At NAB 2016, Sound Devices and Dan Dugan Sound Design Inc. announced that the Sound Devices 688 mixer/recorder will be offering Dugan automixing as part of its Firmware Version 3 update, available at no cost to 688 owners.
On the market for less than a year, the 688 was on display at Booths C6040 and C6706, respectively, featuring Dugan’s automatic mic mixing, along with the inclusion of the Dugan Speech System and Sound Devices’ MixAssist.
Getting a great production mix can be challenging in many field applications. Unscripted dialog, multiple characters, and wide-and-tight multi-camera coverage often require the use of wireless lavalier mics and multi-track recording. In these situations, automixers improve intelligibility, reduce noise and reverberation, and maintain consistent overall gain as microphones are turned on and off.
Dugan automixing is widely used in broadcast television applications, in dialog recording for TV and motion picture production, and in house of worship (HOW) applications. It also is a good choice for teleconferencing, video trucks, and theater applications with multiple wireless microphones on stage.
MixAssist from Sound Devices can be used for mixing many speech-specific applications, including reality TV productions; a variety of broadcast TV programs, such as game shows, debates, and panel discussions; wireless multi-mic dialogue recording for TV and motion picture production; sound applications for various corporate needs; HOW capture; and more.
In addition to the Dugan inclusion, the Firmware V. 3 update also enhances Sound Devices’ MixAssist automixing feature with the ability to adjust the amount of attenuation applied to inactive/closed-mic sources. This allows the end user to tweak MixAssist to find the sweet spot between optimal noise reduction and smooth-sounding mix in different production environments.
The 688 features six high-bandwidth mic/line XLR inputs, each complete with phantom power, high-pass filter, analog input limiter and variable pan, plus six additional line-level TA3 inputs for added flexibility in complex productions. All inputs are assignable, pre- or post-fade, to eight-output buses: left/right plus Aux 1-6. The main left/right mix is available to three outputs simultaneously via transformer-balanced XLR and Hirose outputs.
For recording, the 688 offers 16-track, polyphonic, or monophonic broadcast WAV and MP3 file recording to SD and CompactFlash cards. All common sampling rates are supported, including 192 kHz on up to six tracks. The 688 features comprehensive metadata editing, sound report creation, an Ambient timecode generator and reader, a two-second, power-on-to-record ability called QuickBoot, and PowerSafe, a built-in, 10-second power reserve to protect against data loss from inadvertent power loss.
For more information, go to www.sounddevices.com/products/mixers-with-integrated-recorders/688 and www.dandugan.com.
