Freesound Forums

Hi everyone!

First and foremost, freesound.org has been my go to place for foley sfx for years, I am mostly working with motion graphics and i lack certain/ specific sounds fx when i am creating a piece of animation. So, I have finally decided to invest on a (expandable) beginner's bare essentials recording equipment.

hence after spending about almost 2 full days looking at stuff, i have zeroed in on the Zoom h5

the reasons: (a lot of which i understood from here: https://blog.freesound.org/?p=1180)
1. It has acceptable self noise EIN (a-weighted)
2. has XLR input (so i can use it as a audio interface) - am i right?
3. I do not need to buy a mic right-away
4. I can use it outside.
5. It has 48V phantom Power (in case i buy a mic later that requires this)

it is still a bit expensive than i thought of spending but has some great advantages over a stationary desktop setup, and is expandable later.

now this is based on very limited info i collected being a night owl. my question is what do you guys think? or is there anything else out there you might want to recommend.

and about DAW, is investing my time to learn davinci fairlight worth it?

thanks in advance
mano

Hello!

I think you can't go wrong with a Zoom product. I have Zoom H6 and the sound quality is crisp and clear. Only thing is it's not necessarily the best option for recording everything. Since it records stereo it can pick up unwanted sounds too. I would suggest buying for example a shotgun mic later on. Like you said, it can be used with the Zoom. You can also record stereo and any mic simultaneously that are plugged in the recorder, so you have the ability to choose which track you want to use later on. At least such is the case with H6.

About the DAW. In my experience buying a Zoom product, it often comes with a lighter version of Cubase. I haven't dabbled with Fairlight too much, only when editing with Da Vinci Resolve, but I personally prefer using Cubase. It can be a bit much at first, but so is the case often when switching from software to another. At the end of the day it's all about what works for you.

Sami_Hiltunen wrote:
Hello!

I think you can't go wrong with a Zoom product. I have Zoom H6 and the sound quality is crisp and clear. Only thing is it's not necessarily the best option for recording everything. Since it records stereo it can pick up unwanted sounds too. I would suggest buying for example a shotgun mic later on. Like you said, it can be used with the Zoom. You can also record stereo and any mic simultaneously that are plugged in the recorder, so you have the ability to choose which track you want to use later on. At least such is the case with H6.

About the DAW. In my experience buying a Zoom product, it often comes with a lighter version of Cubase. I haven't dabbled with Fairlight too much, only when editing with Da Vinci Resolve, but I personally prefer using Cubase. It can be a bit much at first, but so is the case often when switching from software to another. At the end of the day it's all about what works for you.

thanks for taking the time out. much appreciated.

Sami_Hiltunen wrote:
Hello!

I think you can't go wrong with a Zoom product. I have Zoom H6 and the sound quality is crisp and clear. Only thing is it's not necessarily the best option for recording everything. Since it records stereo it can pick up unwanted sounds too. I would suggest buying for example a shotgun mic later on. Like you said, it can be used with the Zoom. You can also record stereo and any mic simultaneously that are plugged in the recorder, so you have the ability to choose which track you want to use later on. At least such is the case with H6.

About the DAW. In my experience buying a Zoom product, it often comes with a lighter version of Cubase. I haven't dabbled with Fairlight too much, only when editing with Da Vinci Resolve, but I personally prefer using Cubase. It can be a bit much at first, but so is the case often when switching from software to another. At the end of the day it's all about what works for you.

Also can you recommend a beginners' shotgun mic - which is good (not crappy) and definitely definitely not looking for a ultra power user super expensive one.
any thoughts on these:
https://allegro.pl/oferta/audio-technica-atr6250x-pojemnosciowy-mikrofon-9999552253
https://www.thomann.de/pl/the_tbone_em_9600.htm
https://www.thomann.de/pl/the_tbone_em9900.htm

Ny the way i found another one:
Tascam DR40 any views on this one?

I have the tbone 9600 as a back up. It is a good example of "you get what you pay for", it has some self noise. The build quality is pretty decent and it comes with a XLR cable and a mount. Would I recommend it? Ehh, if you are on a budget and want to start recording as soon as possible. It can than work as a back up later if you look to upgrade later on. If you are not in such a hurry I would save for a little bit and get something a little more expensive as the quality really jumps up when you go to the 200$ price range.

Also, when recording outside the small foam mics usually come with aren't sufficient enough to block wind. You would need a proper windscreen. For example:

https://www.thomann.de/fi/rode_deadcat.htm

The Zoom has it's own windscreen that you should really get if you plan on recording outside:

https://www.thomann.de/fi/zoom_wsu_1.htm

Also, don't forget a boom for the the shotgun. When recording you will always get noise from handling the mic. Same can be said for if you record with the portable recorder. You should always have a stand for when recording with them. Zoom's have the same type of attachment screw-holes on the back side as cameras so you can also use a tripod if you have one around.

As for the Tascam, I don't personally have any experience with it so can't vouch for it.

thanks again for your time, this community is awesome

Hi, you can also look at some Native Instruments products like Komplete Audio 2 for example, it really should siut your tasks. Also it's gonna be good to have a nice midi keys (you can check the list of them https://www.playpianotips.com/midi-keyboard-for-beginners/) for your musical journey.

2. has XLR input (so i can use it as a audio interface) - am i right?

Probably wrong, depending on what you mean by "audio interface".

XLR is just what is used for balanced, low-impedance signals like those coming from [external] microphones. Some devices (like most Zoom's) have inputs that have both a 1/4" TRS jack combined with XLR, so you can feed it line-level, instrument-level (say, electric guitar), or microphone (with or without phantom powering) -- just adjust the input gain accordingly.

To use it as an "audio interface", I think most people would assume that should mean an interface to some other recording system or editing system such as a computer, and for that, you'll probably end up using a relatively high-speed digital interface standard such as USB (most computers have and will continue to use USB, but only certain ones ever came with Firewire and very few would have had S/PDIF in either coas or optical/TOSlink format, but other types of recorders might be more likely to, especially if you pick up some older, used gear).

BTW, others have already answered but I'll add my $0.02. I'm a Zoom H4n user and have gotten good results from it, but its mic pres are not the quietest -- they insert their own noise. It's not the latest tech, but you can pick up something like that used pretty cheap. For anything where you don't care about quieter parts between the louder sounds, the noise from an H4n simply won't matter. I.e., it's clean enough and quiet enough to do a lot of jobs. If and when you really need quiet mics and mic-preamps, you'll probably need to spend a lot more money, since every part of the chain matters: the mic, the pre-amp, the analog-to-digital converter. However, if you can pull it off, you might instead be able to control the acoustic environment to eliminate unwanted extraneous noises and then just use a high-quality but inexpensive omni-directional mic (omni's are easier to make sound good than directional mics) or just live with whatever you can get within budget. If you want to dish out more for higher quality, several hundred $$ for a great mic [or over $1K: a B&K or a Schoepps with different capsules for different pickup patterns] and then several hundred more for a great pre/converter combo (maybe a field recorder for film pro's [zoom F8n, sound devices mixpre-3 II, etc. etc.]), and you could then get a wonderfully clean capture of whatever crappy-sounding noises you are trying to record.