With 54 campuses in 26 countries, the SAE Institute offers courses in audio engineering, digital filmmaking, web development, 3D animation and games programming. With a focus on preparing students for a real-world career, the SAE champions the use of high-quality, industry standard equipment as part of the courses – most recently Roland audio field recorders have been chosen by the school’s Amsterdam and Vienna campuses.
The Roland R-44 four-channel field recorder and the R-88 eight-channel recorder and mixer are being used by the digital film departments as part of sound recording lectures and by film students working on their assignments and projects. Applications include location sound design, field recordings, event videography, live musical performance, multi-camera recording and documentaries.
The portability of the R-26 suited it to the videography and digital filmmaking elements of the courses, while the dual stereo mics, six channels of simultaneous recording and a ‘quick and user-friendly’ interface also influenced its selection. The ability of the recorder to capture live performances with simultaneous line and ambient sound ensured met the diverse requirements of the courses.
‘After comparing the R-26 with competitor products at the time of purchase and having collected two years of very good experience with it, the decision was easy,’ says Film Department Head Lecturer, José Biscaya.
Both the R-44 and R-88 have been selected by the SAE Institute in Vienna for use by students enrolled in the Digital Film & Animation Diploma, but are also used by those on the Audio Engineering Diploma Course in the context of coursework and projects. Students are also free to use the recorders for non-commercial independent work. The recorded content is required by the students for film projects, for example, for the sound design elements of their Diploma course.
The R-88 integrates a recorder, mixer and a multichannel audio interface with eight discrete channels of audio recording plus a stereo mix for multichannel location recording or videography. The four-channel R-44 recorder uses SD or large capacity SDHC cards as the storage media. As such, the R-44 at the Vienna campus are used for location sound recording, film sound design or grabbing a stereo mix from a mixing desk for use in various projects. The R-44 is able to capture up to four channels of uncompressed audio with selectable bit depths (16-bit or 24-bit) and sampling frequencies. Onboard effects include a limiting, low-cut filtering, three-band EQ, six-band GEQ, enhancer and de-esser.
‘The R-44 was chosen based on the personal experience of a staff member of the film department and industry feedback when advanced recording devices (besides two-track) were required. The most common reason the R-44 is chosen by students is its capability of recording four tracks at once. Often this is required for recording different sources of sound using stereophonic microphone techniques as well as processing mono signals from vocal recordings. Also the possibility of activating phantom power channel-specifically instead of globally sending phantom power benefits the realisation of different input set-ups’, says Barbara Skoda, Manager of the SAE Institute in Vienna.
More: www.rolandsg.co.uk
