Freesound Forums
SFX sound recording in the field
Started December 20th, 2006 · 9 replies · Latest reply by Halleck 17 years, 10 months ago
I 'm looking for a kit to record sounds. I want it to be
versatile in order to record ambient and 'spot' FX like Foley, loud or
soft, mono and stereo. My budget is around 2000-3000 US Dollars, and I
was wondering if you have any mics and recorder to recommend. I suppose we need at
least 2 different microphones in order to be able to record many
different kind of sounds. I am thinking of either getting the Audio Technica AT-4073 or the
more expensive MKH-60 by Senheiser, they are both shotgun mics. For a
Stereo mic we were looking at the relatively cheap NT4, although I
am not sure. For a recorder I was thinking about the M-Audio
Microtrack 24/9, mainly because of its low price... but to compensate for the poor preamps I'd like to get the Core Sound mic2496 and go digitally into this unit.
Do you know any of these? Do you recommend them?
Martin_sound
running a lousy recorder with an outboard preamp is a right PITA in the field. I run a HiMD but to use my MKH30/40 I have to use a outboard phantom power unit. It's a drag and I keep thinking i need to get a Sound Devices or a Nagra BB+ 
The Microtrack only give 30V on phantom and preamps are noisy as hell. You could consider the usual suspects - Tascam HD-P2, Fostex FR2LE, Marantz PMD660 as a step up, but you only get really good mic preamps if you get up to the SD and Nagra BB+ levels. Or as you propose use a a field mixer.
If you want low cost low noise using mics like the Sennheiser MKH series you can do worse than a HiMD + phantom unit which will give you better performance off the bat than the Microtrack - see
http://www.wildlife-sound.org/equipment/himd/index.html
and the media are cheap ($5/Gb) compared to CF cards, so you can go for long field expeditions without needing to dump to a computer or spend a fortune in CF cards.
Spending your $$ mainly on the mics as you propose is the way to go - signal quality once lost can never be regained.... Adding a MKH30 fig 8 to your MKH60 will give you MS stereo on that rig, and you could add a MKH40 for the wider soundfields. The MKH series is lovely and quiet and doesn't go into a hissy fit when it gets damp because ofthe RF pickup method.
You may also consider the Sennheiser K6's. Noisier than MKH but nice, and considerably cheaper. Battery or phantom powered, at your choice. I really love these mics, specially because they are very powerful and have perfect isolation. No handling noise whatsoever!
I tried the NT4 for stereo field recordings, no success and I wouldn't recommend it. Then I went mid-side stereo: a Senn K6 with a shotgun capsule (ME66), plus a figure-8 AKG . The mics go into a Shure FP24 preamp/mixer, which is expensive but hard as a rock (gives 48 V phantom if you need). Then I send the output to either a minidisc, an iRiver H120, or whatever is at hand. As you see my strategy was to dedicate to the recorder a small as possible portion of my budget.
Lastly, don't forget to save some money for a good windscreen! If you get the K6 instead of the MKH you might get a zeppelin, think about it... Hope this helps
cheers
Martin_Sound
I 'm looking for a kit to record sounds. I want it to be
versatile in order to record ambient and 'spot' FX like Foley, loud or
soft, mono and stereo. My budget is around 2000-3000 US Dollars, and I
was wondering if you have any mics and recorder to recommend. I suppose we need at
least 2 different microphones in order to be able to record many
different kind of sounds. I am thinking of either getting the Audio Technica AT-4073 or the
more expensive MKH-60 by Senheiser, they are both shotgun mics. For a
Stereo mic we were looking at the relatively cheap NT4, although I
am not sure. For a recorder I was thinking about the M-Audio
Microtrack 24/9, mainly because of its low price... but to compensate for the poor preamps I'd like to get the Core Sound mic2496 and go digitally into this unit.Do you know any of these? Do you recommend them?
Martin_sound
Although I am a big fan of Core Sound, I have to say that the combination Microtrack-Mic2496 appears to be a good combination but there is a major problem. When you you go digital out using spdif into the mic2496, you loose your headphone output on the microtrack and you don't have one on the Mic2496, so you can't ear what you record... I contacted M-Audio, it seemed a hardware problem. Len at Core-sound did not seem interested at the moment to incorporate a headphone amp on is unit. I sent mine back when I discovered the problem. No easy solution. Maybe there new 4mic could solve the problem.
Regarding microphones, have you considered the Core Sound High End Binaurals... they are very nice, great response, great dynamic, very interesting...
I am still looking for a unit similar to what you are looking for
Feel free to ask more specific questions...
So the headphone stops working when I plug something into the spdif? Seems like a real nasty problem. I need to rethink.
Erdie, how do you power the RME box? Could not see how you did it. Seems like a nice setup for quality anyway, maybe not for robustness.
MS
Martin_SoundErdie, how do you power the RME box? Could not see how you did it. Seems like a nice setup for quality anyway, maybe not for robustness.
MS
The RME box is powered by the plumbum cell where it is fixed on the top. You can see it at the pic with number 2. I think this solution is good in terms of price quality relation. I am still looking for a device to carry it easily.
-Erdie
On your budget Martin Sound, then you should get something like these...
Sound Devices
Fostex
Marantz
The lowish-rent solution, that you don't appear to need is buy something like the Sound Devices MixPre
and this will turn any consumer digital recorder (with a line-level input and dencent A/D) into a pro quality solution. For example the MixPre and Edirol R-09 in 24 bit mide being fed a line-level signal are an amazing combination.
However in your price bracket get a dedicated field recorder.
Other stuff...
http://taperssection.com/index.php
Has a large community of people working with and recording live sound, although it's heavily biased toward recording concerts. Still worth a visit.
NT4 is an excellent mic. The NT5, NT55 and NT6 all use interchangable capsules BTW and several patterns are available. However, the NT4 doesn't come with low-cut filter so make sure your mic-preamp (in the field recorder or on the mic preamp has one). The nice thing about the NT4 is setup is quick Although a pair of NT5s (sold in matched pairs) would be more flexible from a stereo recording point of view as you are not limited to the XY arrangement.
digifish
I'm only just beginning to dip my toes into the realm of hi-fi recording, but I can vouch for the Fostex FR-2 which is a standard at my college for student films, although the production mixer I was working for says it devours battery power, so an external power source is desirable.