IBH

I've had good success 3D printing APE balls for my Dpa4060s. I was actually surprised they worked, since I thought the materials used to make the balls for DPA's 4006/11s was important in their effectiveness. I was able to get about +8db and a boost at around 7K+

I might double record it, if it's an unattended recording better to have a backup running incase something happens.

People using the Westone's how do they compare to any of the high end Etymotic Research earbuds? I've been looking to get a new pair, but I could be persuaded to go with Westone's. I'm not very happy with the Etymotics durability.

They don't claim it is a hydrophone, just that it is waterproof. You are correct that hydrophones require a different impedance to correctly pick up vibrations underwater.

So how do I get a monoprice sponsorship? Thanks to Silver Sound for hosting a great event!

I don't have a shotgun to contribute to this shootout, but I would love to be able to come and listen to the comparisons.

Thanks for your detailed response. Would you mind sharing the different recorder examples? I have been considering getting a SD633 for a while, but if the quality is really subjectively different from a SD744t I might consider differently.

From what I've read on THD, it is very difficult to hear a difference in anything below %1 THD (*except for when using pure sine tones). The 702 is rated at .004 max, and SD633 at 0.09% max, or converted to a dB rating, -87dB and -61dB, respectively. Go into your DAW, load a file, listen to it, and then reduce its amplitude by 61dB, and tell me if you can hear it...you probably can not. I'm not saying that THD isn't influencing some factors of the recording, but for stereo imagining I believe others factors would very quickly override the minute effects of THD, such as phase and timing differences between microphones, placement and even sampling rate. What I suspect is going on here is, as others have suggested, differences in the quality of the monitoring outputs of the two units. I'd be very interested in a AB double blind test.

Wow! I want this for audio, a beamforming microphone array would be amazing.

I don't think this would be introduced to records anytime in the near future, additionally for encryption which is hard to break you often need a very long password- imagine how annoying that could get to enter on a SD633 with the joystick... One of the big things revealed by Snowden was how many companies the government had access to and could pressure into handing over encryption keys. These were companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google- and they couldn't resist the government. I don't think SD or Zaxcom would stand a chance keeping any proprietary security features a secret. If you want to encrypt your files though you could bring along a small laptop, transfer the media to that and then use what ever encryption software you like. Then make sure to burn the media card you used...even after a couple reformats I can recover old files using data recovery software.

I am new to these forums and have greatly enjoyed reading the discussions and gear geeking over the past few weeks. I noticed a discussion happening in the Equipment hopes for 2015 thread that I think deserves more attention. Philip Westbrook hoped for the ability to have a built in compressor, EQ and perhaps VST support on SD recorders, to aid with a quicker post production. This would be especially helpful if it could be written as metadata. There was a pretty quick response from some of the more veteran engineers who did not like this idea. Their fear (and I believe rightfully so) was that productions might begin to expect more duties from on-location sound. While I understand that sentiment, I think it is a dangerous way of thinking. We should not reject the addition of features out of fear that they may make people demand more, or change their expectations on how a production goes. What if we had rejected automatic cameras, because it put the man spinning the film out of a job, and put more duties no the camera operator. (not the best analogy but I hope my point is expressed). I would like to see digital recorders gain as many features and abilities as possible, hell give me a spectrogram. Not because I want to do double duty- but because these are features that can be added and may open up new avenues to the craft. I just finished my first real production as the location sound recordist for a indie documentary in south India. It was a very small team and I will most likely be doing post for the film as well. The documentary will feature lots of musical performances, and when we did our dalies I always tried to provide a rough mix of the performance from earlier in the day. This was especially important because I close mic'ed so many of the performers. If I could have an initial mix already setup based on what I was doing out in the field it it would have gone a along way for me, and the post production process. We will deal with the changing expectations as they come, and I think it is good to discuss those issues, but I think it is full-hearty to reject the improvement on a technology. I am just starting in the business, and would greatly appreciate the thoughts of those who have concerns on the matter.