How do YOU record your sound?

C

cmnervegna

This mainly goes to people who do low low budget films. How do you record your audio? Do you use a zoom H4n? Or another recorder? Mic's?

If you do, any test footage?
 
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I hire a sound guy - even on lo-budget material. (well, that's all I do.... soooooo....)

Sometimes it'll be a new guy, looking for lo-pay gigs to get started; other times, calling in a favour from more experience acquaintances, and payin' a nominal amount.

It's just not worth it, trying to DIY on top of all the other things going on.

As far as actual gear specifics? No clue. :)
 
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Same as Steve (well mostly). I have a friend who spent years as a live gig sound mixer, and amateur recording engineer. When I started making films I conned... errrr convinced him to drop like $3K on a control surface, a Korg MR-1000, a Rode NTG-2, a boom pole, shock mount, etc... (I'm working on talking him into buying some Lavs). He already had a super cartoid, and various other mics. He has pretty much already in a year been able to pay for all that gear working on other people's films. He works on mine (at least for now) for free in exchange for an executive producer credit.
 
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I record my audio with a Senn MKH50 or MK41 or CMIT5U - depending on acoustics and weather and other factors. I rarely use a lapel, but I use the Sanken COS-11 when I need to.

This all gets recorded into a Sound Devices 788T.

This is only for voice.

SFX recording is a whole other beast in itself.

I just went on an excursion gathering the sounds of the Pacific Northwest for a project.

I had with me a Neumann 191, my Schoeps MK5 capsules, and a surround-sound mic for getting ambiences in 5.1.

Fascinating stuff, sound recording.
 
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tin-can-telephone.jpg


Seriously though, while I have stuck with silent shorts or VO so far (for the simple reason that I
don't have the means atm to record sound well enough), when I do take on a project with dialog
(very soon, I hope!), I will be finding someone who knows what they are doing to record audio
for me. :)

It just takes too much skill and commitment to do it well, and I am more focused on the
cinematophraphic (is that a word) aspect of it.
 
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Mine's the same as 2001 (for the most part). I have an AT835R into a Shure Mixer (for the phantom power and clipping attenuation) then into the camera (Canon XL1s with an MA100). The workflow is great and I have no issues with audio.

For personnel, I dedicate a person to just sling boom, these are almost always folks who are serious about learning the craft at this point, so I'm getting quite good results from it (I always keep an eye and ear on them as well -- no issues on the last couple of productions).
 
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Okay ROC, you're just showing off.

When doing production sound it's whatever the budget allows me to rent. It could be an ME-66 on a boom direct to camera all the way up to a complete Sound Devices mixer/recorder combo with the complete mic locker and accessories. For field sound FX and ambience recording its the same deal, whatever the budget allows.

My personal collection of mics is as follows:

Neumann TLM 103
AKG 414 BUL/S
AKG C-1000S
EV RE-200
EV N/D257A
Beyer TG-X50
Sennheiser MKH-40
Audio Technica ATM-41
Audio Technica AT822
Shure SM57
Shure SM58
 
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He asked a question and I answered it.

Would you like a full list of my collection?

You've got a nice one, Alcove.

I personally think the best option for the least money is the NTG and H4n.
 
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Not with all of the H4n/NTG-2 problems I've been hearing about recently - low recording levels, flimsy XLR wiring, poor battery life. I really want to check out the DR-100; Tascam has a much better rep than Zoom, although I would wait a bit for the V.2 so they get the bugs worked out. What I'm really waiting for is when Tascam splits the difference between the DR-100 and the HD-P2; something to compete with the FR2-LE and the PMD-661 at the $400/$500 price point.
 
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Really? I thought the H4n was touted as the savior for low-budget sound?

Well, there you go. Never used that combo myself, but what Cracker Funk had on his short clips sounded OK to me.
 
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Alcove Audio said:
Not with all of the H4n/NTG-2 problems I've been hearing about recently - low recording levels, flimsy XLR wiring, poor battery life. I really want to check out the DR-100; Tascam has a much better rep than Zoom, although I would wait a bit for the V.2 so they get the bugs worked out. What I'm really waiting for is when Tascam splits the difference between the DR-100 and the HD-P2; something to compete with the FR2-LE and the PMD-661 at the $400/$500 price point.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't have anything to compare it to. Prior to this, I was using an unbalanced $30 mic, plugged directly into my camera. So, for me the H4n/NTG2 combo was obviously a step up. The clip I had up before has been taken down, but I'll try to remember to put another one up, for public analysis. As far as battery-life is concerened, we pretty much went through a fresh pair of batteries (two AA) every day.
 
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