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Shoot Review: HHB DRM85 FlashMic

Apr 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Reviewer: Tom Patrick McAuliffe

Portable microphone doubles as a digital recorder.

A dedicated high-quality digital audio recorder is a great tool for expanding your audio-capture capabilities. You can record everything from ambient environmental audio to interviews intended for DVD extras or podcasts. The captured audio must then be digitized and brought into your computer for use under B-roll video footage. We've talked about some of these portable digital audio recording solutions in the past (see my review of the Sony PCM-D1 at digitalcontentproducer.com/
fieldprod/revfeat/sony_pcmd). The challenge with some of these products, however, is their size and/or the awkward computer access to the recorded content.

United Kingdom-based HHB — which also makes the outstanding eight-channel 24-bit/96kHz Portadrive hard drive recorder — has created a product intended to solve these problems. Claimed to be “the world's first professional digital recording microphone,” the HHB DRM85 FlashMic is an all-in-one solution for capturing great sound and, perhaps more importantly, getting it in to your NLE application easily for postproduction.

The FlashMic looks like just another wireless mic, but it's actually two products in one: a high-quality, omnidirectional condenser microphone made by Sennheiser and an internal digital audio recorder. HHB offers two FlashMic models: one omnidirectional (DRM85) and another with a cardioid pickup pattern (DRM85-C). With 1GB of flash memory, this recording microphone is able to capture an incredible 18 hours of audio (of course, at 128kbps, you probably won't be able to use the audio in a production, so you'll have to trade some hours for bit rate).

The FlashMic records industry-standard PCM WAV or MP2 files. Popular in broadcast applications, the MP2 format uses less data compression and processor power than MP3. Short for MPEG-1 Layer 2, MP2 is the native audio format captured in an HDV stream. The FlashMic records MP2 at 48kHz for 12 hours and 15 minutes of recording (192kbps), 44.1kHz for 14 hours and 40 minutes (160kbps), and 32kHz for 18 hours and 25 minutes (128kbps). It also records to PCM WAV at the same sample rates, but record time for the 1GB card ranges from only three hours to four-and-a-half hours for this lossless format.

The USB port on the end of the mic allows you easy hook up to your computer and provides you with instant access to files (PC or Mac). The microphone itself operates on two AA batteries, which can last up to six hours depending on usage. The product comes with a mic stand/holder, USB cable, FlashMic Manager software CD, and a heavy nylon carrying pouch.

The minute I received the DRM85 FlashMic, I dropped by the HHB website to check for any driver or software updates, and sure enough, one was available. Users can update free of charge to what HHB calls the FlashMic V4.0 firmware update. For both Windows XP and Mac OS X, the update to the FlashMic Manager software features a new audio clip filing system and a power safe feature that saves the recorded audio files even if the batteries go dead or are removed.

FlashMic in the field

I was looking forward to a fun-filled weekend of reading product manuals (the FlashMic's docs are better than average). Out of the blue, the phone rang. My buddy, also a independent video producer, had just gotten a call — his original videographer for a project had a medical emergency and couldn't do a shoot the very next day. It was simple enough: Just record some footage of a local charity event to raise money for a new cancer center, and then use the footage for video news releases and maybe a new local cable TV show called Out & About.

Only one problem: There would be about a dozen things happening in the space of an hour and we had only one HDV camera. I told him about the DRM85 FlashMic, and after a quick pre-shoot huddle, we decided that while he shot the main event, I would be charged with the task of picking up foley audio (gathering background sound on location) and recording some interviews after event participants were offstage.

It was almost like having two cameras instead of one. And, just like with a camera, I was able to monitor the audio via the headphone preamplifier's 1/8in. input. The easy-to-read LCD window facilitates other types of monitoring because it indicates sound level, mic status, battery level, etc.

One of the coolest features of the DRM85 is its 10-second pre-recording buffer. This constantly records audio in 10-second bites, so that if you hit the record button too late, the mic still captures the sound going back 10 seconds. You'll never miss a quotable quote again! I was also able to add cue points and markers on the fly, which allowed me to go to those audio highlights immediately when we hit the edit suite. Big time-saver.

The editing phase

In the editing phase, I plugged the DRM85 into the USB port of my computer, and it appeared as any other storage device. The sound files were available immediately, and each one was automatically named with its own “timestamp” — a sort of pseudo-timecode (a SMPTE timecode option would be nice). I could then just drag and drop files into my editing application (I tested this with Adobe Premiere Pro on the PC and iMovie 5 HD on the Mac), or even just email the file to a member of the production team.

You don't need the included software for editing, of course, but I thought it was great. The encoded files transfer at up to 90X realtime, depending on compression.

We laid the audio of interviews of people saying how important the new cancer center would be over B-roll footage of the center, hospital, patients, and careworkers. The client was pleased, and my buddy has put the FlashMic on his to-buy list. Being able to capture audio like this and quickly dump it to a computer for voiceover or second audio-under-video footage is enough to justify the cost of the DRM85.

High-end test

I put the FlashMic Manager software to the test in a high-end situation, recording some live CD-quality audio of my classic-rock band. The included software allows FlashMic functions to be configured on a computer and stored in nine presets that are then downloaded to non-volatile memory in the FlashMic via its USB port.

The FlashMic only records in higher-than-CD standard 16-bit/48kHz audio resolution (but not the even higher-resolution 24-bit/96kHz, which is essential in DVD-audio recording). The mic is able to record up to three hours and 15 minutes of CD-quality 44.1kHz audio to PCM WAV format, and the audio is ready to burn to CD immediately. I wish the FlashMic offered 24-bit audio recording, which I've used in the past. But when I listened to the 16-bit audio recorded by the FlashMic, the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit was certainly not obvious.

Perhaps the quality of the Sennheiser mic was a factor. With a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz and less-than-0.1-percent total harmonic distortion, the music I recorded via the high-quality mic element of the DRM85 sounded great. The AGC (automatic gain control) and HPF (high-pass filter) were both very handy, and so was being able to use the DRM85 FlashMic as just another external mic for a camera via the 1/8in. audio out (which is also used for headphones).

There's lots to love here, and the FlashMic offers something for content creators as diverse as audio podcasters, video professionals, and broadcast news teams (it's used by the BBC, for example). Its appeal is justified and pretty obvious: high-quality microphone element, single-button-push operation, easy USB computer interface, quick access to audio files, and ultra-long recording times. Despite a higher cost than other similar solutions — such as such as the Sony PCM-D1 or Samson Zoom H4 — its form factor, ease of use, and software flexibility make the HHB DRM85 FlashMic a real contender for your hard-earned dollars.

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bottomline

Company: HHB
www.hhb.co.uk

Product: DRM85 FlashMic

Assets: Portable mic and recorder in one unit, solid software, easy USB connection to a computer.

Caveats: Some applications may require a higher-quality microphone.

Demographic: Video professionals looking for easy foley and B-roll audio capture, podcasters.

PRICE: $1,049

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© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.