red one mx audio vs zoom h6 recorder/other options

[daniel dayani]

hey guys,

straight forward question. i've heard great things about the audio for the red one mx. with plenty of options out there, how does the audio recording stack up to other recorders particularly the zoom h6? Would you guys recommend feeding a line straight into the r1 with a shotgun mic attached for small/low budget shorts where a sound person is not available?

cheers!

 

[D Fuller]

The sound recording quality of the R1 is excellent. I would always prefer to have someone paying attention solely to audio, but there is nothing wrong with the recording quality you will get.

 

[Matt Bai]

Literally the best. R1 preamps.

 

[Brian Ferguson]

hey guys,

straight forward question. i've heard great things about the audio for the red one mx. with plenty of options out there, how does the audio recording stack up to other recorders particularly the zoom h6? Would you guys recommend feeding a line straight into the r1 with a shotgun mic attached for small/low budget shorts where a sound person is not available?

cheers!

The Red 1 audio is really good. I used to be the audio support tech for the company on that camera. The only caveat is that the pre-amps on the output will clip before the the actual recording will. It took me a while to realize that. You get 4 tracks of 48K audio. I prefer feeding the camera from a mixer, but it isn't a problem if you don't. The camera has line and mic levels (per channel) in firmware, and the line level actually matches to some industry standards. In addition to consulting with Red at that time, I was doing location audio work freelance and getting field experience at the same time. I really like the audio on the Red One.

 

[Marc Wielage]

The best thing about sound recording on a separate recorder is that it will always work regardless of speed or camera issues. The other thing to consider is that the sound person is constantly checking the mics in the room, any local interference (trucks, planes, air conditioning, etc.), file names, metadata, sound levels, and so on. You need somebody who is really listening 100% of the time, without any distractions. To me, the camera operator has already got to worry about composition, focus, camera movement, battery life, the recording media, exposure, and so on; their job is hard enough without dumping sound on top of them as well.

I'm not a fan of the Zoom gear in general because I think it's kind of cheap and plasticky, but I'd rather have a Zoom than nothing. (And I know of some good sound people who have top of the line audio gear but use a Zoom as a backup "just in case.")

 

[Steve Sherrick]

I think the advantage with the R1 is that once they sorted out the early audio issues, recording directly to camera became an option. Although as Marc and Brian point out, you will get cleaner results with a nice mixer/preamp feeding line level to the camera. And having a backup recording if either the camera audio is bad or the sound recorder is bad is always going to be the preferred method. And of course someone monitoring the signal and making all of the fine tune adjustments is also preferred. But, what I love is if I'm one-man-banding it I could in theory get away with running direct to camera and not pay a huge price for it. That provides some flexibility. I generally speaking will run a Sound Devices mixer feeding line level though. I have a Remote Audio ENG breakaway cable made specifically for the R1 which makes it relatively easy to do this even as a one-man-band. I've been doing some advocacy films recently where I can't afford a full crew every shoot, so some days I do camera and sound. This combo works well.