Readers have complained that we’re doing so much mobile music coverage that it’s hard to wade through it, specifically in regards to the iPhone. I’ll be consolidating that news into a more manageable weekly post. The goal is to make this information more manageable both to those who love mobile music making, and those who don’t. Unfortunately, in my haste to do so, I got something wrong, and I think it deserves a separate correction.

Update: The iDrum mobile app available today will indeed allow you to use your own samples and exchange files with your desktop computer. The original story has been updated:

iPhone News: iDrum, BtBx In; Mixtikl Out Citing Apple Rules

That’s important, because the fundamental issue that determines whether a handheld music app is a toy or something that matters to your music is workflow. If you can complete something musically meaningful on a handheld device, or you can work on something related to what you’re doing on your desktop/laptop computer, then obviously, it’s useful, and that’s what we care about on CDM.

Over a hundred years ago, Thomas Edison first attempted to record sound and moving image in synchronization (a task that still challenges undergrad film students). The results were believed lost for many years, until the sound was recovered on a broken cylinder. Edison’s original experiment actually failed, but in the hands of legendary film and sound editor Walter Murch, these 17 seconds of film history are now restored realized more perfectly than even Edison could:

1895 Edison “Kinetophone” Test, shot by William Dickson [Internet Archive]

Now we’re talking. Tascam’s upcoming HD-P2 is finally a portable Compact Flash recorder that doesn’t skimp on pro features. Incredibly, its street price will be under US$1000, but the preliminary specs read like a device costing a lot more, and by providing timecode input on a cheap device, it’s an indie filmmaker’s dream recorder:

Up to 192 kHz / 24-bit

Absolutely silent (no transport noise, cough, DAT!), latched CF slot (so it doesn’t pop out accidentally)

Broadcast WAVE recording

FireWire for connecting to PC/MAC for instant file access

Data loss protection (continually re-saves data)

XLR mic inputs with phantom power and analog peak limiting

Unbalanced RCA I/O plus S/PDIF digital I/O

Built-in mic and speaker

Runs on AA batteries for 5.5 hours (battery pack could be an accessory in the future, a la the DA-P1)

Timecode input, video clock input, input chasing

Let’s focus on that last one for a moment: a $900 street recorder will have timecode input for sync in video shoots. That’s something even most DAT recorders don’t have. Edirol’s R-4 recorder is great, and has a 40GB hard drive instead of a CF slot, but it costs $600-700 more and lacks sync.

Timecode in has never been this cheap before. People might actually start syncing their audio recordings. Wow.

I got a chance to handle this box at AES, and quite simply, it’s beautiful. It’s got the same solid, crisp feel as Tascam’s DA-P1 portable DAT I’ve used a zillion times. It’s simple and inexpensive enough that amateurs and education will pick it up, but with serious enough features that it could become a hallmark of video shoots. Bravo, Tascam.

Tascam HD-P2 Recorder [Product Info]

Portable digital recording is great — import is as simple as dragging files to your hard drive, they’re mobile, they’re non-linear, and they write to increasingly cheap storage formats like CompactFlash. But what about synchronization for video applications? I have found one portable field recorder that’s CompactFlash-based, records up to 192kHz, and optionally can be configured with a SMPTE timecode reader/generator:

Fostex FR-2 CF field recorder

This is definitely a “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it situation,” but boy, check those specs and you’ll see what a CF recorder should be.

Video pros / post production gurus out there: what are you using? Seen anyone recording audio on synced field recorders yet?

For me, the solution has been just to use a standard consumer recorder and sync manually — though I definitely don’t trust those cheap MiniDisc recorders.