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Field recording?

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:28 pm
by sporkles
What do all the cool kids use these days? Zooms? I want something that's extremely
portable (not heavy and bulky), easy to use and with an easy way of
transferring files to the computer. And not too expensive.

I watched these clips with Ben Burtt just now, and that man always manages
to amaze and inspire me. That trick with the slinky is just awesome!

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:56 pm
by autogen
I find the Edirol R09 good for field recording. I've used it to record environmental sounds mainly with 3rd party binaural mics. Transferring files is as easy as connecting via USB then dragging and dropping files to my hard disk. It could be more rugged, but its not been damaged so far being hauled around in my rucksack and I've had it for a while now.

Those Ben Burtt clips are great btw, it was interesting to see he uses the slinky trick. If anyone wants to do something similar but doesn't have any guitar pickups lying around, try threading one end of the slinky into the bottom of a cardboard box and bouncing it up and down, then record this with a mic positioned over the box. I had great fun using this technique to create similar sound effects for a soundtrack back in college.

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:32 pm
by Tone Deft
binaural recordings are pretty hip these days, all the kids seem to be doing it.

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:44 pm
by knotkranky
Tone Deft wrote:binaural recordings are pretty hip these days, all the kids seem to be doing it.
Hey Tone, what exactly is your sig troll waiting to do?

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:53 pm
by Tone Deft
knotkranky wrote:
Tone Deft wrote:binaural recordings are pretty hip these days, all the kids seem to be doing it.
Hey Tone, what exactly is your sig troll waiting to do?
pucker up!
Image

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 11:12 pm
by knotkranky
Ok then, just making sure :wink:


Btw, I knew a guy that drove all over LA city streets sticking a stereo mic out the window for Michael Jackson. The dude made $10K a month for 6 months.

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 12:46 am
by autogen
I'm hip :o
Now if only I was a kid again!

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 12:57 am
by Hidden Driveways

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:43 am
by ubermnd
props for the ben burtt vids! cool as fuck. foley and film sound is one of my dream jobs.

Re: Field recording?

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 2:52 am
by meio
sporkles wrote:What do all the cool kids use these days? Zooms? I want something that's extremely
portable (not heavy and bulky), easy to use and with an easy way of
transferring files to the computer. And not too expensive.

I watched these clips with Ben Burtt just now, and that man always manages
to amaze and inspire me. That trick with the slinky is just awesome!
I use an iRiver iHP-140 which i think was renamed to HP140 or H140. I am no expert in the field but it serves me well with a half-decent mic.
It's got a lame mic built in but capacity accept a 3.5mm external mic. Records straight to mp3/wav. Can change recording bitrate when doing mp3. It's got an auto-gain feature but it seems more like it amplifies the input rather than applying compression dynamically. I'm no expert tho. It's super convient for getting my recordings off it onto the pc :) Maybe look on ebay for a second-hand one if curious.
Yo!
Meio

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:32 am
by Nick the Zombie
Edirol R09 for me. It's been flawless so far. Great that you mentioned Ben Burtt! The guy is a genius. I really enjoyed reading this little feature on his work on the Star Wars movies: http://filmsound.org/starwars/

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:19 am
by -art-
I wholeheartedly recommend the R-09. I lost mine in Tokyo so now I use a Marantz PMD 620, which does the job nicely but is a little more cumbersome to use. The R-09 rulz for portable. For the utmost in quality, go a Sound Devices 722 (DAT machine size): http://www.sounddevices.com/products/722.htm

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 12:33 pm
by sporkles
Awesome. I think I may have spotted the Edirol at a local shop, so I'll
definitely go check it out.

Cheers, guys!