Watson, who is well used to recording in some of the planet's harshest environments, commented: "The first time I used the ARES-PII was straight out of the box at the La Selva Tropical Studies centre - at 100% humidity. I just switched it on, hit record and got some wild tracks down straight away. I realized how easy it was, even through its neoprene case and decided to use it as my main recorder. Also, because it's solid state, I didn't have to pack it with silica gel to absorb moisture. Afterwards I plugged the card straight into my Mac Powerbook, backed up to my hard drive and made an instant CDR for the rushes."
After several months organizing the technology for his one-off ant recordings, Watson wasn't about to gamble on the results: "I had fixed up a loan of some unique transducers from a university in the US - which took some persuading. The general idea is that they pick up the movement of individual air molecules, as near field sound, and I think the resulting recordings are the first of their kind to be made for broadcast purposes. After my initial tests I realized that the ARES-PII was more than up to it."
The next assignment was at 0% humidity at or above 95° F / 35° C in the Mojave Desert. Watson reports that his ARES-PII continued to work well, silently recording the tiny communications of bees nesting under the sands. "It's completely liberating to have such a high quality, lightweight, one-hand operated recorder. It's clearly built to Nagra's track record specification and no moving parts means no noise to worry about. I haven't taken such a big step forward in portability since getting my mono, analogue Nagra SN 15 years ago; the big difference is that this time it's stereo, linear PCM, so there's no compromise in sound quality."
Other benefits became apparent to Watson during the gruelling 10-day trip, including confirmation that a single overnight battery charge was capable of lasting him several days in the field. The instant file transfer capability has also decimated copying time and Watson states that he will be using his ARES-PII for a forthcoming series of 'as-live' broadcasts from around the UK - in a production with turnround times made possible only through his use of instant file transfer and Broadcast Wave format.
(Lee Baldock)
