The View From Soundkit

Just how is the location sound business in 2016? A good question, particularly as we write this in the immediate aftermath of the UK decision to leave the EU, says Martyn Richards and Alistair McGhee.

The only thing we can say with any certainty is that all of the equipment we supply will soon be more expensive. That will put even more pressure on our core customers, the hard working yet under appreciated, freelance sound recordists who face ever-increasing demands from producers for more wireless channels and recording tracks coupled with greater reluctance to pay the proper rate for the job let alone for the extra investment in hardware!

The growing tendency to use non-technical staff with minimal training to "do" sound is also a factor – and we hear the results on air every day. Come on producers – value your sound! After all, what you produce is actually radio with pictures!

Okay, rant mode off – for now. On the technology front, we are seeing another step along the path of digitization. Wireless microphone systems are now quickly moving towards the digital domain enabling a direct interface with the mixers and multitrack recorders already in everyday use. And the availability of these multitrack devices has changed the role of the sound recordist to a large extent – we know a chap who mixes orchestras and operas, and he says that nowadays a lot of his work is 'Wav collecting' and that is also true of location sound. Where once it was all about mixing, now the business of wav collection looms large and the mix is often left to the dub. Years ago, the wise sound recordist invested in a Sound Devices 788 (and if they were very wise they bought it from Soundkit!) and relaxed happy in the knowledge that surely 8 ISO tracks and a stereo mix would see them out to retirement – but no! Once the wav collecting genie is out of the bottle there's no stopping him! So now, the state of the art is 16 tracks (12 ISOs) on a Sound Devices 688 – but for how long?

The new generation of digital radio mics enable much greater channel density so will we see portable quad or octo channel receivers in the future?

Despite the trend towards using more and more radio mics there's still plenty of life in the boompole and shotgun markets; Sennheiser, Sanken, Schoeps and now DPA hold the high ground while Rode and Audio Technica deliver lots of bang for buck, but in this area digital still has some way to go. AES42 inputs abound but the percentage of digital mic sales still lags well behind trad analogue.

Timecode is an interesting area. Ambient make superb timecode equipment, good enough for Sound Devices to implement it in their recorders, but British-based Timecode Systems have hit the ground running with gear that offers a huge range of features without overwhelming the budget. And now there is the very affordable Tentacle Sync system; fewer features, yes, but for far fewer pounds.

So, the only things we can be sure of for 2016 are, of course, technological advances which will make it possible to record even more celebrities all talking at the same time on ISO tracks – but at increased cost. And producers need to be aware that inexperienced non-technical staff, may on the face of it, appear to be cheap, but they are not going to be able to cope with all this whizz bang technology and the cost of recovering usable audio in post production. This can easily exceed the cost of using an experienced professional sound recordist in the first place. Oops... must have inadvertently slipped back into rant mode there, but just before we inhibit it again, a brief word about choosing your equipment supplier.

Competition does drive prices down obviously, which may be good for some customers who take a short term view, but professional sound recordists are in the business for a lifetime and therefore have to balance the benefit of a 'hot' fifty quid off deal against the long term gains of expert support, the chance to try before you buy, and honest opinions about gear, built up over decades of experience. Rant mode very definitely off now.

www.soundkit.co.uk

This article is also available to read at BFV online here, page 29.

(JP/LM)