Inexpensive audio solutions?
 

I was just invited to a sponsor event for a project I'm in pre production on.

No money at all yet and won't start rolling til next year.

I may have an opportunity to do some interviews at this event that would be useful in a short teaser that may help in fund raising.

I've decided to take along my 5DII in case I do get a chance do do these interviews.

I'd like to pick up a lav, shotgun and two channel digital recorder because I'm concerned about not being able to monitor the audio out of the camera.

Would appreciate suggestions for a system in the $1000 - $1400 range total.

Thanks

Dave

As far as audio recorders go...

I have the Zoom H4 but which works well but the interface / menus / buttons are pretty terrible. I am looking to get a MicroTrac as a replacement. I read mixed reviews about all of the small recorders but those were my two finalists.

I thought this looked interesting as far as recorders go.

Tascam | DP-004 Digital Pocketstudio Portable | DP-004 | B&H

It has a mini jack for a headphone output.

I'm thinking of splitting the output and running it to both the 5DII for a scratch track and a set of cans for monitoring.

That's a good find, although I am not sure I would want to give up the option of using my old phantom power mic when I need to. I do like the idea of physical knobs though. It also appears to be 44khz only. That may be a deal breaker.

I would add the new Edirol R-09HR to your shortlist. R-09HR High Resolution WAVE/MP3 Recorder

I know the BBC has started using these for some applications and I find the previous model to be very good although lacking phantom power.

Dan

Isn't the Edirol one channel, not two?

We use the Microtrack II. It supports two channels of balanced inputs with phantom power. The inputs, however, are 1/4" TRS. You need a pair of XLR to TRS cables, which cost about $15 apiece.

The headphone output works as a monitor, but only when actually recording. You have to hit record and then set levels. This is good in that it ensures that you never get your start and stop recording button presses mixed up.

The preamps aren't noise free, so it's still important to set your levels properly - even at 24 bits. Fortunately, the noise footprint of the device can be removed from the signal *very* cleanly with standard noise reduction software. (I use SoundForge 9, but I'm confident that most any modern NR software will do the trick.) I've had many recordings with noise footprints that don't remove cleanly - and that leave dialog sounding underwater. This noise is as clean to remove as any I've ever encountered.

I second the H4
 

For the money - it's a great recorder and you can use it with XLR mikes too - Yes - the interface is a little "quirky" but once you know it - it's fine

Tom

Kickin' around the idea of the HHB Flashmic YouTube - HHB Flashmic - MP3/WAV microphone with 1GB memory
There is a cardioid version out now.

There is a new version of the Zoom H4 comming out the "Zoom H4n" looks good

Samson - Zoom - H4n

Saw that but, it's not available yet and I need something by March 7th.

Dave Smith

Anyone work with this?

Fostex | FR-2 LE - 2-Channel Compact Flash Field | FR2 LE | B&H

A little pricey but it uses CF cards instead of SD. I wouldn't have to buy new cards and a reader.

Dave Smith

I just got the sony PCM-D50 and it works great. It dosn't have XLR inputs though. This isn't a problem for me since I use a sound devices MixPre as the preamp. In my opinion no sub $1000 recorder with built in preamps is going to come close to the quality of the MixPre. It is a little bit of a hassle to have 2 boxes but its a lot cheaper than the Sound Devices 702.

The FR2 LE is a great unit. I haven't yet used mine in conjunction with the 5D mk II, but it's high on my list of things to try (now that I can edit the 5D mk II files in Premier Pro CS3, thanks to Cineform's Neo Scene!).

Julian

Anyone tried the Marantz 661? I've read some great reviews about it on the web.

Marantz | PMD661 Professional Portable Flash Field | PMD661

Did a couple hours of dual-system interviews this weekend with the H4 and ran into the sync problems others have noted in the past - I got a steady drift of ~2 frames/minute across the board (24bit/96khz).

It wasn't a big deal but did affect workflow as I was under a pretty tight deadline. Normally I'd just merge the audio & video into a new clip (using FCP) but that wouldn't work here. I basically had to create a new sequence for each clip, sync the slate, then split the audio every minute and shift the remaining audio 2 frames forward.

This meant I had to edit with nested sequences which is a little more cumbersome - you have to drag from the project window to the viewer so the sequence doesn't open in a new tab, and you can't see audio waveforms on the nested clips.

With more time I think the workflow is to pre-calculate the exact drift rate, stretch the audio file by the correct percentage, and then use merge clips. I'm hoping this isn't an issue with the new H4n.

The Sony PCM-D50 does have an optional XLR input (powered).. but the option is not cheap... but you do get great results from either the XLR inputs or the builtin mikes...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...c_Adapter.html

I started another thread on this, but I though you audio gurus would like to hear and comment on this test using the Beachtek DXA-4 adapter. I uploaded this simple test.

http://www.dvinfo.net/media/canon/5d2/soundtest.mp3

Thoughts.

double post, this one erased...

Yeah the adapter is like $500 I looked at it but figured the mixpre preamps would be better