AES NYC - New Nagra ? Aaton - AutoSlate ?

[mikefilosa]

Sadly I'm starting a project that is going to knock me out of the AES in NYC... always a great show, in a great place!

Of the many things I wanted to check out -- something new on the Cantar X2 : the AutoSlate.

Is anyone out there running this?  Is it a software upgrade, or a piece of hardware ?

It seems like a great idea....  a timestamp for the file triggered merely by sticks....

Since the advent of the GR-1, I have always tried to include a reasonably close TC entry on each take of my sound reports .....  such an AutoSlate function would pretty much do that for me ..... with frame accuracy.

It seems like it might be a "hybrid" use of TC with either Denecke or standard slates, and it might solve the problem of the occasional un-readable slate TC display....

I'm also curious if Nagra is to release it's projected mid-priced 6 track NL Recorder, Nagra VI .....

has anyone seen or played with any prototype?

Mike Filosa, CAS

Atlanta

[S Harber]

Hi Mike,

The Cantar autoslate has been around for about 6 months.

What it does is this: after a slate is clapped you have 6 seconds to press a button which reads those previous 6 seconds for an audio spike/slate marker and it id's that TC. That TC is stored and can be one of the frames you can set up on the Cantar sound reports.

This works up to 3 slates, is software based on the recorder and is only reliant on the sound generated by the slate. It even registers very quiet marks on CU shots and shows tailslates as well.

I had this come into play on a slate of mine that was turned off and another that was drifting. I simply responded by letting post know the proper TC was on the sound report. They used those #'s from the report and things went swimmingly and were all happy about that.

Scott Harber

[S Harber]

The 1st slate is automatically marked but you do need to hit the button between the markers if there are 2 or more slatings.

SH

I haven't had to press the button on my unit and it still grabs the proper TC info.  All I can say is the Cantar is like a apple product, "it just works". I cant wait for the X2 upgrade for the new GrandArcan software, as well as the Play and Record option. Brilliant. If I had time to go to AES I would. Lots of goodies there this year.

[Fernando]

great feature!

[soundbeing]

Most of my first day at AES was spent at the GOTHAM SOUND booth with CANTAR X2 where I had to leave and come back 3 times to digest and continue absorbing what Frank from Aaton was explaining to us.  The new CM4 motherboard has power to spare and along with ethernet I think Aaton is about to issue in a whole new era of remarkable functions.  Simultaneous record with playback is finally a reality.  Grandarcan alone surprised me.  Previously, seeing the demo screen online I assumed it was a status display with limited control function.  I was amazed to find that it was a 100 % control program.  If I am understanding this properly you should be able to hide Cantar X2 on a bottom shelf of a cart out of sight and run the whole thing from a laptop!  Metadata can be brought onto the screen, edited, and pasted back into Cantar before mirroring.  Soundlog in pdf is always at your fingertips.

Alot to look forward to!

Mark Weber C.A.S.

Sound Specialist Inc.

Miami, Florida