When it comes to capturing audio, the ability to do so efficiently and discreetly often goes hand in hand. Such is the case for filmmaker, writer / director Krystal Dawn. Hence, the ability to hide the mics and transmitters from the camera are often essential—without compromising audio quality. To achieve this challenging function, Dawn relies on the DR-10L and Portacapture X8 portable field recorders from TASCAM.
Spanning a wide range of activities that encompass productions such as the 94th Academy Awards and the 53rd NAACP Awards, podcasts, short film production, and social media, Dawn has an impressive list of credits. Additionally, she has also worked as a director’s assistant on everything from Netflix features to Playdoh commercials. Currently, she is developing an iOS and Android gaming app and is also planning to include his DR-10L in the production of those projects. She discussed her fondness for her TASCAM field recorders.
“I generally use the DR-10L for dialogue,” Dawn reports. “It’s super helpful with drone shots on my short films or when I’m filming long shots and need to mic the talent. The audio is always crisp and clear—thanks to its 24-bit / 48kHz resolution. Equally important, with its compact form factor, the unit can easily be hidden, which makes it an extremely useful solution for miking the talent.”
While the TV industry experienced a workers strike last year that seriously impeded everything from people’s work schedules to the release of new shows, Dawn was fortunate to have several ongoing projects to keep her working. “Luckily, the industry is starting to boom once again,” she says, “so it’s all coming back. So far, I’ve used the DR-10L on multiple smaller social media projects plus several creative standalone jobs that the strike gave many creatives an opportunity to work on. In the year that I’ve had the DR-10L, it has proven to be rock solid in terms of reliability and the audio quality it delivers is exceptional.”
When queried about those DR-10L features that she finds most valuable to her manner of working, Dawn offered the following thoughts. “Being an indie filmmaker means you generally don’t have access to the resources that bigger budget projects have access to,” she explained. “Having something compact, portable, and with a friendly user interface goes a long way in my line of work. The controls are easy to navigate, and the overall quality is every bit on par with a lot of more expensive recorders. The DR-10L provides a lot of bang for your buck and that’s always a crucial consideration for indie filmmaking.”
“Secondly,” she added, “the DR-10L provides a good range of connectivity options. Compared to other recording devices at the same price point, the DR-10L is more versatile. On podcasts, this is super useful when I need to mic more than two guests. The line in and line out to the camera is also something I don’t often see on other devices. When filming shots on my gimbal, having an input to the camera allows for an easier syncing process in post-production and provides backup audio in most circumstances.”
Dawn was also very complimentary of her Portcapture X8’s ease of operstion, “The learning curve wasn’t steep at all. Having smaller crews—and smaller budgets—means quite often, one’s roles are shifted. It’s easy to show a less experienced on-set crew member the ropes of how to use the device, in cases where our sound guy falls ill or is unavailable.”
For many types of electronic audio equipment, questions arise. Thus, the ability to get responsive and capable technical support is crucial. Dawn shared her experience in this area, “Surprisingly, I have never reached out to TASCAM’s support services. A quick YouTube search of TASCAM’s support videos answered most questions. The tutorials on the company’s official YouTube site do a great job of walking a new user through the setup process and features of the device. The videos are comprehensive and thorough. And as mentioned previously, the user interface is amazingly user-friendly.”
Before turning her focus back to the business of the day, Dawn offered these parting comments regarding her experience with her TASCASM Portacapture X8 and DR-10L, “With studio quality audio performance and an extremely compact and easy-to-hide form factor, both the Portacapture X8 and DR-10L are game changers. It’s great being able to use both microSD and microSDHC cards, so you can capture a lot of high-quality audio. Equally impressive is the fact that the recorders provide roughly 10 hours of operation from a single AAA battery. With this capability, long field sessions aren’t an issue. After a year of using the product, I am very satisfied with the overall experience.”
To learn more about Krystal Dawn, visit https://www.soloartsfilms.com/.
