Freesound Forums

Hi,
I´m a photgrapher and video maker. Because I want to record field sound to enhance slides shows and videos I´m looking for a field recorder. Here is what I´m looking for:
1.Because I travel in the mountains it has to be as light and compact as possible
2. Robust
3. Digital
4. Good built in mike as well as socket for external mike
5. It can´t cost the world (cheap skate - I know)

Thanx I appreciate suggestions!
Cheers

CEK
Hi,
I´m a photgrapher and video maker. Because I want to record field sound to enhance slides shows and videos I´m looking for a field recorder. Here is what I´m looking for:
1.Because I travel in the mountains it has to be as light and compact as possible
2. Robust
3. Digital
4. Good built in mike as well as socket for external mike
5. It can´t cost the world (cheap skate - I know)

Thanx I appreciate suggestions!
Cheers

Probably a Marantz PMD 660...

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/shop_image/uploads/Image/PMD660_Hand.jpg

Or smaller and lighter, Edirol R09HR

digifish

If it is compact enough, i would like to recommend Fostex FR2LE. Good Micpre quality, IMHO better than the Marantz. Thats what i have heard from someone who has tested both. Furthermore the battery life is very long if you use a racing pack - about 5 hours.

Not an easy decission nowadays, visit http://www.solidstatesound.co.uk/ and decide for yourself (ha ha!)

Seriously, I think the Zoom H2 would suffice. But seeing the PMD 660 recommended is funny, digifish. I even thought you were kidding...

D

OK, right thanks for the answers! I´ll check your suggestions out.
Cheers

The Marantz pre-amps are one of the noisiest around and from others experiences I think the Marantz is also not the best built / most reliable either.

The Fostex FR2-LE is a cracking field recorder for the money and the pre amps are pretty quiet. Good display and function buttons well laid out. Downside would be that the internal mics are totally rubbish this is a device to be used with external mics - I mainly use a Rode NT4 stereo mic with it. Downside in that you format the CF card for the recording quality e.g. 44.1Khz 16bit and to change the settings you have to reformat the card.

Sound wise it will beat both the Edirol and Olympus I make mention of below.

In the more compact little recording devices area the Sony PCM-D50 I think is universally agreed as the best small form-factor recorder. I have not personally tried one of these so can't give user feel for it, it also sits at the top of the small form factor price range.

Two recorders I do use as well as the Fostex are:

Edirol R09-HR. Great little recorder, very intuitive to use recorder, good sound from built in mics, internal mics handle wind noise well, upto 96Khz 24bit recoding. Only a mini jack connector for external mics which means that if you use an external decent mic you will need an XLR to mini jack cable which puts a lot of stress on the recorders connection I find.

Olympus LS-10. This is a new purchase but so far, great built quality more in the league of the Sony, battery life over three times as long as the Edirol, good sound from internal mics (less coloured than the Edirol), again only a mini jack for external mic, good layout of controls but no live split track function when recording (not a massive problem), suffers from wind noise more than the Edirol (need to make a fluffy for it), comes with 2 gig inbuilt memory and uses SDHC as well, upto 96Khz 24bt recording.

I don't like the mini jack external mic connection on either of these but I see the selling point of the olympus and edirol to be that they are small form factor digital recorders with good internal mics and use them as such.

Hope this is some food for thought.

Hi,
I'm looking for a portable recorder for field, foley and on stage recordings (film dialogue). I've taken a look at M-Audio Microtrack II, Edirol R09 HR, Sony PCM D50 and Olympus LS-10 over the internet, and I wonder which one would you recomend... I notice that the only one among these that have 48v phantom power is the Microtrack, which makes it the best choice for foley and film dialogue recordings (with a shotgun mic); am I correct?
Thanks!

hi, I have a friend who does lots of recording for film. He just bought himself the Sony PCM-D50 to keep on him because its small enough. He says he can't believe how good the on-board mics sound and how accurate the stereo is. It doesn't have XLR inputs, but does have a mini-jack input (no phantom power). So depending on the mic you'd want to attach it could be fine.

I have the Fostex FR-2 at the moment (the big brother of the FR-2 light) and I'm selling because of its size. I love it to bits, but I just never end up having it on me. I decided to sell it and get the Sony PCM-D50 so I can always have it on me. And for times I need to do record on other mics then the onboards, I'll get a good portable pre-amp.

The microtrack has very noisy pre-amps. If you really want a cheaper option with XLR's and on-boards and all, maybe the Zoom H4 could work. It sounds better the the microtrack.

Good hunting!

Thanks for answering!
I know nothing about pre amps models, which one you think is appropriate in this case?

Don't worry about a preamp for now. You said you want to record on a shotgun mic for dialogue and general film related recording, will you be doing everything yourself (filming, recording, interviewing...)? If so, then you won't want a boom with a shotgun mic as it will be tricky juggling between everything.

If a shotgun mic is important to you, then it really depends on your budget, what kind of productions you will be using it for and what recorder you get. You'd probably be fine getting something like the Zoom H4 which has all you need (XLR+phantom+onboard) and isn't too expensive, this way you don't need an external preamp. My opinion (get many) is you should get a better sounding recorder such as the Sony PCM-D50 and see how you go without any external mics. If you really feel you need it then you can worry about it then.

I have my eye on is the Premix from Sound Devices, but that is because I want to use the Sony PCM-D50 with a the MKH 418s and it needs phantom power to run. Its quite expensive though (over $500). If you are using the onboard mics only don't worry about getting an external preamp cause usually they are designed so they match and don't create too much noise.

I hope this helps a little. Its really tricky to decide what gear you need/want/can afford.

If you are using it exclusively for film and have no issues with sample rate there are lots of choices. I am a cheap bastard and after 2 years of plotting dropped $80 on what some purists with a full range of hearing and a valid credit card would scoff at, but it works for me (Olympus DS-40). There are even portable multitrack recorders if you don't mind buying microphones where you can set up complex recordings with alternate vantage points and stuff. The Zoom H2 also does this and is fairly cheap ($200), this was my original wish until the industry I work in imploded and I found out I can't hear high frequencies anymore anyway. The Zoom files can be converted to surround sound with some googling as well, which might be something you could use.

If you will be working with DVD video, and you use a recorder with a sample rate other than 48khz, you will get a sync drift if recording large audio sequences at the same time as the video. If you want the most flexability, I would suggest getting one with built in mics and microphone jacks so you can handle any application.

I was using a monophonic USB microphone and a laptop and I looked like an idiot at the beach, I am sure. Plus who needs monophonic field recordings? (I am sure someone does actually). The cheapo recorder I bought doubles as a stereo USB interface that I can plug a higher quality microphone or mixer in down the road and still use the laptop to record higher fidelity stuff. I am trying to upload a massive sample pack right now of the DS-40 without a windscreen right now. Next will be the recordings with a homemade fur windscreen ($.27 at a fabric store and some thread) and then some direct to laptop recordings to see how they hold up. I have some hydrophone and contact microphone ideas in my head as well, I plan on using a balloon and old dead electronics, along with a soldering gun and some silicone to build some new microphones for cheap.

Ebay has some great deals so go to a music store and see if they have any of the models you can demo and then go pay half or less for it online. I have not bought anything from a music store except strings and last minute needs since 1986. Mail order and now online are way cheaper. If you can google well, you can find lots of sample recordings (on here and beyond) made with different recorders and configurations. Keep in mind not everyone knows what they are doing (for example some German podcasters were obviously not using the highest quality setting in the DS-40 when they recorded and commented on the artifacts). Also some people set out to prove something sucks and usually can, so keep that in mind as well. Some of the best recordings were made on less than perfect gear by less than perfect engineers and less than perfect musicians, subjects, etc.

Good luck

Thanks again, your anwers are very useful! I think the H4 + a shotgun mic will fit my needs...

IMHO

with my H4, when there's a need to use higher input gain (phantom power or not) records pulses - like hearbeats - on the file as it writes to the card. This complication is well documented across the net. When I use a preamp, I not only have real-time knob control over levels, I don;t have to crank the gain all the way up to record soft sounds.

thus, when i'm recording in the field, I always use a preamp.

i still have mixed emotions as to whether i'd buy it again if I had to do over again. It has served very well for everything but soft sounds needing high gain.

I bought a Zoom H2, and it's awesome for what it is and what I use it for. But I plugged a Røde shotgun mic into it and the preamp was so junky and noisy that it was wholly, totally, completely unusable, and I'm just a hobbyist sound designer and musician! I later got a Fostex FR-2LE specifically for those times I want to record specifics instead of ambience, and it's been incredible for a $500 investment (got a blemished unit on the cheap). No one seems to have much bad to say about the Sony PCM-D50, as you've seen earlier in this thread.

I'm not suggesting either device is better for you over the H4 you seem to be leaning towards, but you absolutely must hear the results of the preamps yourself if you're going to mostly use external mics...the differences can be unbelievable from unit to unit.

Although I haven't reply this post anymore, I still didn't buy the recorder... I'm now more inclined to get a Sony PCM D50 and a battery powered shotgun mic.
I don't like the complicated way to adjust the record levels on the H4, which is not a problem on the Sony D50. And I've read on the internet reviews of people complaining about the noises of the H4 preamps.

Sony PCM-D50 is really nice. Great internal mics, good pre, quality headphone amp. Battery life is excellent, simple to use etc. I have made over 200+ recordings with it and am just now starting to look at external mics. The internal mics are very sensitive is the only thing, great for ambient recordings but a bit problem some for close up less roomy stuff. I am going to get a Rode shotgun pretty soon for recording the macro things. PCM-D50 is great though, from all the research I did it beats out the other hand recorders, FR-2LE looks cool but I have heard bad things about the headphone amp and battery life, plus its much bigger. Hope this helps.

I concur on the PCM-D50. It's VERY simple to use, which is a great plus (my girlfriend made recordings with it one day after purchase - ok, she's a computer person, but still).

Internal mics: handling noise is very hard to evade, very wind-sensitive (get the "dead kittin", VERY sensitive (that's a plus), get a tripod.

Battery life: err, insane, 12+ hours.

Mine got soaked (wet) on our voyage to Costa Rica. 1 hour of drying in the Costa Rican sun, and it worked just fine. No idea if that was blind luck or if it's built rather well.

- Bram

My Field recorder cost all of um £8/$15

Sony MZ-r909 minidisc recorder & minidiscs - ebay £5
Panasonic electret DIY stereo mic - £3

Would love a Microtrack II or something similar, but I can't seem to find employment.

hock:

My cheapo DS-40 may not be the highest fidelity but I can put it in a shirt pocket and record incognito or leave it on a table at a restaurant and people think it's a cell phone. I walked around an emergency room recording it with the earplugs in and people thought I was listening to MP3's I was listening to them instead...

Bram is right about built in mics on anything, handling noise sucks and using without a windscreen is ridiules. I will wait another year or two for prices to come down, I really wanted that Zoom recorder but instead I got clothes, cologne and a friggin electric teapot for christmas... go figure.

How many American Musical Supply or Musician's Friend catalogs do you need to leave around and don't people know what dogears mean? Maybe a thick black sharpie with arrows and circles and thumbtacks sticking ripped out pages to walls will work next time. That way instead of remote controlled boats, air guns and rifle scopes I can find guitar strings, blank CD's and near field monitors under the tree next year...

Thankfuly I took it upon myself to get the DS-40 as a backup that will suffice until I find another career myself...

I concur on the PCM-D50.

I'm married to it. Bought it a year ago and have never considered anything else since that time.