Feild recording

N_Yeager · Post by **N_Yeager** » Sun Sep 08, 2002 10:19 pm

Hello!
Does anyone have any experience with portable field recording devices?
I want to start using found sounds as source material for live. What would you people recommend? Should I go with an MP3 recorder or a minidisc? what about dat?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

---Nathan

P.S. I just finished some new tracks arranged with live. Check them out at: www.mp3.com/nathan_yeager

Thanks!!

SongCarver · Post by **SongCarver** » Sun Sep 08, 2002 10:52 pm

minid disc are pretty hard to beat, the quality is Very good these days and media is cheap.

Someone around here hacked an ipod to record.

Find THAT person.

(tjwett) · Post by **(tjwett)** » Sun Sep 08, 2002 11:40 pm

i've actually had some success recording directly into Live on my PowerBook. once with the built in mic. i sat down and recorded a musician in the subway station from 20 feet away. sounded awesome with all that natural reverb and ambience. minidisk is my favorite for portability, quality. you can get a machine now pretty cheap, even with USB.

dirtystudios · Post by **dirtystudios** » Mon Sep 09, 2002 2:01 am

i got all crazy excited there for a sec, but alas, nobody hacked an ipod. it was part of that crumby 'apple aquires' thread. some guy talking about a furturistic dream world in which steve jobs get elected president and we all get three helpings of ice cream before dinner.

as far as field recording, either minidisc or one of those snazzy new digital voice recorders with usb and the whole nine. i've heard some of them and they don't sound bad (though some have distortion that sounds all "the eagle has landed" and stuff...very keen indeed). if you can afford it...go with minidisc. dat audio isn't compressed, but it's hardly worth the extra $43 billion it's gonna cost you for a mobile device.

k

minidisc man! · Post by **minidisc man!** » Mon Sep 09, 2002 2:06 am

i use a sony mz-n1 with a mic set up from the sound professionals. simply outstanding for live use!

ischo didn't log in · Post by **ischo didn't log in** » Mon Sep 09, 2002 9:51 am

well, nothing, and i mean nothing compares to a dat, of course....
minidisc recorders have AVS, which is an automation on the recording level, so it will turn up the recording-volume to best suit IT'S needs, not yours. but dat's way more expensive and not as mobile and so on....
what the hell, for use in "live!" a minidisc's just fine.

mindlobster · Post by **mindlobster** » Mon Sep 09, 2002 11:16 am

At the risk of just going along with everybody else...I use minidisc too! But my favourite thing is to cut out the middleman and use the PBook built in mic. Sure it's not perfect...but it's IMMEDIATE, and you get some cool unexpected stuff. Mixes great with 'cleaner' sounds from soft synths or CD.

borg · Post by **borg** » Mon Sep 09, 2002 6:12 pm

ischo didn't log in wrote: minidisc recorders have AVS, which is an automation on the recording level, so it will turn up the recording-volume to best suit IT'S needs, not yours.

My Sony MZ-R50 can record either in auto mode or a max. recording level set by the user. i have it for more than three years now. dropped it on numerous occasions

took it to a lot of places... still going strong.
i use it with a Sony ECM-MS907 mic with great results. for field recording make sure to ask the weather gods to be moderate with wind.
someone with good advice on this one? how do you guys deal with wind in the mic?

andy

am0eba · Post by **am0eba** » Mon Sep 09, 2002 9:09 pm

I second the DAT if you're looking for really good quality. There's no lossy compression like on minidisc, but you'll have to develop some recording skills to get the most out of a DAT.

Sony sells a tiny DAT walkman that will run for 4 hours on a pair of lithium AA batteries, and makes excellent recordings. ABout the size of an old cassette walkman, under $700US. Very versatile and worthwhile.

I should mention that we use a minidisc recorder as well, and I have trouble hearing the compression...

_Dave_

Check out our Ableton and Reason 2 tunes:
mp3.com/ameebadood

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Sep 09, 2002 10:36 pm

borg, For the wind problem you could try putting some spheres of light foam around the mic, that will help reduce wind noise

alternatively you can make a popper-stopper (usually a pair of nylon stockings over a bent wireframe made from a coathanger.

usually a popper-stopper is used for vocals, and it hence a 2d circle, but im sure you could make some sort of spherical wireframe. That should work better then the foam because you wont loose the top end (16-20khz)

In terms of minidisc compression, i think the algorithms are very good these days, more problematic will be things like the pre-amp and the quality of microphone.

Has anyone played around with AAC (Quicktime 6 encoding)

It sounds GREAT for the bits you give it

-SongCarver

Feild recording

Feild recording

Field Recording for Live