GH2 Cheapest digital recorder with audio monitoring in headphones

E

el3nd1l

New member
Hi all,

I am looking for a cheap sound recorder to monitor audio in headphones. I am planning to use it with cheap lavalier mic to check all possible noises during interviews, etc. Unfortunately, zoom h1 is too expensive for me, so I am looking for cheaper alternatives. It is bad Panasonic GH2 does not have heaodphones monitoring function, so I will need to sync the sound later in post.

Also, how will the sound quality from cheap digital recorder comare to the GH2 audio (with connected lavalier)?


Thanks.
 
Hi,
I've been on a shoot that used the Zoom H4n, and it seemed to do pretty well. It did have a Sound Devices mixer in front of it though (although only for part of the time), so I don't know if that made all the difference, but the sound was noise-free. I think you'll find that just about anything will be better than the inbuilt audio, but I'm not sure that there's much cheaper than the Zoom range.

The issue with the Beachtek (and similar) range as I understand it is that there's still an issue with the GH2 AGC (although you can control it to some degree), and I'm not sure you can monitor it with headphones. Nofilmschool have done a dslr filmmakers guide that covers this (albeit briefly).
 
zoom h1 is about the cheapest one id spend any money on.. at $87.95 on amazon, its a great little device that's cheap yet produces quality.. other wise if you like me and keep all my outdated electronics, a PC/laptop with headphones and the lav plugged into the mic input jack.. you can record and monitor. get a good audio recording app for free like Audacity or Goldwave on a old laptop and you should be good to go.

Also if you looking at spending $88 on a Zoom h1, B&H has the H2 for $109..with free shipping.. that's what id get.. for that price range.
 
Cheap mic + cheap recorder = cheap and nasty audio ...and dissapointment will closely follow.

Get a reasonable decent mic such as something from the Rode range . Get an adapter cable with a monitoring split off for your headphones ..and thats about the best you will do on a "low" budget until you start investing in some audio kit that may include a field mixer with decent mic preamps etc.

Learning how to use the stuff is also very important.

el3nd1l said:
Hi all,

I am looking for a cheap sound recorder to monitor audio in headphones. I am planning to use it with cheap lavalier mic to check all possible noises during interviews, etc. Unfortunately, zoom h1 is too expensive for me, so I am looking for cheaper alternatives. It is bad Panasonic GH2 does not have heaodphones monitoring function, so I will need to sync the sound later in post.

Also, how will the sound quality from cheap digital recorder comare to the GH2 audio (with connected lavalier)?


Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
el3nd1l - if the $88 Zoom H1 is too much for you, try the Tascam DR-08 ($69 at B&H). It is a 24 bit 96 kHz recorder like the H1 and will give you high quality sound for not a lot of money.

To answer your question - yes, you will get better sound from an external recorder (and you'll be able to monitor it). But the GH2's internal audio is pretty good if your talent is mic'ed correctly.

A $22 Audio Technica wired lavalier is a good answer for interviews. I don't use camera mounted mics anymore for picking up dialogue because they don't have the intimacy of lavaliers - and I work alone, so there's no one to hold a boom mic close to the talent.

If you can't afford the $91 for the recorder and the mic, just get the $22 Audio Technica lav mic, a $5.50 mono stereo adapter and a $6 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapter and plug them straight into the GH2. Watch the audio meters to make sure you're recording and play every shot back to check sound as soon as you stop rolling.

Good luck!

Bill
 
Dang that Tascam DR-08 looks small.. any one have it, Id love to see it compared to a h1 or h2 for size, if that things small enough I may have a few special uses for it, also does it hold up well for quality of the recording? Sorry for semi hijacking the thread, but I didn't even know about this little recorder.. slightly curious for my own selfish reason :engel017: That is why I love great forums like this, every one benefits from everyone else's knowledge.
 
Virtually nobody does it, BUT the rule of thumb is you should have roughly as much in your audio gear as you have in your camera gear (It is half the end result after all). My sound guy brings about $3K worth of audio gear to a shoot, which isn't "pro" level by any stretch. That's basically just enough to get decent results with. Now I know budgets are budgets, we can't crap money we don't have, but it might be worth thinking about saving up and at least going for something like the H4 which is at best a borderline recorder.
 
Why not chance ebay? I got slightly used, but fully functioning old H4 Zoom, and am perfectly happy with it. I think i got it for around $50.
I was also considering a H1, it seemed the most "middle" road solution to getting decent audio. But for a few bucks more, i could have a H2... so i was on the fence, till i found a the great deal on ebay.
I guess what im trying to say, is im sure you can find a simple, small, and effective solution... comparable to a H1 for easily under $70, just have some patience.
 
The AGC on the GH2 is really no longer an issue with the new audio hack I've been refining since October. Gain levels remain consistent in a variety of environments and "dynamics processing" doesn't seem to kick until your signal gets pretty hot on external mics (and hasn't really been an issue under any conditions in testing with the internal mic so far).

http://perlichtman.com/pasdenapulse...settings-file-pasadena-pulse-audio-v2-beta-2/

The primary advantages of a (good) secondary recorder are bit-depth and sample rate options, as well as uncompressed audio. If you get a second recorder that is dirt cheap (think $20 at Target or Wal-Mart) your results will be worse than what you would get from recording in camera.

As long as you avoid that pitfall, mic selection and mic placement are even more important than the recorder selection.

@Shooter gave good advice, I agree with it.

@EvanM That mixer wasn't what determined what made it sound "noise free". It can boost the input level into the digital recorder, have superior quality pre-amps, etc. (and I don't know the specific mixer so I can't guarantee that those things are the case) but in the minimum noise level that can be achieved on the Zoom H4n comes down to the analog to digital converters it uses.

In real world use, the lowest noise level we've recorded with the GH2 converters so far is -72dBFS (and that's 16-bit, so the minimum possible value on the scale is -96 dBFS) recorded by placing an adapter into the recording jack but not feeding a signal to it. Compare that to the noise levels recorded with the various recorders in 24-bit at this site, tested in a "silent environment".

http://www.martin-doppelbauer.de/fieldrecorder/

I'll see if I can find my old test results for the internal mic to help the comparison.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top