Field Recording Gear

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scott
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Field Recording Gear

Post by scott » Fri Sep 05, 2003 2:12 pm

Hello. I'd like to do some field recording, e.g. walking around with my Rode NT-1a mic and capturing street noises, crowd scenes, nature sounds, etc etc, and I'm looking for some gear recommendations. Also, I'd like the same gear to double as something I could use to record my Live shows (laptop + Quattro).

I need something that makes it easy to transfer the file to the PC, as well as phantom power for the mic. I'll probably need to get a little preamp for the mic, unless there's a compact, itegrated unit that will do what I want.

Ideas?

borg
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Post by borg » Fri Sep 05, 2003 3:51 pm


scott
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Post by scott » Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:15 pm

WTF kind of reply is that? Maybe you didn't post all of your URL. Sure, I could search the archives, but I'm more interested in having a new discussion.

This board used to be so peaceful. Sigh.

scott
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Post by scott » Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:34 pm


m-laboratories.net
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yeah

Post by m-laboratories.net » Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:46 pm

If you have the budget, the Nomad line of mp3 players are excellent for portable recording.

They can record an ENORMOUS amount of audio in 96 kHz WAV format. You can then transfer the wav files by firewire or usb back to your computer.

There's also a lot of fun you can have with them. Some come with onboard effect (EAX technology they call it) which is basically limited to a bunch of different reverbs (but still fun). You can also alter the playback speed of your files, shifting between -20% and +20% (that's what it was on my old one, if I remember).

And best of all there are some freely available guides to hacking your Nomad to accept a 120 GB drive. Oh yeah, you can tranfer more than just music files too....

But back to the original topic. I believe that you may still need a portable amp to get the mic signal up to the line-level. These things are cheap (search around, $20 for a pencap sized amp is what I saw last).
They also have an adjustable internal amp but on my old Nomad I it's not very clean when you get above +2 or +3.

Obviously they also work really well for recording shows; you don't have to change minidiscs or any of that crap, and all the files are pure WAV - no compression artifacts to be worried about.

You can count on your resident smelly trance hippy (tm) to bring back a little bit o' peace :)

scott
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Post by scott » Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:50 pm

Well, blimey! Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

I wonder if there's a such thing as a battery-powered preamp that
1) provides phantom power
2) doesn't suck.

Mbazzy
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Post by Mbazzy » Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:55 pm

I'm still eying the Zoom PS02 , and there is a ps04 scheduled for end of this year with usb connection, Korg Tascam and boss have similar devices ...
http://www.mbazzy.tk -
Mbazzy's "The dysfunctional playground, a scrapbook a bout the shape of useless things" now OUT on Retinascan - http://www.retinascan.de

borg
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Post by borg » Fri Sep 05, 2003 5:47 pm

oh dear,
sorry scott for upsetting you. :roll:

my mistake... just now i realized i made the wrong copy/paste. didn't want to imply anything at all.

jeez, remarkable way to express your desire for a peaceful forum.

scott
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Post by scott » Fri Sep 05, 2003 5:49 pm

Sorry. mate. I was just throwing back any guff right there at the beginning. There's been so much inflammatory stuff on this board lately, it's crazy. Anyway, peace to you and yours.

At least you didn't paste "So, what are you wearing?" Right? Right.

borg
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Post by borg » Fri Sep 05, 2003 5:57 pm

:)

use

Post by use » Fri Sep 05, 2003 11:26 pm

i use this little battery powered handheld device called Pandoras box by korg. It has a built in condenser microphone, and u can get up to 256meg smart media cards for it. It has a USB out for easy movement from mobile unit to PC in MPEG4 format. It also has 1/4 inch jack for guitars and a built in guitar modeler. And a digital 1/8 line input for whatever else you might want.

http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?A_PROD_NO=PXR4

and heres more info on the specs and whatnot
http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?A_PROD_NO=PXR4

i love it because it has so many diff uses and up to 32 virtual tracks on the spot

tribalogical
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Post by tribalogical » Sat Sep 06, 2003 7:52 am

this might be way out in left field, but a mate of mine in LA has been using a digital video camera - mini DV - to capture audio (!). He transfers it via firewire to the laptop....

He sends over some 24/44.1 audio files now and then (sample source for me!), ripped from his video clips. He shoots specifically with audio in mind (rather than video)... insists it's as good or better than DAT quality, and although I haven't done any science on it, I'd have to agree, they sound fab.

He uses both a Canon XL-1S, and a Sony XV-2000 (or is that VX-2000?). He says even some of the lower-end passport cameras can capture with excellent audio quality.

I should add most of the capture is in stereo as well... so if you have one of those cameras already, or intend to get one, there's a solution lurking :)

peace,

tribalogical

fake

Post by fake » Sat Sep 06, 2003 2:48 pm

i'm a huge fan of minidisc technology.
you need a sharp MS-722. they can
be had on ebay for about 120$- they're
built like tanks and sound beautiful.
you can get an hour stereo or 140min
mono on a disc. don't listen to anyone saying
that minidisc sounds terrible- they've never
heard a sharp unit!

lots of field recording info here
www.minidisc.org

Moonburnt
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Post by Moonburnt » Sun Sep 07, 2003 1:24 am

I've been researching this topic for a while and ended up making some purchases but I'm still quite amazed that portable digital recorders are so scarce - basically you want the audio equivalent of a digital camera - and look how many gazillions of cameras there are out there, and hardly any decent audio recorders!

My solution was a pair of Rode NT3 condensers @ $US99 each and a Mambo-X P350 MP3 recorder @ $US200.

The Rode NT3 mics are designed with portable recording in mind, in that they don't need phantom power - they can run off internal 9v battery and still sound great. Buy a couple of NiMH rechargeable 9v batteries and they'll last you forever. The only other condenser that I can think of with a 9v capability is the AKG C1000S, still a good mic (but the Rode's better for less $ :) )

The MP3 recorder has a stereo line input and so the powered mics can go into that via an adaptor. It also has a built-in mic, which doesn't sound the greatest but is handy for compact, spontaneous recording. Audio is saved to 160kbps stereo MP3 files, which woud be roughly comparable to the compression used by MD recorders (ie. not noticeable).

In my opinion NONE of the MP3 recorders available are quite there yet. It's all early generation technology that suffers from being built cheaply (I'm thinking of the Creative/Archos/MamboX units). Give it a few years and I'm sure some more reputable pro audio manufacturers will come out with something HD-based to supersede their crusty old DAT recorders. In the meantime, I went with the MamboX for a few reasons:

Saves to HD rather than flash card (this is true of the Creative & Archos as well)
Easy navigation of directories on the player, good simple interface
No software required - just shows up as an external HD in Explorer, unlike Creative's notoriously bad software
Most compact and best looking HD recorder.
Relatively good build quality (but they're all a bit flimsy for my liking)

They've released a P353 model now (USB2), but both are quite hard to come by.

MD has the advantage of being a more established technology, but I pesonally went for MP3 because I wanted to be able to play all my tunes on it as well, and it's handy that is stores audio (or anything else) as files on disc. Also my MD portastudio didn't last very well so I'm not totally sold on the reliability of MD either.

I hope you find something that suits you! And I hope some "proper" pro audio company reads this and sees there's a market for a HIGH QUALITY portable HD recorder with all the features of a portable DAT recorder.

Alex Reynolds
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Post by Alex Reynolds » Sun Sep 07, 2003 2:05 am

Moonburnt wrote:I hope you find something that suits you! And I hope some "proper" pro audio company reads this and sees there's a market for a HIGH QUALITY portable HD recorder with all the features of a portable DAT recorder.
HHB is making a hard disk-based recorder if you're rich enough to afford one:

-- http://www.hhbusa.com/

-Alex

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