Double System Audio Recorder

[Noah Kadner]

What’s the budget?

Noah

Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera!
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook, Panasonic HVX200, Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon 7D.
Watch Formosa- My indie movie shot with the SDX900 and finished with Final Cut Studio.

[Robbie Carman]

Noah is right lots of ways to go here depending on budget. But I’d take a look at the Zoom H4N, and the Tascam DR-07 there are others in that price range that are good too from M-Audio and others

Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion

[Noah Kadner]

Yeah I just ask because there’s the entry-level stuff like the Zoom and M-Audio which many DSLR shooters use and then the higher-end pro gear like Sound Devices.

Noah

Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera!
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook, Panasonic HVX200, Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon 7D.
Watch Formosa- My indie movie shot with the SDX900 and finished with Final Cut Studio.

[Mark Welch]

Thanks for the input.
My experience with low-end recording devices has been disappointing (hissy). If the H4n can record pristine audio at 24 bit 196k then yes, that fits the budget. The Sound Devices 702t will have to wait.

[Noah Kadner]

Yeah some of the earlier models had not so great input circuitry. But in general the current crop sounds pretty sweet with good, well-placed mics. And you’ll be leaps and bounds above the onboard audio quality of any DSLR for sure. And yeah the Sound Devices gear is dope.

Noah

Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera!
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook, Panasonic HVX200, Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon 7D.
Watch Formosa- My indie movie shot with the SDX900 and finished with Final Cut Studio.

[Danny Grizzle]

I owned the original Zoom H4. Very good sound, but cheesy build quality.

The Zoom H4n looks to be much better, but I have never seen or used one.

I am now using a Tascam DR-100. Same general form factor as the Zoom recorders, and it also accepts XLR inputs. What I like most are the excellent build quality, dual battery (NiMH plus AA), and great control layout. You can operate this thing with gloves on. Manual setting of VU, display quality, dedicated switches for critical functions — all a vast improvement over the Zoom H4 (which had tiny, poor quality pots for VU setting, and too many functions buried in menus). $305 seems to be the going price.

Sorry I can’t contrast with the Zoom H4n. I have actually owned 2 different Zoom recorders, and there were quality issues with both. Frankly, the Zoom H4 sounded great, but design and build quality was appalling. My Zoom H2 was a standby / backup. The day I finally reached for it, it recorded about 4 minutes, then died forever – out of warranty.

I’ve never been disappointed with Tascam gear. They’ve been around pro / semi-pro audio for 40+ years. I particularly like their newly announced field recorders.

My next audio recorder will likely be the Tascam DR-680, because lots of times I need more input channels than a simple stereo pair. The DR-680 is an 8 channel recorder with 6 mic inputs. At about $1,000, this looks like a very nice recorder.

The Tascam HS-P82 looks to be a superb professional time code field recorder, but $5,500.

As others here have mentioned, I also admire Sound Devices. Hey, I also admire RED and Panavision. For me, the Tascam gear produces professional caliber results, and is well matched to DSLR video economics.

[Mark Welch]

Thanks, I’ll certainly look into the Tascam. Also thanks to Noah. I’m a big fan of the Formosa project – groundbreaking stuff IMHO.
Mark

[Rue Dwyer]

I use the Korg MR-1000. A two-track DSD recorder that
offers the most pristine digital audio recordings I’ve
ever heard. Two input XLR with phantom power and
high-quality mic pres.

You can convert the files to any audio file format
and sampling rate/bit depth you need with the included
Audiogate software.

The quality is simply stunning.

Rue Dwyer
EX1 5Dmkii
FCP

[Dave Matthis]

Hey Mark!

Just a comment about double-system work. Something I didn’t see mentioned in this thread was the potential “gotcha” of an imprecise digital clock in one or the other devices (either the picture recorder or the audio recorder). This causes drifting A/V sync, which can become a real problem in posting a long-form recording, especially event videography. If recording lengthy camera shots, beware of that problem, and be prepared to deal with it.

Recently I shot a multi-camera musical performance, about an hour long, with audio going to an inexpensive solid-state digital recorder. Audio quality was fine, but over an hour’s time the drift was drastic. It took math, FCP and voodoo to fix it. 😉

In the old days we shot on film and used Nagra 1/4″ audio recorders made for this application. I had lots of experiences and headaches with posting that. I think it’s wise for lesser-experienced double-system shooters to go with equipment combinations that (from someone else’s experience) they *know* avoids these problems. And that advice needs to be specifically valid for the type of shooting application in question. HTH.