TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
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Sound Devices 664 Field Production Mixer
nnn PORTABLE AUDIO MIXER
Jerry Ibbotson looks at this flagship field mixer and location recorder and finds that it meets Sound Devices’ usual high standards for audio quality.
“There is none of the dreaded preamp hiss, just crystal
I’VE GOT an image in my mind right now of someone standing next to a ring- binding machine. You know what I mean – the fiendish looking devices with pointy teeth that wrap plastic spines around documents. The reason for this obscure day dream is that I’m sitting with the user manual for the Sound Devices 664 on my knee and it’s ring bound. Someone at Sound Devices HQ (in the States presumably) has the job of feeding pages into the ring binder to produce these documents. I wonder who that is? This isn’t mocking. It’s a
sign of the high regard in which I hold the products that come from the guys in Wisconsin. You can feel how handmade they are, how much care is taken in putting them together. These are serious audio recorders built by humans, not machines. The 664 is a field mixer
and location recorder and the firm’s flagship. It’s larger than the last Sound Devices machine I worked with – the 788T – and has one of the biggest footprints of any recorder I’ve used recently. Its power and feature set is huge and I can only hope to give a flavour of what it’s capable of. The overall construction of
the 664 has to be mentioned. In keeping with previous Sound Devices hardware, it feels like it has been hewn from a solid block of steel. I
44 October 2013
love the design and execution of the fader dials that fit perfectly between forefinger and thumb. The 664 has six XLR
mic/line inputs with preamps and can record up to 10 tracks (with the optional CL6 expander you can have 12 inputs and 16 recordable tracks), each of which you can name. On the front panel are
hardware controls for each of the six inputs. There’s a gain dial, input fader, pan and high-pass filter control. There’s also a pre-fade and level switch for each channel. From here you can solo any input at any time.
RIGHT SELECTION Grouped around the bright colour screen is a clutch of selectors for settings and access to the machine’s menus. At first glance I was slightly intimidated by the various twist-dials and flick switches but if you use one of these on a regular basis it should become second nature. All playback and record/stop functions are done via a single, floating joystick- style controller. The output options are
equally impressive. On the right-hand side of the 664’s body are two balanced XLR connectors, numerous TA3 connectors, two 10-pin Hirose outputs, and even a 3.5mm minijack. These outputs are capable of being sent to three cameras
simultaneously. You can alter the parameters of every output and even set up personal headphone mixes. Under a hinged flap are the
slots for SD and Compact Flash cards. The 664 can record to both cards at the same time, in different formats if necessary. Speaking of which: the 664 can record in Broadcast .Wav and .mp3 file formats. The maximum sample rate is 48K which I found surprising. I was expecting 96K as that’s becoming more and more commonplace (even if in real world terms it’s often overkill).
ON TIME The 664 is clearly aimed at film and TV and as such has an impressive arsenal of time code weaponry. It’s capable of holding frame-accurate time code for two hours between battery changes thanks to a separate built-in rechargeable TC battery. It uses the same time code system as the 788T and offers an impressive array of code formats. There are also Word Clock ins and outs. Some of the smaller design
touches are hugely impressive. Like the Com Send and RTN facility that lets you route a separate audio feed to your boom operator (so they can hear the audio their mic is picking up). This automatically dips when the 664’s Slate function is used, so the boom op can hear the
clean sound.” Jerry Ibbotson
machine operator naming the take. You can also add written
notes to each take to remind you of such things as background noise or technical problems you encountered. Recurring notes can be saved as presets so you don’t have to write them out each time with the 664’s onscreen keyboard (or by plugging a USB keyboard into the side of the machine). If you know that there’s a lot of wind noise, for example, you can save Wind Noise as a preset note and apply it to each take. I’ve really only skimmed
the surface of the features this machine has to offer. The key thing though, above all its tricks, is the sound quality. That is probably what Sound Devices machinery is most well known for – stunning audio. There is none of the dreaded preamp hiss, just crystal clean sound. I’ve recently had a conversation with a representative of a global audio company who
INFORMATION Feature Set
• Six input channels and four output busses • All inputs and outputs are recordable to both Compact Flash and SD cards
• With the mixer’s built-in Ambient time code generator, multiple devices can operate in synchronisation
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admitted that Sound Devices set the benchmark in preamp quality and the 664 lives up to this reputation. The sound quality is pristine. To record you first arm the appropriate tracks by navigating to them on the screen. Then the joystick knob is flicked upwards and you’re away. The result is every bit as good as you would imagine from a Sound Devices machine. It’s a sign of the company’s reputation that little further detail is required. And altering gain, roll-off and other parameters on the fly is a doddle, thanks to the great controls, which recess into the front fascia when not needed. You’ll use a Sound Devices
664 if you are a serious audio professional. I personally find the menu system rather complex but for a production sound engineer, using this machine all day every day, it would quickly become second nature. The audio quality, build, and overall design are outstanding. Ring Binder person, I salute you.
THE REVIEWER JERRY IBBOTSON has worked in professional audio for more than 20 years, first as a BBC radio journalist and then as a sound designer in the games industry, working on more than 30 titles. He’s now a freelance audio producer and writer.
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