Recorders

Aaton Cantar-X

Now available for hire from TFS
£100/DAY £400/WEEK
Discounts available for extended hire.

Aaton's legendary ergonomics applied to Digital Audio Recording. Our long commitment to operator comfort, equipment sturdiness, and highest possible performance gave birth to Cantar, the Stradivarius of new generation multi-track digital sound recorders. Cantar offers more than any other machine in terms of operational control: total separation between the fader panel for the hands and the display panel for the eyes.

With Cantar, the recordist has permanent access to real mechanical faders, each devoted to one function only. Five mic and four line rotary analog prefaders, plus six linear digital mixer postfaders! No other machine offers such luxury (some of them have only four all-purpose knobs...).
With Cantar's slanted working surface, the easily reachable faders are positioned in such a way that operator's hands rest on them in a perfectly natural position, whether Cantar is on the shoulder or the cart.
'Cantar Sound' has already become a reference among musicians: they have never seen such a small machine produce such a big sound.

Technical Specifications

Cantar relies upon future-proof industry standards: FireWire (IEEE 1394) communication, FAT32 disk formatting, AES-31 (BWF .wav) audio files.

Media

  • Recording and playback to and from shock resistant and sealed 2.5" internal FireWire connected hard drive. Stores the sound of a complete film production.
  • Simultaneous 8 track recording on internal hard drive or flash memory,and one external FireWire connected HDD. The 8 tracks can be either 6 digital fader controlled tracks plus 2 tracks receiving either the mix-down (bounce), or two AES inputs, or two line inputs.
  • FAT32 formatting allows for up to 127GB, i.e. up to 60 hours depending on number of tracks and sample rate (up to 96K). The removable internal disk is hot pluggable to PC or Mac workstations (Avid, FCP, Sadie, Fairlight, Pyramix Protools etc.)
  • Fast copy to external drives such as HDD and DVD-Ram powered by Cantar through FireWire, or copy to on board CDR/DVD+R burner.
  • Not using a proprietary format nor compressed files, the Cantar internal hard disk is instantly accessible, through FireWire, from the desktop of a PC or Mac laptop: a quick way to make copies to other medias, to insure TCP/IP internet transmission and load Cantar software updates.

Audio Format

  • AES31 BWF Monophonic tracks for instant use by any computer or mixing console with no de-interleaving nor decompressing treatment.
  • Built-in CDR burner delivers ISO 9660 Mono or Poly files (stereo interleaved) for on-the-fly telecine syncing and editing stations. If need be, the Pyramix LRC® 'Lossless Real-time Coding' can be activated to burn the two track mixdown of three hours of multitrack recording on a single CDR.
  • 16 and 24 bit, 44.1Khz to 96.096Khz sampling rates in & out. Built-in sample converters allow for any rates.
  • 'Working day' based session recording. AES31-3 (BWF) audio files with dynamic gain metadata.
  • Management of several projects on the same disk.
  • Files sorted on a day to day basis.
  • Automatic 'unique identifier' file name generator.
  • Circled takes, slate locators, sc&tk Ids etc. are entered from either the Cantar control panel or from a wireless (Bluetooth) connected PDA.
  • Metadata (e.g. scene & take & comments, in and out points etc.) is delivered as ALE lists and embedded in the AES31 description field that Avid v11, Xpress-DV and FCP import (see http://www.aaton.com/products/post/indaw/ flow chart)
  • Audio files are compatible with the Aaton Keylink (telecine code reader with on the fly audio syncing), and the Aaton InDaw (video post syncing station).

Inputs

  • Nine simultaneous analog inputs on XLRs:
    • Five low noise mic preamps with isolation 10dBU very high quality transformers (Zin = 2KOhm each with its own 48V Phantom supply (40mA distributed to the five mics), analog HP filter (60 to 240, -6 and -12 db slope, plus LFA) and analog domain limiter. Two gangable pairs (gain, limiter, and filter).
    • Four analog line inputs, G = +15dB, max level +22dB. Zin = 4.4KOhm.
  • Eight AES inputs, each pair with its own sample rate converter.
  • File Playback from the internal disk, for simultaneous recording and playback (e.g. phone conversations and music videos).

Mixer and outputs

  • All 18 inputs can be mixed and routed to:
    • One to 8 tracks
    • Stereo 1/4" headphone (automatic MS decoding). 65mW (70 Ohm), 140mW (32 Ohm), 560mW (8 Ohm).
    • Two symmetrical analog line (XLR-5).
    • Two asymmetrical analog wireless IFB (mini-jack).
    • Eight AES with sample rate converters

Advances in the field recorder domain

  • all routing and physical configurations are memorized and can be recalled.They can also be stored in a PDA or laptop for instant programation of a new machine.
  • Built-in, dustproof and waterproof six linear fader mixer (patent pending) for comprehensive 'dynamic' control of the two track mixdown. Individual gain values are stored using XML syntax as a guide for the final sound- mixing stage.

Metering

  • Dial shapped modulometers with 1 dB increments with peak, clip and limiter-in-action indicators.
  • User-selectable ballistics.
  • High contrast LCD displays highly visible in direct sunlight. Adjustable back-lighting.
  • Swivelling display panel optimizes visibility for shoulder strap and cart.

Timecode & Chase

  • 1ppm Tcxo reference internal clock, eight hours before re-jamming.
  • Dual Smpte and AatonCode jamming.
  • Timecode i/o through Lemo-5.
  • SMPTE Chase: LTC and video synced AES outputs for on-location syncing/dubbing of digital video tapes. at 23.98 -24 -25 -29.97 -30fps

Power

  • Aaton's operating system insures low power operation: 500mA in test with all inputs activated, ultra-fast cold start-up (<5 sec), and fail-safe disk control.
  • Two identical on board quick release Aaton batteries (4 pin XLR) insure seamless switchover during recording (NP1s can be used too).
  • Depending on the "test-to-record" ratio, one on-board battery set lasts from 10 to 15 hours.

Miscellaneous

  • 1 to 10 second pre-record.
  • Immediate playback of the last recorded file.
  • Play back scrub, in-points markers and slate markers.
  • Softwares and pre-configured routings can be downloaded from Aaton's servers and transmitted to the core OS by FireWire.
  • Reference tone and warning generator.
  • Open mechanical structure with independant Analog, Digital and Display modules for easy maintenance and - 'anti-obsolescence' - upgrades.
  • RS422 for VTR remote control through Sub D-15 serial com.
  • Wireless Bluetooth link to and from Palm PDAs.

Physical

  • Housings made of molded aluminium. Waterproof, dustproof faders.
  • Dimensions: 230 x 310 x 80 mm (9 x 12 x 3.2")
  • Weight 3.2 kg (7.5lbs), without battery.

user manual (pdf)




2004 Television Film Services