Portable Recorders ?

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BinaryB
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Portable Recorders ?

Post by BinaryB » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:19 am

Any opinions about portable recording devices ?

Heres mine.

The zoom one is cool because its cheap and has XLR inputs for mics
and the inbuilt mics are ok.ish.

The Edirol R-09 aint so good and its more expensive.


I want it for recording audio to use for sound design in video games.
which is the same as film now.

Any portable recorder is cool.
Any mic is cool.

Opinions and product names are Appreciated.
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thelike5
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Post by thelike5 » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:01 am

Sony released am affordable ($499) feild recorder last year that has gotten stellar reviews.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/5 ... table.html

It's gotta sound light yeras better than the Zoom or the Edirol.

Robert Henke
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Post by Robert Henke » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:22 am

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(love)

thelike5
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Post by thelike5 » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:29 am

Yeah, the D50 just looks about right.

Nice build quality matched with affordability.

Sharp looking tool.

sxezskoz
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Post by sxezskoz » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:51 am

+1 for the zoom h4

my buddy has an h2, loves that thing too.
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BinaryB
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Post by BinaryB » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:17 am

Yeah the Sony looks nice. and the same price as the edirol :lol:
But the zoom is still cool in my books, but only because of the price.

So I am thinking the sony all the way.

my only questions are...

How good are the built in mics ?
Should I look at a powered mic with it ?
Can I use it as a usb sound card ?
How good are the A/D converters ?

So the next question is ... what mic is good for this ?
Recording sounds (indoors & outdoors) for sound design.

Cheers
B
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BinaryB
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Post by BinaryB » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:19 am

Robert Henke wrote:P C M _ _ D 5 0
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P C M _ _ D 5 0
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P C M _ _ D 5 0

(love)
love is blind... so thanks for making it easy to read


:lol:
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BinaryB
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Post by BinaryB » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:36 am

I am thinking this mic.

RODE NTG-2

Image


But what about the Directional Pattern = Super Cardioid

DO I need a smaller directional pattern ?

what about stereo ? buy two ?
Last edited by BinaryB on Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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sxezskoz
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Post by sxezskoz » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:43 am

BinaryB wrote:So the next question is ... what mic is good for this ?
Recording sounds (indoors & outdoors) for sound design.
it really depends on what you want to grab and how you want to grab it. if you are familiar with photography at all, i would compare the different frequency responses and polar patterns of a mic to different camera lenses. you use whatever you need to capture what you want.

what's nice about the zoom is that you can change the polar patterns at the switch of a button, even if mics are no schoeps the flexibility is great. you can go from recording an interview to ambience to foley like nothing.

VOUCH
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BinaryB
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Post by BinaryB » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:46 am

sxezskoz wrote:
BinaryB wrote:So the next question is ... what mic is good for this ?
Recording sounds (indoors & outdoors) for sound design.
it really depends on what you want to grab and how you want to grab it. if you are familiar with photography at all, i would compare the different frequency responses and polar patterns of a mic to different camera lenses. you use whatever you need to capture what you want.

what's nice about the zoom is that you can change the polar patterns at the switch of a button, even if mics are no schoeps the flexibility is great. you can go from recording an interview to ambience to foley like nothing.

VOUCH
Changing the polar patterns sounds good !

I want to record foley and outdoor sounds + ambience for video game audio.
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pepezabala
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Post by pepezabala » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:21 am

+1 for the zoom H4

Just had a hardcore test going on: My wife works as a journalist, last weekend she had to do a 3 hr interview over skype. We just plugged into the headphone jack on her computer and put a microphone beside it to have her questions recorded as well. The zoom recorded the the 3 hrs without any issue, a couple of minutes after the interview she had the whole thing on her itunes as a big mp3 file ready for transcription. So easy and working just fine.

I had it with me on a short tour recently, recorded 3 concerts in a row with just one pair of batteries. Sound was perfect, it sounded just as in the venue.

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Post by sxezskoz » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:32 am

BinaryB, may I ask how it is that you got into the field you are in? I've been submitting resumes on Gamasutra for composer gigs for a few months now, I'd love more than anything to compose for games.
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Post by dave_house » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:58 am

I'm currently thinking about buying a Zoom H4 too, for pretty much the same reasons (field recording, particularly ambience, recording jams, etc). I love the fact its got a built in audio interface as I'm going travelling soon, plus XLRs and a 4 track.

Theres an excellent review here with recorderd audio samples:
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007/02 ... order.html

The same guy reviews the Edirol as well under very similar conditions:
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2006/08 ... eview.html

From my extensive research on the matter (hey, I should be working, but whats more important here?!) the H4 looks amazing (if you can handle a counter intuitive UI and cheapish build) but for 2 things:

1) Some users report a regular pulsing tone when recording with batteries and the built in mic. Its barely audible and only becomes an issue when normalising what is essentially silence. See:
http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewtopic. ... c&start=17

2) Some users report a high pitched whine when using external mics, phantom power and batteries. See:
http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=7265

Both are fixable if using AC, with an external battery pack or by tinkering with the innards...

I'm waiting until my local stockist gets some more in so I can take it for a proper test run and check out these issues to see if they'll be a big deal.

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Post by Ruud » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:12 pm

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blank
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Post by blank » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:35 pm

Zoom h4 is nice, using it for a year or a bit more.

It's bundled with a couple of cool features and a couple of krappy ones but it gets the job done when you need to record something on the fly. The built in microphones are pretty good ones, on this side the device is really impressive.

On the other hand the zoom h4 build is totally krappy, you need to be fuckin zen to change the battery, to change the card and to operate the record button when it's a bit cold outside.

Just looked at Mister Henke suggestion, looks better imo.

-B
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