Portable Recording Equipment

radiobliss

I was a little concerned about finding my way around.

Everyone has been so helpful!

I am in Radio. I work on the back side. HA! Which in short means I like to help or serve people!!! I have taken on the challenge of understanding forums. And hope to help people find their way into Radio Station Careers. Just cause that's how I want to help.

Need some help. Let me know. Deciding on schools. Ask me which ones your are thinking about. I'll share whatever I can to help.

And thanks Guys for all the kindness I have seen so far.

humberklog

Hello and welcome Radiobliss. I have a question you may be able to help me with. I have few topics and people in mind that I wish to make a recording of. It is a personal project and I don't necessarily want to try to get the finished product aired on radio. However I do wish to attempt to record them with as much quality and proffessionalism as I possibly can.
The project entails me travelling to subjects to interview and record them but I haven't a clue as to what type of equipment I would require to give a very high standard of playback. I do have a mixing desk at home which would suffice for editing, mastering and mixing.
So what's a good, portable, affordable method of recording monologue that would give radio broadcasting quality?

Heathen

Zoom do a Great digital recorder, with 4 condenser mics built in, the H2 i think its called i have one and i am well impressed with it so far.. you should be able to pick one up on eBay for about 140 knicker with a 4GB card.. think that was the deal i got
allows you to record in wav or mp3 format, also includes input for connecting to the desk if you want to record from the mixer
hope this helps
cheers

humberklog

Hmm it could well be Heathen. I have a Zoom H8 which I use for recording music. It also has a cd burner built in. So the H2 would be all fully compatible.
How long would it record for and can you put mics into it?

Heathen

yep you can put an external mic in (but you'll need a step down phono jack)
with the 4GB card you can record about 16 hours i think (rusty memory on me after weekend )
but you can record in full 360 degree sound or in stereo if you want.. the 4 mics are positioned to allow 360 recording..

im well impressed with it, tidy little unit

humberklog

Thanks for the info Heathen think that's the way to go.
Just to give you an idea of the range I'm looking for. On one end I want to capture two people talking in a standard georgian building room(say 18foot by 18 and a 13 foot high cieling). Need to capture detail of breathing,movement and voice inflection. And on the other scale I want to be able to record an aeroplane taking off from about 100ft away. But on playback it needs to be recognisable as a plane as opposed to BIG white noise.
Thanks again Heathen.

Heathen

well i have used this unit for interviewing Musicians in quiet rooms and captured every breath.. i have also used it for recording Heavy Metal Bands live at gigs and captured ever note.. there is 3 levels of microphone sensitivity low mid and high.. also if you have the headphones plugged in while recording you can monitor the whole thing instead of having to look at the level meter on it all the time.. id recommend it

barnicles

It does rock :-)

humberklog

Cracking piece of equipment. Thanks a lot for the heads up.
I've only picked it up last night and haven't had chance to see what the difference in quality is between a high numbered WAV recording and a low numbered MP3 recording is. I do notice the time though: High WAV about an hour and low MP3 about 80hours. Is there a big difference in quality by the time I transfere it to my Zoom H8 for adding effects and editing?
Eh what's WAV and the difference between that and MP3?

giftgrub

MP3 is more compressed, WAV is pretty much "as is"

you can lose quality by compressing

in terms of recording equipment Marantz has been used by many radio reporters for years now

Their latest portable recorder http://www.d-mpro.eu.com/index2.php?CID=3&Pid=139&action=detail&lang=eng

I've seen them in action, light easy to use, more and more people are using them nowadays

humberklog

hanks gift but as I've just got hands on H2 I think I'll stay put for now.
So WAV is higher quality? I do want to record a number of sounds but mostly conversation,then mix and edit on a larger stuio board which I also have, but at the highest possible quality(budget fitting). Then record to disc.
WAV over MP then?

monkeyfudge

Yep. The Marantz ones seem to really have taken off in radio stations.

I've seen a lot of the PMD620 and the PMD660.

They have a studier feel to them so they're good for renting out within a station.

That said I have the Zoom H4 myself and think it's great.

humberklog

Just to give the H2 a run out last night I recorded guitar and p[iano in the house and was very very impressed with the pick up.
Now to see how it goes with the interviews/project thingys I have in mind.

giftgrub

The H2 is great by all accounts, some of the people i know who are radio news reporters still use an external mic though

they say the inbuilt condenser mic is actually TOO good, for one on one interviews (like a doorstep) it picks up everything around it, where an external mic is nice and one-directional

If you are recording maybe use the inbuilt mic for larger sounds, catching atmos etc, and invest in an external mic for interviews, (unless of course you want the background for those as well)

Rockiemalt

I have a zoom h2 and i use it with a Beyer Dynamic MCE 58 (condenser mic) for vox pops and interviews for broadcast on commercial radio.

It's alright but not the best piece of kit. I prefer the quality I get from my minidisc. I found that when using my external mic with the zoom the best setting is to have the gain set to high and have the "recording level" down lower as is you have the gain on low or med and the recording level on higher you get alot more hiss. I do like the non real time transferring though and the fact you have the different folders. I've use an M Audio hard disk recorder and i may be wrong but I couldn't find how to set up different folders for files to record to.
The onboard mics seem to pick up alot of hand noise if you use the supplied screw in handle. Less so if you use the little tripod but it still seems fairly sensitive to vibrations too so it needs to be put on another surface to decrease this.

My minidisc always produced much better levels but it was the realtime recording from disc to computer that annoyed me. I've tried a few different mics with the zoom and none seem to produce as good levels as I get from minidisc. thats my 2c, hope its some use!

humberklog

All good info gift and rockie. It is quite sensitive to handling. But once set up it's perfect. I 'll be mostly recording with the in-built as I want the external noises for atmosphere and depth. I did stick my own condenser mic onto it and was also very impressed with the precision.
Indeed I noticed that too about keeping the gain at high and reducing blast with the record level thingy.

Magicman1

The Zoom H4 is an excellent all-round piece of kit. Great for recording music and one-to-one voice stuff but, as a previous post says, almost too good for voice as it picks up everything!

giftgrub

Rockiemalt wrote: »

My minidisc always produced much better levels but it was the realtime recording from disc to computer that annoyed me. I've tried a few different mics with the zoom and none seem to produce as good levels as I get from minidisc. thats my 2c, hope its some use!

Sony do a portable HI-MD minidisc recorder, for the life of me i cant remember the model, (its black and slim with a matt finish)

You'd probably pick one up on eBay

Anyway that has software that lets you transfer directly onto your PC, it initially transfers as that dodgy Sony-only ATRAC format, however you can set it to convert to WAV

Theyre a pretty good, however they are a little sensitive and dont like getting bashed around

Rockiemalt

I have used those minidiscs a few times too. They are mighty expensive new, about €400 where as the zoom was half the price. (important when I'm buying the gear myself!)
I did actually buy a USB minidisc recently on ebay before and it wasnt until i got it that I realised you can't upload with them, i was very annoyed!
Flash mic is what I'd like alot....