Topic: 744t Advice

[Spinman]

I ordered a 744t today from Cascade Media.  It was well out of my budget, but I took the plunge anyway.   
I'm getting it Friday AM, and I was wondering what suggestions some of you may have for recording with it.

Friday night, I'm taping a friend.  He's doing an acoustic show.  It should just be a vocal mic and a guitar.
I'd like to take those two tracks individually, and also run some mics.  What setup mode from the 744t menu would you suggest for this scenario?


I also have a V3.
Would you recommend running the Schoeps into the V3 and then going into the 744, or just running the Schoeps into the 744t directly and using the V3 to take the SBD signal?  Or at the risk of sounding sacriligious, not even running the V3?
What do you think would sound the best, and why.

I also see that many people are running the V3's analog out into the 722/744t's instead of going Spidif.  I assume that some people prefer the sound of the A/D in the 7xx series over the V3's. 

Would I need to enable SMTPE to help sync up the files?

Thank you for your suggestions. 
If you see a guy begging for spare change outside the venue.. that would more than likely be me.... j/k (I hope)

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

Do you live in Portland?  Don't know the answer to your question but I'm picking up my R-4 at Cascade Friday morning!  Looks like Frank's having a good weekend.    


PS..Jeff who answers the phones at Cascade runs their demos 2 or 3 nights a week.  He's pretty much a pro.  Ask him.

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

oh ya +t for running 4 tracks.  :0)

[MattD]

Congrats on the purchase!

Friday night, I'm taping a friend.  He's doing an acoustic show.  It should just be a vocal mic and a guitar.
I'd like to take those two tracks individually, and also run some mics.  What setup mode from the 744t menu would you suggest for this scenario?

Keep it simple by running two stereo pairs. One will be a true stereo pair from your mics, and the other with be a stereo file that is really a pair of mono channels (vocal mic and guitar from board). Normally I'd suggest running 4 mono files, but other users had problems finding software to handle that. If you're not sure, two stereo files is the safest method.

I also have a V3.
Would you recommend running the Schoeps into the V3 and then going into the 744, or just running the Schoeps into the 744t directly and using the V3 to take the SBD signal?  Or at the risk of sounding sacriligious, not even running the V3?
What do you think would sound the best, and why.

Since it'll be your first time out with the 744t, save yourself the trouble of having another box to focus on. You want to be able to give your attention to the new gear so you don't mess something up. I think Schoeps >V3 > analog to 744t would sound the best with the 744t getting the line ins from the board as well.

Would I need to enable SMTPE to help sync up the files?

I *think* that the files that come out of the 744t should be in sync with each other without it.

[Spinman]

Thank you for the excellent advice.  +T's to both of you.

You have a great point about focusing on just one box.  At least till I get comfortable with it. 

Tapermark,
I live in Nashville.  When I ordered the 744t, I spoke with Jeff.  He was very helpful.  I asked him a lot of questions, but I was sure exactly how to put everything together, etc.  I also didn't know how many channels I'd need at the time.

Peace,
Dave

[mmedley.]

Nice! A 722 and 744 in Nashville now.

Looking forward to seeing you out this weekend Dave!

[trajhip2000]

presumably you've gotten cables with the female mini-XLRs on the ends for channels 3/4?

I run the 744T with a stereo pair out front and individual mics on guitar and bass cabs - the stereo pair runs into a V3, analog out into the 744T ch 3/4, and the individual mics go into ch 1/2 of the 744T.

Steve

[Spinman]

Well, my buddies solo gig turned into a 5 piece band.  Keys, drummer, horns, guitarist, and upright bass.  Raul always does things over the top.  Whether it's with his band the Mavericks, Los Super 7, the Fabulosos, or him "solo"
The show was great, but there was obviously no way to get the individual tracks into the 744t.
I was 57.5 feet from the stage, directly in front of the SBD.  I suggested running MK21's at the stage lip, and a stereo board feed.  The plan was to use the house snake to power the 21's, and that way I wouldn't have xlr cable running down the aisles, etc.

Raul didn't want anything obtrusive on or near the stage, or that could block anyone's view.  He asked me to run the mics directly in front of the SBD.
Because I was so far back, I ran MK41's.  At 57.5 feet, I set the delay to 51ms.  I took some of the advice from here, and just ran the 744t.  I didn't use the V3.  The mics went into channels 1+2 with phantom power on, and the SBD went into 3+4.
I bought both male and female>Mini XLR cables just to have everything covered.
The box ran great, with no issues that I can tell.  The levels are going to take a bit to get use to, they're not like the V3.  The only complaint I have so far is that it's difficult to set the gain on 3+4.  It has to be done through a menu, as there are no knobs to easily/quickly adjust.  There may be a shortcut to this menu, though, and that would make it much less problematic.  I'm still extremely new to this box, as I had never held one until yesterday.

I have the files transfered now, and have to figure out how to open them up.  They're poly wav files and have 4 channels.  I tried Nuendo but I wasn't sure what the best way is to split them into seperate tracks.  I figured out how to do it, but I'm not sure if I "insert objects on one track or insert each on different track"  I'll play around with it today, and hopefully figure it out.  I may revert to Adobe Audition if it's easier.

Thanks again for all the help.  I'll probably run it again tonight, at the Drive By Truckers.  Man this box is small....and the lights are BRIGHT!!!
The tour manager said, they were worth 4k alone.
The soundguy asked me if my bag was on fire.   

Thanks again for the info,
Dave

[wbrisette]

Would I need to enable SMTPE to help sync up the files?

I *think* that the files that come out of the 744t should be in sync with each other without it.

This is correct. All files on the 744 are running off the the same PLL clock, so you won't have any issues with syncing the files on them. You don't have to worry about drift or any other strange things. Now what you might have a problem with is delay in the channels if you're taking feeds from the board and using your mics. I don't know if the 744 allows you to add delay on the fly, or if you have to wait until post production, but either way, the day for two of the channels will be minimal (if at all) and once you aliign the tracks, they won't drift.

Wayne

[MattD]

To add to Wayne's reply, the 722 allows you to change channel delay. I'm not sure if that's active while recording or only in stop mode. I assume the 744t will have the same feature.