Sound Devices 722 as a music player?

[Scrunch Gumpgins]

Apologies if this question doesn't belong on this site, Someone suggested I ask this question here rather than the Tapeheads forums. Has anyone here used the Sound Devices 722 as a music player? If so, how did it perform in that role? I was hoping to use the SD 722 like a cassette or MD recorder, like field recording, recording from the radio, and music playback. Not a professional use case, I know.

Edited September 30, 2024 by Scrunch Gumpgins
Little edit to add a “in” so the sentence makes more grammatical sense

[JesseF]

The 722 is a wonderful piece of gear and is a beautiful display piece to pair with a set of speakers.  I've thought of using a 702 for the same purpose, tho I haven't been able to justify it just yet.

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

I would imagine it would work just fine, as long as you only want to play back recordings you've made on it.  It can't play back anything except WAV files, so you'd be facing a conversion step to play any files that are in normal distribution codecs (mp3, aac, flac, alac, etc.).

I also imagine the interface would be painful ... you can't do much other than stop and play back, and a two line screen & knob-based menu isn't a great interface for navigating a file structure or searching for specific tracks.

 

You'll have to figure out some conversion cables, since it uses pro connections (XLR) rather than the RCA connections that are ubiquitous in home audio.  I *think* AES42 might be signal-compatible with SPDIF as well, though I don't recall if the 722 has that or if it was only the higher end models.

So, lots of things to figure out.

But, if your use case is recording off the radio & making dubs & compilations, I think it fits the bill for that.  I kind of think it's not going to be better than a purpose-built music player though.

[JonG]

I use my 702T to digitize vinyl records and reel to reel tapes if that helps. It’s just more convenient for me than running lines from my computer which is in another room. 

[Scrunch Gumpgins]

I should have clarified that I found out recently by doing a cursory reading of the manual that it can play and record flac and mp3 files, but was unsure if it was possible to upload files from the computer to the recorder.

As of 3 hours ago, I have since done a more thorough read of the manual and found that it is possible, which leaves me with one more question. How does it handle metadata in flac and mp3 files? The manual makes no mention of that. I’d test it myself, but I can’t afford the necessary accessories yet (cf card, battery, etc.)

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

Really?  News to me.

I doubt it will handle metadata well, unless it's in BWF format.  I'd be shocked if it reads ID3 tags.  But post back if you manage to test in person ... I'm curious.

[inspire]

We just learned at school that QLab is the best for Apple computers and VLC player for Windows. In QLab, if you press ESC (named the Escape key), it performs a Fade-Out, which is often necessary.
But otherwise, it's everyone's free choice what to use. What you suggested is probably not the best solution in my opinion—you can't set up the tracks in a comfortable order!? It's not as flexible, etc.

[Scrunch Gumpgins]

Just got done testing my 722 with mp3 and FLAC files. No surprise, it doesn’t read id3 tags. It also doesn’t show more than 99 files in a folder and it shortens long file names and doesn’t scroll. For example: “Born too Late.FLAC” becomes “BORN~1.FLA”. I shouldn’t be surprised since it was never designed for music playback. I’m still happy with it since the playback quality is phenomenal.

[Scrunch Gumpgins]

Upon further testing, it actually does show more than 99 files in a folder. I was just confused because tracks with numbers at the start of file names such as "100" or "101" will sort before ones with "01".

[inspire]

You have interesting experiments, please continue with your observations if you feel like doing so!
I’m asking how you play files — are you using the Wingman App remotely? Can you create playlists, and if so, how? And are you able to scroll through a track easily? I don’t think I can do that with my other portable recorder.

[Scrunch Gumpgins]

I’m not sure how an app would wirelessly connect to the my recorder, it doesn’t have wireless functionality as far as I know. I’ll try testing your suggestions when I have the time.

[inspire]

Sorry for that, I asked just in case from ChatGPT and you are right!

Quote

Unfortunately, the Sound Devices 722 does not support the Wingman APP, as this recorder was released before the Wingman software was developed. The Wingman APP is designed for later models, such as the MixPre-3, MixPre-6, and the MixPre models in the Series II lineup (like the MixPre-6 II).

 

[Scrunch Gumpgins]

I just got done doing additional testing. I can create a playlist of sorts by making a new folder and putting files in it. Although I have to manually change the numbers at the start of the file names to get them to play in the order I want. No shuffle, obviously.

Also, I can scrub through a track by holding down the fast forward and rewind buttons while the track is playing. The audio being made to sound like a tape fast winding makes it a little difficult to tell where you are in the song, however.

 

If you meant how easy it is to scroll through file lists, it’s fast enough for me. Not as easy as on an iPod obviously, but the 722 easily eats the iPod’s lunch when it comes to sound quality.

[Scrunch Gumpgins]

I recently realized that new files are sorted to the very bottom of whatever folder you put them in, and the only way that currently seems to work is to wipe the whole card and start all over again. Very disappointing.