tracks can be assigned as pre or post fader. As an example, this allows the recordist to send the left and right mix to the camera whilst keeping all the individual inputs recorded to their respective isolated tracks at the levels set by the trim pots. The recording can be made on to any combination of compact flash card, internal hard drive or external hard drive. Sound devices provide, free of charge an excellent audio management programme called Wave Agent which is a multi-purpose utility for playing, editing  and managing WAV files. This includes a comprehensive range of tools for preparing audio files for problem-free passage through complex production workflows.  It operates on both Mac and PC computers.

Over the shoulder mode

NIGGLES: *****(See update at bottom of page)

In the past I’ve used the Tascam DA88 for multi-track recording when it was needed. One of the functions I found really useful on it was the ability to play back one or more tracks whilst recording on other tracks. This feature made overdubbing of music and playback whilst recording a guide or dialogue really easy. I understand why this is a difficult facility to provide on a file based recorder as opposed to a tape based machine but it would be a really useful facility if it could be done.

I and other recordists  I have spoken to, have had some trouble scrolling through the menus as the control wheel scrolls the text rather than the cursor bar which I had expected it to do. This took me a little while to get used to, (rather like remembering to drive on the right in the States) but I’ve overcome it now.  Perhaps it could have a right hand/ left hand drive option in its next firmware upgrade. It must have been designed by the guy who writes DOWN above SLOW on American roads instead of SLOW above DOWN as we do here! *****

It would be nice if the tone switch didn’t need to be held down to operate.*****

The only other criticisms are of me. I’m red/green deficient in the colour sight department and have a bit of trouble in identifying the functions of some of the coloured lights and as an oldie, even with my varifocals on, I can’t easily read the screen printed text on the panels.  This is of course as a result of the compactness of the machine. On the up side I won’t be so prone to back pain.

CONCLUSIONS:

In this short article I can’t hope to address all the options available on this machine however I hope I have given you the impression that it is a very flexible, well designed tool for the drama or documentary sound recordist. To make so many options available in such a small unit is nothing short of a miracle. In short, I love this machine and it fits the bill for me in almost every way. All I need now is a job to help pay for one and I’ll definitely splash out.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION:

*  Eight mic/line inputs, each controlled with front panel, pop-out gain controls

    * 12-track recording, to record iso's, stereo mix track, and two-track aux, Aux1, Aux2 (limited to 8 track recording when recording to three media types simultaneously)

    * Each input has solo headphone monitoring, 48 V phantom, limiter, polarity reverse, high-pass, and selectable delay

    * Selectable sampling rate converters on each digital input

    * AES42 digital microphone support

    * Backlit LCD display  with brightness control, viewable in any environment

    * 8 x 13-segment Peak/VU meters with LED

    * Word clock in and out with tri-level video sync support

    * Time code generator supports all data rates; holds time code for four hours with no power sources attached

    * Internal 160 GB, 2.5-inch SATA hard drive

    * CompactFlash slot with UDMA support

    * Powered by removable Li-ion rechargeable batteries or supplied external DC power input which operates unit and charges Li-ion battery or external NP1 batteries.

    * Back panel multi-pin connector for one-cable connection to digital mixing board (AES input/output, power, switch closure in/out)

    * FireWire 400/800 and USB 2.0 connections for ultra-fast file transfer between 788T's CF and HDD to computer

    * USB keyboard input for control

    * Aluminium & stainless-steel chassis for exceptional durability and light weight

Sampling Frequency:

internal: 32, 44.1, 47.952, 48, 48.048

external clocking: 32–48.048 kHz via word clock or digital inputs

Metering

112-segment (8 x 14), sunlight-viewable, selectable peak, VU, or peak (with or without peak hold) with VU ballistics, variable brightness

High-Pass Filters:

40-320 Hz in 10Hz steps @ 6/12 dB/oct (Setup Menu selectable)

Mic Powering:

(each analog input selectable): 48 V phantom, menu-selected per channel in mic or line level positions

Mic/Line Input Limiters:

Variable threshold -12 to -2 dBFS; Infinite:1 limiting ratio, 2 mS attack time, menu-selectable release time 200-2000 mS, soft-knee starting approximately 6dB below setting.

Digital Storage:

Internal hard drive SATA interface 2.5-in hard drive 4200–7200 RPM supported, FAT32 formatted, up to 2 TB addressable

CompactFlash CF type I, II, and + (microdrive) compatible, UDMA (300x) compatible, FAT32 formatted, up to 2 TB addressable

Can record to external hard drive via firewire

File Types

Record: WAV (AES-31 format), mono or polyphonic, at supported Fs, 24-bit or 16-bit;

Playback: WAV (AES-31 format), mono or polyphonic, at supported Fs, 24-bit or 16-bit;

MP3 @ 32, 64, 96, 128, 160, 192, 256, or 320 kb/s stereo; MP2 @ 64, 96, 128, 160, 192, 256, or 320, 384 kb/s stereo

Drive formatting and speed test for internal hard drive, CF and external drive volumes

Data Transfer / Control:

FireWire 400: For connection to external drives and computers: IEEE-1394a compliant, 6-pin FireWire, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7) Mac OS X only

FireWire 800: For connection to external drives and computers: IEEE-1394b compliant, 8-pin FireWire, Windows (2000, XP, Vista, 7), Mac OS X only

USB 2.0: Slave mode only. For connection to Windows 2000, XP, Vista,7 and Mac OS X only

USB Keyboard Input: For connection to USB keyboards for entering notes and controlling features and functions of the 788T via user selectable keyboard shortcuts.

Time Code:

Modes Supported: Off, free run, record run, 24 hour run, external time code receive

Frame Rates: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97DF, 29.97ND, 30DF, 30ND, 30+

Accuracy: 0.2 ppm, when tuned with Ambient Master Controller, holds TC clock for 4 hours after main battery removal; after 4 hours, retains time of day

Input / Output 20k ohm impedance, 0.3V p-p (–8 dBu) minimum / 1k ohm impedance, 3.0V p-p (+12 dBu)

Internal Sync: internal word clock generator

External Sync Input: Word Clock, AES3, or Video (NTSC, PAL, and Tri-Level)

Word Clock Output: Square wave, running at sample rate, 3.3 V p-p, 75 ohm

Power supply (external): 10–18 V,

Tone Oscillator: 100 Hz–10 kHz, variable output, assigned to tracks or outputs (menu-selectable)

Dimensions and Weight:

Size: 45 mm x 257 mm x 163 mm (H x W x D) 1.8" x 10.1" x 6.4"

Weight: 1.7 kg, (3 lbs 12 oz.) without battery

Left and right end panels

Much more on www.sounddevices.com/products/788t.htm

Thanks to Pink Noise Systems: www.pinknoise-systems.co.uk/

STOP PRESS Update: 

Feb: 2009 Firmware version 1.65 addresses the tone switch problem enabling it to be latched on and then off by pressing the tone button. You can now route any input to any track pre or post fader too.

April 2009: Latest firmware v1.75 now allows the menu scrolling to be  done the British way. Thanks Sound devices for very quick response .