One or Two Audio Kits for $15k

[Michael Panfeld]

Hmm. Just came across this thread. Here's my $.02:

Get a Cooper mixer on the secondhand market. a CS104 with the direct out modification- $2k or, if you plan on doing lots of reality TV, a Cooper 208D direct out) $8K. A 4-channel CS104 with direct out will cover most film productions, allowing you a channel each for a boom and three lavs. Rarely do you have scenes where there are more than 3 actors lav'd at once. The 104 is very portable, so run and gun or indie style with frequent scene changes is doable. The 208 lives on a cart only, so its more suited for a 4 week film shoot with a limited number of location changes/day.

SD 744T or 788T recorder to match the channels on the mixer. Used $3500 or $5,000

Schoeps 641 $1600 new or $1200 used
Schoeps CMIT 5U $2K new or $1700 used

used Audio Ltd (better IMHO than Lectro) wireless model 2000: about 1200/channel
Sanken COS11 lav $400 new, $250 used

Good Cables: Canare star-quad with Neutrik connectors: $200-350 custom made lengths

You'll need a few hundred for things like rechargeable batteries, and tape, furries, etc for attaching lav mics

Blimp $300-400

Cheers

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

No offense to Abraham or the other excellent posts regarding GEAR>

but the smartest decision we ever made was to NOT buy gear and HIRE PROFESSIONAL sound guys who have invested tens of thousands of dollars into their kit. Because there is no substitute for EXPERIENCE.

That said. We have a nice little sound kit for indies that are too naive to not hire a PRO sound person. (why is insane since its half the picture)
1. Azden 4CH Mixer (so they at least adjust the levels when the dude is yelling "SHUT THE FUCK UP" with his gun turned sideways. (why does every indie script have this scene?)
2. Tascam HD P2 CF recorder. Has timecode sync and digital recording for under $900! . Plastic and cheap feeling body, but man it works and works really well. An idiot could run it.
3. We put MOST our $ into the MICS
a. SENNHEISER MKH 416 Shotgun
b. RODE NTG-3 (killer hypercartoid Mic for the $)
c. SENNEHSIER EVO Wireless Kits (3) (when you cant afford LEctrosonic, no other low cost brand compares to these... (but their lav mics suck)
c. Countryman B Lave Mics ($349 each) work beautifully with Sennheiser Transmitter
4. Rycote CF Threaded Boom Poles (2 lengths)
5. RYCOTE Windshield and Deadcat
6. Petrol Cases for Gear and Boom Poles

All of the above gives you a shotgun or hypercartoid and 3 LAVS a field mixer for the 4 mics and a digital recorder with timecode for under $5000 (all bought used)

That all said. Our new website will require 4 clicks to get to this "indie" kit. With each page recommending they hire the 6 top sound guys in our market
The last one saying. OK, if you absolutely insist on ignoring all of the advice of preserving your film with a professional field sound mixer, please Click Here.

cheers

 

[Ketch Rossi]

What Tim said

Remember that Sound is one of those most important and must have things, that other wise can literally make your otherwise killer project, look like an amateur one.

 

[George Tsai]

b. RODE NTG-3 (killer hypercartoid Mic for the $)

I have this mic and love it. Great for it's price and then some. I got it back when they had a deal where you get the Rode Blimp for $1. So insanely good deal. I remember seeing a company had that deal for some time after it ended on Rode, not sure if they still have it.

 

[Joe D'Arcy]

No offense to Abraham or the other excellent posts regarding GEAR>

but the smartest decision we ever made was to NOT buy gear and HIRE PROFESSIONAL sound guys who have invested tens of thousands of dollars into their kit. Because there is no substitute for EXPERIENCE.

That said. We have a nice little sound kit for indies that are too naive to not hire a PRO sound person. (why is insane since its half the picture)
1. Azden 4CH Mixer (so they at least adjust the levels when the dude is yelling "SHUT THE FUCK UP" with his gun turned sideways. (why does every indie script have this scene?)
2. Tascam HD P2 CF recorder. Has timecode sync and digital recording for under $900! . Plastic and cheap feeling body, but man it works and works really well. An idiot could run it.
3. We put MOST our $ into the MICS
a. SENNHEISER MKH 416 Shotgun
b. RODE NTG-3 (killer hypercartoid Mic for the $)
c. SENNEHSIER EVO Wireless Kits (3) (when you cant afford LEctrosonic, no other low cost brand compares to these... (but their lav mics suck)
c. Countryman B Lave Mics ($349 each) work beautifully with Sennheiser Transmitter
4. Rycote CF Threaded Boom Poles (2 lengths)
5. RYCOTE Windshield and Deadcat
6. Petrol Cases for Gear and Boom Poles

All of the above gives you a shotgun or hypercartoid and 3 LAVS a field mixer for the 4 mics and a digital recorder with timecode for under $5000 (all bought used)

That all said. Our new website will require 4 clicks to get to this "indie" kit. With each page recommending they hire the 6 top sound guys in our market
The last one saying. OK, if you absolutely insist on ignoring all of the advice of preserving your film with a professional field sound mixer, please Click Here.

cheers

Thanks Tim, thats a great audio kit for the $. What didn't you like about the Sennheiser Lav mics?