DA88 Audio capture with Blackmagic HD Extreme

[Baz Leffler]

[Bob Zelin] “everyone here is giving you the wrong answer.”

Hey Bob – did you actually READ the original post? He wasn’t asking questions about ‘technique’… ala…

[Steve Kirkham] “Is it possible to somehow hook up a DA88 deck to my Blackmagic HD Extreme Card and capture the audio? “

If he asked a question of technique he would have gotten a totally different answer. He already decided his technique … ala …

[Steve Kirkham] “We have a 5.1 surround sound sent to us on DA88 and to get it capture to WAV/AIF files by a facilities house seems quite expensive… so thought i could get a cheap DA 88 player from eBay and maybe latch it up to my capture card and do it that way… “

He already knew of the ‘out sourcing technique’ so neither I nor Luke covered it. So how can “everyone here be giving him the wrong answer”?

Incidently Steve, Bobs suggestion IS going to cost you more than a second hand DA88 in monetry terms but it could cost you a lot more in time and associated issues.

[Steve Kirkham] “So if they ‘dumped’ to Digibeta that would carry all the audio right? “

Digibeta can only do 4 channels at a time (unless you use dolbyE at both ends) so it will require 2 passes and 2 tapes.

A cheaper way would be to get someone with a DA88 to dump to wave/aiff files. We do that all the time here so it shouldn’t be hard to find someone in your area to do it.

Baz

What would I do without the ‘UNDO’ button!!!!

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Bob,

That sounds like sound advice (sorry I couldn’t help it!). As Baz mentioned, decks like the Digibeta and HDCAM will only support up to 4 audio tracks so Steve might need to use a D5 (which supports 8 channels) if he wants all 6 channels on tape. Of course the HDCAM SR supports up to 12 channels but would be more expensive to use.

Thanks for introducing another approach to Steve’s workflow. It’s good to consider completely different ways of approaching the same problem.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Michael Gissing]

Firstly ask the audio facility that did the mix to supply wav or aif files. I have been trying for the past few years to have deliverables changed from DA-88 tape to files, because that’s what we all use anyway. I now refuse to supply DA-88.

Forget converting to SDI for recapture and forget dubbing to video tape. None of those options makes sense. If files are not available get an audio facility to dub the tape to files. DA-88 machines are rubbish. I spent more on the maintenance of my machine than I ever made in dubs.

[Steve Kirkham]

Trust me that’s the first thing we ask for but unfortunately lots of producers still lag behind the times… and if you ask them to transfer the DA88’s to files they charge a fortune.

In the end we will just use a facilities house to capture for us – not enough of this kind of work to warrant a purchase. Thanks everyone for their help and advise

Steve Kirkham
Tree Frog Communication