Home brew field audio recorder/editor/encoder

As the old saying goes “necessity is the mother of invention,” and while not designed for audio for video per se, it certainly could lend itself to that application with the addition of a Firewire encoder to live stream video in addition to audio.

The necessity was the need for a field recorder, a method to edit the captured audio, a device that would allow live streaming of the audio back to the studio for broadcast and have the ability to burn to a thumb drive or SD card either raw audio, post audio or both.

The minimum requirements where to have at least two microphone level inputs with switch able phantom power, the ability to edit utilizing Sound Forge or Audacty, an audio CODEC and a WWAN connection.

The options we considered where;

A Tascam DR series device to record audio.

A rugged laptop to edit the audio on.

An IP CODEC to stream the audio, such as a COMREX or Tieline.

A method to send the content wirelessly back to the studio in real time.

And it must be BO (board op) proof, in other words KISS.

Rather than cobble all of the above devices together I decided to go with was an Itronix Go-Book III connected to a USB audio encoder, utilizing Windows Media Encoder as the CODEC and T-Mobile PCMCIA WWAN card for the up-link.

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How did you find the reliability of the ART mic preamp to be? I have used one and found it VERY susceptible to static discharge and would crash the PC it was connected to.

Very interesting Wayne. Nicely "cobbled" together!

And this is why people in Free Societies love the internet! All we have to do is search a little, sift through the info and all the answers are out there!

So, how did it work for you guys? I too have questions about the ART USB Dual Pre. That is usually the weakest link in that sort of chain.

joeblack2022 wrote in post #13903773
How did you find the reliability of the ART mic preamp to be? I have used one and found it VERY susceptible to static discharge and would crash the PC it was connected to.

We have run the system under test for a couple of days without a lockup, but with USB and a PC all it takes a hiccup to create a problem.

I do thank you for the info, I will keep on trying to get it to screw up before we fully deploy this rig.

You do realize though, by "rule," it will work perfectly on the bench, but as soon as we go live from the field that’s when it will lock-up, electronic equipment always works that way.

FWIW I don’t know enough about USB to say one way or the other, but the ART unit is USB 1.1 and the rear USB port on the Go-Book is as well, so maybe that is working to my benefit.

Wayne

In my neck of the woods it's really dry so static buildup is just part of everyday living.

I more or less solved the issue by placing the preamp on a static discharge mat and keeping it there!

joeblack2022 wrote in post #13909791
In my neck of the woods it's really dry so static buildup is just part of everyday living.

Down here in the tropics we have just the exact opposite, static is usually not a problem, but condensation is when equipment is moved from an air conditioned studio of vehicle is and it can be distructive.

Wayne