Roland R-44 Field Recorder and HDLSR Camera “Creates Emotion” For Pennylane Productions

For 10 years strong, Commack, NY-based Pennylane Productions’ award-winning owner/director Adam Forgione has been producing wedding/event films/videos that solidify cherished moments and memories. For soundtracking a myriad of projects on location and in the studio, Forgione relies on the unsurpassed quality that Roland products deliver.

The System
Forgione enlists the Roland R-44, a 4-channel field recorder in a variety of situations. “We use the unit with a wired microphone,” he says “via XLR cable to input (micing house-of-worship speakers, as well as band/DJ speakers).” The R-44 is also used by the Pennylane Productions team to record ambience tracks by way of internal mics, as well as through “direct signal from mixing board into the ¼ input for band/DJ mixes.” A complement of Shure, Sennheiser shot gun and Sanken lavalier mics are on hand. In addition to the audio hardware components, Forgione uses Singular Software PluralEyes, a software program that helps syncronize the audio captured on the R-44 with the video shot on the Canon 5D Mark II. PluralEyes takes the waveform from the recorded audio tracks imedded in the video track from the camera and compares it to the waveform recorded on the R-44.

Application
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II digital single-lense reflex camera, the 17-minute suspense drama “The Key” starring bride and groom, features live dialogue recorded with the R-44, using a Sennheiser ME 66 shot gun mic. Forgione and fleet used the Roland R-09HR portable, high-resolution WAVE/MP3 recorder for voiceover and an ADR to re-track the restaurant scene (for which all voice was lip-synced in the studio.

“Audio is half the film,” reflects Forgione. “You can only get out of it what you put in.” He acknowledges that Roland products have improved what Pennylane Productions does, he states “better preamps and audio circuitry allow for a much cleaner signal. These units also offer better control of input/output, and have high-quality limiters to protect the audio integrity and eliminates the need to baby-sit the signal.”

Forgione, who conducts videography seminars on how to create short form weddings, advanced audio techniques and using DSLR cameras for weddings throughout the year. Forgione says he hasn’t used any other field recorder as durable as the R-44. “It’s small enough,” he adds, “to hang or place near mic stands, and is easily accessible to monitor. It’s well-built and can run for a long time. And I love how light and portable it is.”

Forgione finds the R-44’s menu to be self-explanatory and very easy to use. He attests to the unit’s cost-effectiveness: “I’ve been told by other audio gurus,” he remarks, “that the R-44 quality compares to a $4-5000 field recorder used in television production.” He comments that the Roland R-44 field recorder gives him an overall better audio quality than he used to get with expensive professional video cameras.

“Using Roland field recorders instead of my camera’s audio is like cable modem vs. dialup,” says Forgione. “Roland field recorders are the cleanest I’ve ever used. download as pdf