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One last question: preamp/recorder on a budget
Thanks for Ty and everyone’s help so far. I’ve got the mics that I think I will need (Rode NTG-2, Electrovoice RE50N/D-B and a Sony Lav).
I have $500-600 to spend on a portable preamp and a recorder. I want to record 2 channels. This is an audio for video application, with the camera moving around all the time.
Can you recommend a solution in that price range (or lower of course).
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23 Replies
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Tony,
What’s wrong with using the audio tracks in your camera?
Regards,
Ty Ford
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There are much more cost effective and better sounding lavs than the Sony’s. Check out the Countryman line at https://www.countryman.com. Look for the EMW lav there.
Eric
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Ty, I tried the camera audio recording.
The biggest problem is hiss, caused by the gain circuitry. Really bad on my camera.
I found a workaround to the hiss: I direct the mic to the left channel and a 19Khz noise to the right channel, which causes the camera to clamp down on the auto-gain control. The hiss goes away. Nice, but:
Problems with this approach:
(1) Clunky. Two wires and an MP3 player dangling from the camera.
(2) No monitoring. Yesterday, I forgot to turn on the MP3 player and ended up recording hiss.
(3) Limited to one channel.
(4) Crossover. I see a faint 19Khz waveform in the left channel.
(5) No gain control means the level is not optimal. Not sure this would work at all with a low-output dynamic mic.
(6) Limited to 44/16 recording. Probably have more distortion and aother bad stuff than with a quality set-up.
Perhaps a better solution to the hiss is to get a better camera, but I would still have (6) to think about–better recorders do give cleaner sound, I think.
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what camera?
Ty
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Please don’t laugh, it’s an Olympus E-PL1. It captures very nice video in a tiny package with superb lenses, but its audio capture is not so good.
I am planning to upgrade to a Nikon D7000, Panasonic GH2 or Canon 60D. I think all of these have manual gain controls (don’t know how clean it would be at anything but the lowest setting).
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Any thoughts on preamp/recorder?
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I would suggest the Marantz PMD661. I have the Zoom H4 (the original, not the newer H4n). The Zoom is a very popular recorder for folks in your situation because it seems to have a lot of features in a portable package at a decent price. But some of the features are useless for your application (I’m pretty sure you won’t need a tuner, metronome or phrase trainer, for instance). Plus I’ve found the Zoom to be not very user friendly. I am considering the Marantz unit myself to replace the Zoom recorder. I’ve never had good experience trying to input a line level signal from my Sound Devices 442 into the Zoom units without some amount of distortion. I believe the Marantz will handle my needs better. The biggest selling point for me is that the Marantz will accept line level signals on the XLR inputs. I don’t think anyone else in this price range has that feature. The PMD661 is $600 though and I know you were hoping for something cheaper. This is just my suggestion, my $0.02 worth. Hope this helps.
Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer -
“I’ve never had good experience trying to input a line level signal from my Sound Devices 442 into the Zoom units without some amount of distortion.”
Have you tried setting the 442’s output to -10?
Eric
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Yes, I have tried -10 as well. The only acceptable method I’ve found when inputting a feed to the H4 has been using the XLR outputs of the 442 set to mic level. Even using the TA3 outputs directly below the XLR outs set to mic level will give me small amounts of distortion on the transients. The tape/mix out (an 1/8″ jack), which is switchable between mic and line (-10) in an internal menu, also gives me distortion on the peaks, regardless of which level setting is selected. I will readily admit there is the possibility that I’m not doing something right, but it shouldn’t be as hard, or as confusing, to feed audio into the H4. That is why I think it is not very user-friendly.
Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer -
Rodney,
You have the 442 meter display set to read peaks or peaks and RMS, right?
If it’s only reading RMS (which it can be set to do) the peaks will smack anything you put them into.
The sun is down. Where’s my beer?
Regards,
Ty Ford
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