Sound Devices, LLC - Portable, Professional Audio

788T firmware revision 2.00 is now available for download on Sound Devices web site. 2.00 adds several significant functional additions, specifically support for the CL-9, plus: Read the rest of this entry »

Sound Devices regularly receives questions about specific production applications. Below is typical question relating to dual-system sound for music production with a Sound Devices 552: Read the rest of this entry »

Revision 1.1 firmware for the 552 is now available for download. This new revision includes several new features and numerous changes and bug fixes. Firmware updates for the 552 mixer require an SD card. Detailed instructions and complete details on features, changes, and bugs are on the download page. Read the rest of this entry »

To provide the extensive control and flexibility provided by the 552, its high-performance analog circuitry is infused with numerous control types. Digital control of analog signals provides the circuit designer with the power to offer features that analog alone can’t offer. The mix of different control types for gain in the 552 include analog potentiometers, digital potentiometers, analog switches, micro-relays, and physical switches. Each location in the circuit where gain is controlled is described below. Read the rest of this entry »

Revision 2.65 firmware is now available immediate download and installation for the 702, 702T, 722, and 744T. This new revision adds several features and minor bug fixes. New features include new behavior for marking circle takes and extension of iXML metadata to add a new classification of a “No Good” take. Read the rest of this entry »

The 442 mixer, introduced in 2001, brought many powerful capabilities, common to the studio, to field mixing. Features like direct outputs, multiple output connections, solo metering, two-stage gain, and comprehensive limiters changed the expectations of sound mixers everywhere. The introduction of the 552 and the discontinuation of the 442 warrants a look at what is similar and what is different between these two powerful field production mixers. Read the rest of this entry »

High quality limiters are an essential tool for the production sound mixer’s tool kit. As the number of sound sources increases it becomes increasingly difficult to anticipate sudden and excessive changes in the volume levels of multiple sound sources. To prevent input overload, the 788T, like all Sound Devices field production mixers and recorders, has input limiters. Read the rest of this entry »

The introduction of the 552 mixer brings a powerful new feature to field mixers, a high-quality integrated audio recorder. It is unquestionably convenient to have a built-in recorder with a field mixer. With the addition of its recorder, one question that comes up is whether the 552 can be substituted in place of a 7-Series recorder. The short answer is…yes…and no. Read the rest of this entry »

Watch a brief three minute video overview of the new 552 mixer here.

The DE-15 connector on the back panel of the 788T includes several connections, including:

• AES3 inputs 1 through 8
• AES3 outputs 5 and 6
• DC power input (duplicate of the panel-mounted power input connection)
• logic input and output for remote control Read the rest of this entry »

Each input on the 302 mixer has a two-position high-pass filter. High-pass filters allow high frequency signals to pass while attenuating low frequency signals. High pass filters are useful at reducing wind noise, microphone handling noise, and room noise while having little effect on speech reproduction. Read the rest of this entry »

The following tech note describes how to copy individual files from one storage media to another from within the 7-Series Recorders. There are two slightly different methods, one for the 788T/788T-SSD models, and one for 702, 702T, 722, 744T  recorders. Read the rest of this entry »

In early revisions of firmware for the 702, 702T, 722, 744T, and 788T recorders, a drive repair utility was an available menu item. This utility was removed from the recorders in firmware revision 2.61 (702, 702T, 722, and 744T) and 1.51 (788T).  Read the rest of this entry »

The internal drive of the 788T and 788T-SSD can be removed and replaced if the drive is damaged, a different capacity drive is required, or if upgrading to a Solid State Drive (SSD). In typical service conditions Sound Devices recommends hard drive replacement once every three years. Read the rest of this entry »

Firmware revision 1.71 for the 788T/788T-SSD recorders introduces powerful new control over the selection of recording tracks sent to recording media. Any recording track, from the 12 available, can be recorded to any recording media (CompactFlash, internal drive, or external FireWire drive). This means that each of the available recording media can be recorded with unique track configurations. Read the rest of this entry »

There are many advantages to recording to solid-state hard drives (SSD), including improved mechanical robustness, faster transfer speeds, and silent operation. Additionally, the 788T-SSD has 96 GB of additional on-board of storage space versus the 788T. Regarding power consumption, the power consumption (and therefore run time) between the spinning hard drive in the hard drive-equipped 788T and the SSD in the 788T-SSD is nearly identical. Read the rest of this entry »

Reliable, rock-solid recording is the single most important design criteria of Sound Devices recorders. 7-Series recorders are built upon a highly-stable, dedicated hardware and firmware foundation. Recording integrity is further enhanced through a process of periodic, automatic file directory and header updates written to disk during recording. This ensures file integrity in the unlikely event of a total loss of power. Read the rest of this entry »

Firmware revision 2.63 is now available for the 702, 702T, 722, and 744T recorders. This new firmware includes several fixes and numerous additional features. Read the rest of this entry »

788T firmware version 1.65 introduces the ability to record multiple tracks at 88.2 and 96 kHz sampling rates. These rates are typically used in ultra high fidelity recording applications, such as classical music recording, test & measurement applications, or sound FX recording. Read the rest of this entry »

Since our first Sound Note on solid-state hard drives, the technology of SSDs has improved. Drives continue to gain capacity, speed, while their prices continue to drop. This is Moore’s Law at its finest and the trend has no signs of stopping. Read the rest of this entry »