Sony icd-sx712 review – a good, smaller alternative to Zoom H4n for filmmaking / live music audio

Geoff from geoffmobile.com reviews the Sony ICD-SX712 recorder device, which is an amazing, tiny audio recorder that is ideal for recording live music, concerts, location audio / ambient sounds for films, dialog for film, lectures, meetings, making podcasts and personal voice notes.

It has two built in mics that can fold out to a wide stereo pattern (for great stereo imaging for a live band, for example) or fold in for a single direction (for recording an interview for example). It also has an external mic jack (stereo miniplug, powered) that can accommodate a mono lapel mic or a stereo mic. It has MP3 recording mode good for lectures or meetings. Also, for recording music or film work it has excellent uncompressed linear 44.1khz 16 bit wav recording mode, as well as manual recording gain, level monitoring, and headphone jack for monitoring a live recording or playback. Mastering these WAV files has given me excellent results!

Like other Sony devices, the sx712 has a “hold” lock switch that prevents the buttons from being activated while the unit is in your pocket. This is a really handy feature, and guarantees that once you start the unit recording and activate the lock, you won’t accidentally stop the recording by hitting a button.

The device can record on to its internal memory, or a micro SD card (slot on the side). i currently have an 8GB micro SD card on my unit, and this is more than enough for pretty much anyone! :)

My only issue with the unit (which is not that serious) is that the headphone gain does not go extremely loud at its maximum volume, which is fine for listening to mastered audio (as it also functions as an MP3 player), but for monitoring a live recording in manual gain mode, this makes it a bit harder to notice problems in the audio. Possibly this problem could be worked around with a headphone gain booster device.

Technical notes:
The audio of my voice for this video was recorded using the Sony ICD-SX712 using an external lapel mic. The audio was compressed (dynamic compression, not size compression) using a 2:1 compression ratio in Audacity and synced with the video using Pluraleyes from Singular Software. The camera used is a Canon EOS T2i (550d) using the kit lens 18-55 IS, manual white balance, Magic Lantern, Technicolor Cinestyle picture style. For this vlog, the EOS Utility was used to show the live view on my computer monitor from the camera so I could get focus. Edited with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 (legally licensed version, actually 5.5.2). In Premiere I applied RGB Curves to add contrast, and Three-way Color Corrector to add some blue tones to the shadows.

Thanks for watching!
See you next time,
Geoff
geoffmobile.com

Synth jam and practice – Dec 23rd 2011 – by geoffmobile

Geoff from geoffmobile.com does a 30 minute improv / practice / performance on his Korg MS-2000B synthesizer.

Geoff (me) is still a beginner at synthesizer but I think that I discovered some pretty cool sounds, textures, melodies, and harmonies. My musical background is originally from Classical Piano, and then I studied jazz piano for several years. Exploring the possibilities of the synthesizer is really amazing for me – I am discovering so many amazing sounds and new ways to express my musical ideas through this fantastic instrument.

For other music from me, check out the following playlist with my other synth jams:

or my jazz CD on iTunes:

I also have another channel dedicated to my jazz music:
www.youtube.com/geoffpeterstrio

At the end of this synth jam video, watch me learn the song “What Child is This” from memory (by ear) – showing the learning process for me, including how I deal with the mistakes and train my mind to learn the song in a matter of a few minutes. Maybe I’ll make another video with just this song for the New Year! (Check back soon :D)

Technical notes:
Both cameras are Canon EOS Rebel T2i (550D), both using the kit lens 18-55mm IS (with IS disabled, as the tripods are being used). Technicolor Cinestyle Picture style, Magic Lantern Unified. Edited with Adobe Premiere CS5.5 on a Windows 7 Dell PC (Intel i7, 16gb ram, and USB 3.0 for a faster workflow). The total rendering time for this video was around 6.5 hours due to the length of the material, and the color correction rendering (RGB Curves in Premiere) applied to both videos.

Audio was recorded in stereo from the synth into a Motu 8-pre (Firewire) hooked up to an old White Macbook running Logic. No mastering, EQ, or compression was done to the audio (it is right off the synth!). I hope my old macbook keeps running for a while since I am not sure if the great Motu interface will work with a PC (it requires a specific Texas Instruments Firewire chip on the computer which is hard to find nowadays).
www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/8pre

Thanks and see you next time!

Cheers,
Geoff
geoffmobile.com

A Birds in the House Production.
birdsinthehouse.com

Tossed Restaurant Vancouver – food highlights and staff interview

Geoff from geoffmobile.com and his friend KL visit the new location of Tossed restaurant in Vancouver BC Canada.

Located right across from the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) on Hornby Street, Tossed is a great place to try their custom-made salads, crepe wraps, and more.

Tossed Vancouver
769 Hornby St., Vancouver, BC, Canada
restaurant phone: 604-646-2440

restaurant’s web site:

Home

For online ordering (pick up or delivery):
www.tossed.com/locations/vancouver

Find them on facebook:
www.facebook.com/TossedVancouver

Thanks a lot to Tossed and we’ll definitely be back to enjoy more of your delicious food. The salad is a great sized portion, really delicious and satisfying while being healthy at the same time, and the Crepe Wraps are a fantastic idea. I really love crepes, and turning them into a wrap really appeals to me, especially as the crepe is not the focus of the flavor or texture, but rather compliments nicely the tasty ingredients (as shown in the video!).

Produced by Geoff from Geoffmobile.com in cooperation with Birds in the House Productions. (c) 2011.

Please visit them at:
birdsinthehouse.com

Technical notes:
Filmed with a Canon EOS Rebel T2i, using an 18-200mm IS lens. Technicolor Cinestyle picture style, Magic Lantern, Sony ECM-MS907 condenser microphone and on-camera mic. Edited using Adobe Premiere CS5.5 on a Dell PC running Windows 7 (Intel i7 and USB 3.0 for a faster workflow).

Disclosure:
Please note that the restaurant kindly provided us with the food and opportunity to interview the staff for the purposes of creating this video.

View some of my photos from Tossed on Flickr or via the gallery below:

Tossed on Urbanspoon

Todo lists and time management tips from Geoffmobile

Geoff Peters from Vancouver BC Canada talks about his system for organizing his activities outside work, achieving his personal goals, and getting things done.

Geoff’s blog
geoffmobile.com

Toodledo web site that Geoff uses:
toodledo.com

Getting Things Done (GTD):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
www.davidco.com/

Technical notes:
Recorded on a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX7V.

A vignette and color correction were applied in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5.

Audio was recorded from a Lapel mic directly into Audacity via the mic-in port on my Dell Windows PC running Windows 7 (Intel i7 processor and USB 3.0 for a faster workflow). The audio was adjusted using the Compressor and Hard Limiter tools in Audacity, and synchronized with the video using the software Pluraleyes by Singular Software.

Due to the vignette, RGB Curves, and Fast color corrector, this video took 4 hours to render (normally a video of this length would take 20 minutes or less to render).

sushi unboxing.

Unboxing of my new Sushi.

0 GB Ram
0 GB Hard drive
0 Ghz processor.
No keyboard or mouse.
2 trays sushi combo DVD/CDR
1 Dynamite roll
4 Maki rolls
2 Miso Soup with 2MB L2 Cache
2 Soy Sauce Drivers
A mouse would like to munch it, but sorry, access denied!

Sushi Store:
Yamato Sushi
616 Davie St
Vancouver BC Canada
restaurant phone for a good sushi time: (604) 682-5494

Filmed with Sony Cybershot DSC-HX7V and edited with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 on a Dell XPS PC with Intel i7 and USB 3.0 (for a faster workflow).

For more videos from Geoff please visit geoffmobile.com