Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Mic and field recorder prices...

axel ebermann said:
Sound Devices is coming out with a new 5 channel mixer that has an internal built-in recorder to SD cards.

First units supposedly on the market in mid-october

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...es_552_552_Portable_5_Channel_Production.html
Click to expand...

I'd just like to take this opportunity to plug a couple of vendors that I have worked with that has excellent tech support and post sales support...

http://www.trewaudio.com/store/product.php?productid=1039&cat=0&page=1

http://www.gothamsound.com/main.shtml?page=catalog&sub=DISP&item=SSOU552

I feel as a member of this industry, that it is important to support vendors who are specifically tailored to serving us. I've bought stuff from B&H too, and feel that it is a fantastic store, not to knock them...
 
Tom Visser said:
Do you absolutely need a recorder? Although you hear me espouse the benefits of double system audio and some of the pitfalls of the RED camera audio, the recorders are expensive and add lots of complexity to the workflow when not done correctly and with the necessary provisions. The RED camera is capable of great on board sound when it is done correctly.
Click to expand...

As a matter of fact, no, we may not need a recorder. The truth is, I 'd prefer to never use the sound from the recorder anyway. My goal is to have the recordist monitor sound and adjust levels from the recorder and then send output to the camera, and then never touch the files from the recorder.

If this is the approach, can we get by without using a $3000 recorder? Is there a cheaper device that can be used to monitor and adjust levels as they go into the camera? This would be preferable to us by far.

THANKS! :)
 
Brandon Fraley said:
As a matter of fact, no, we may not need a recorder. The truth is, I 'd prefer to never use the sound from the recorder anyway. My goal is to have the recordist monitor sound and adjust levels from the recorder and then send output to the camera, and then never touch the files from the recorder.

If this is the approach, can we get by without using a $3000 recorder? Is there a cheaper device that can be used to monitor and adjust levels as they go into the camera? This would be preferable to us by far.

THANKS! :)
Click to expand...

That's called a mixer, and I generally point people at the Sound Devices 302.
 
excellent, thank you Tom.

I'll look into the price of renting that unit, but ~$1200 is still far too much for us to purchase. Is there a mixer that would do the job for under $500? I understand that we would end up buying ANOTHER more expensive mixer later on, but at least he'd have something he could use often and have available when jobs come up.
 
what about a Shure FP-31?

EDIT: I asked because they had one on ebay with a few minutes left. I did about 3 minutes of research before sniping it for $186. Good choice, Bad choice?
 
Brandon Fraley said:
what about a Shure FP-31?

EDIT: I asked because they had one on ebay with a few minutes left. I did about 3 minutes of research before sniping it for $186. Good choice, Bad choice?
Click to expand...

You got to start somewhere... I'm not an expert on the FP-31, but I would say it is a bad choice. I think it is mono (not necessarily bad, just FYI), lacks 48v phantom power, is sort of noisy for a mixer... the FP-33 probably would have been my starting point for a mixer. You can get around the phantom power issue by adding a battery powered phantom power supply, but if there is any way that you can get out of the sale that is amiable to the seller, I would do that.

I've got a 302, been my backup mixer and hardly used (used in the field for about a dozen days total and is a little bit over a year old), is in very good condition... I could part for $1,000 + shipping. I have my eye on the 552 when it gets released. I don't know why, but I have a higher comfort factor with dealing with people on RedUser given the real name policy I suppose, so if your short cash now, could even take a partial payment if you know your good for the balance down the road.
 
I would not be surprised at all if you know more about this than my audio buddy, but he said that he's used that unit before and was happy with it. FP-33 is definitely out of my price range. Do you really think I should try to get out of it?

I'm figuring we can try it out and if we don't like it I can sell it to the guy who tried to grab it right before me.

But please, continue to educate me, I'm still interested incase this doesn't work out or we decide to rent something better.
 
If he's happy with it and your happy with his work, by all means, I wouldn't be the best reference, as I have never used it. I had the luxury of using a 302 as my first mixer and had to buy one for myself when I could. Just make sure you both have a strategy to deal with the phantom power issue, as the better microphones out there are usually not battery powered.
 
Thanks Tom. I think I'm going to go through with and just consider it a learning experience. Hopefully, it will suit our needs and if not, I'll know why and try to unload it back on ebay :)

I was just talking to my sound buddy online about mics, and I told him I had an NTG2 he could use, although I felt it didn't isolate enough, but then he explain we actually used someone else's NTG2 on our last shoot, which I thought sounded great... so what do I know.

Any insight you could offer into the NTG2 or another similarly priced mic we should consider?
 
definitely jump on the NTG-2... as it is one probably one of the best shotgun mics that can be powered via a AA battery, thus solving your phantom power issue. I consider the NTG-3 sort of the baseline Rode for "professional" production, although the "professional" is mostly in the ability of the people handling the equipment, and in that respect you should be able to get fantastic results with the NTG-2 if you got good people with you.
 
Tom Visser said:
definitely jump on the NTG-2... as it is one probably one of the best shotgun mics that can be powered via a AA battery, thus solving your phantom power issue. I consider the NTG-3 sort of the baseline Rode for "professional" production, although the "professional" is mostly in the ability of the people handling the equipment, and in that respect you should be able to get fantastic results with the NTG-2 if you got good people with you.
Click to expand...

that's great to hear, I'm actually holding the NTG2 right now. SO in that case I think that's the shotgun mic we'll use on this next production.

Can you tell me anything about wireless lav mics I need to know? again, I'm looking potentially for something cheap we can buy and then replace next year, or something I can find for rent.

Also, this is the recorder my guy says he used on our last shoot. He borrowed it. End result sounded good to me, although again, I'm more interested to get the audio into the camera. http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrackII.html
 
your pretty much looking at Sennheiser G2 sets as being your best value. You really might want to rent these or go without. I always consider wireless as a backup for the main boom and if booming, will sometimes not even send it on the mix to the camera, but just record an ISO track for safety purposes. If you have limited money, I'd focus on getting a really good boom mic sound. In a few rare instances, it is impossible to boom or be better suited to lavs.

The MicroTrack is a good recorder. If you can roll with a backup of the audio, go for it. Make sure you do film style slating / synch, to help editorial synching audio files if they need to do it. Also make sure you try to keep production quality audio to the camera. Unless your using a real professional recorder, with timecode support, preferably, I wouldn't settle just for guide track quality audio to the camera... which is what I normally do by wirelessly transmitting the mix from my Nagra VI and then supply higher quality ISO + mix tracks for post.
 
It's very hard to get anything good below $600. A Sony PCM-D50 is a great choice for the recorder ($450) but it does not have TC. I have a P2 and have used it on many Red shoots. It's not the most rugged box, but it does a great job and with a Sound Devices mixer/pre in front of it, it sounds excellent. It also has TC. Of course, Sound Devices are the standard, and for good reason. They're worth every penny you spend.

Renting gear: Location Sound or Coffey Sound in L.A. Not so sure about SF.

If you don't mind me saying: if your friend has spent lots of money on a RED, it is also a good idea to spend a little bit of money ($2k-$4k) on good mics and audio equipment. Sound is 50% of the experience, and any cheap gear in the chain lessens the quality, and corrupts the experience. In my experience, viewers are far more willing to deal with less-than-perfect visuals (think Super8) than with audio they can't that is badly recorded.
 
Neil Uchitel said:
It's very hard to get anything good below $600. A Sony PCM-D50 is a great choice for the recorder ($450) but it does not have TC. I have a P2 and have used it on many Red shoots. It's not the most rugged box, but it does a great job and with a Sound Devices mixer/pre in front of it, it sounds excellent. It also has TC. Of course, Sound Devices are the standard, and for good reason. They're worth every penny you spend.

Renting gear: Location Sound or Coffey Sound in L.A. Not so sure about SF.

If you don't mind me saying: if your friend has spent lots of money on a RED, it is also a good idea to spend a little bit of money ($2k-$4k) on good mics and audio equipment. Sound is 50% of the experience, and any cheap gear in the chain lessens the quality, and corrupts the experience. In my experience, viewers are far more willing to deal with less-than-perfect visuals (think Super8) than with audio they can't that is badly recorded.
Click to expand...

Thanks Neil, I appreciate any extra info. As far as the small budget, the reason is because all the camera gear is mine, and he's just beginning his career in sound. He's just out of school and broke, so I'm trying to get him started on some small jobs and we're looking into the options. I got the FP31 but haven't had a chance to test it. I'll tell you guys how it goes, and in the mean time, feel free to keep the learnin' coming. :)
 
Ah, I get it now. In that case, my suggestion would be to always buy the best gear possible, even if it's only 1 piece, and then rent the rest. If he's just starting out, here's a possible scenario for him:

Buy now: Sony PCM-D1 ($450) and a small portabrace case (like something for the 302. It's got up to 96k, on board limiters, low end roll off and lots of other great features. I've got the D-1 as well, and hardly use it anymore (it's got better on board mics though).

Rent everything else until he can afford to buy the next piece of gear, which should be: Sound Devices MixPre (plus XLR stereo -> 1/8" mini stereo cable for input into the D-50. You can buy this sort of cable online at Event Horizon https://eventhorizon-srv.com/).

After that, get a boom pole and a Schoeps MK41 with CMC6 body, or a Senneiser MKH8050.

If he tries to buy the whole kit-and-kaboodle for under $600, he'll necessarily be buying bad gear, and the quality will suck. And then, he won't get hired again. If he wants, he can email me and I'd be happy to answer any questions he has.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top