You should have seen me last night videotaping a band. I had a Zoom H4n recording 4 tracks from onboard mic and 2 condensers attached. I had an M-Audio Microtrack II accepting a stereo line feed from the house board, and a camcorder also recording sound. Don't worry it was not a paying gig. I guess I was just testing my own limits. I had no mixer, so I alternately plugged my headphones into each recording unit.
Needless to say, it was rather chaotic. I went home with no idea what I had. Having way too much on my plate, on one set, I forgot to push the record button a second time to bring it out of standby. I did this on both the Microtrack and the H4n, not realizing it until after the set was over. I did the same on the camera for half of the first song.
The Zoom would not accept line level input from the board. The Microtrack did with lots of attenuation. The Zoom recorded the mics well, especially its own onboard mic. The headphone amps are so weak, I could not tell if my audo was good or not, especially with the loud live music. It's great that the Zoom can record 4 channels, but not good if you can't tell which is which. You could not control anything independently if you did. On both hand-held units, just about everything important is buried in some menu. Not good in a high stress environment.
Why am I self-aggrandizing and sounding like such a fool? All to make the point that saving a few dollars on equipment is not worth it if you cannot operate it with confidence. Since I usually work alone, and operate one or two cameras, my audio capture has to be very user-friendly and reliable.
I am not ashamed to say that I need equipment that requires little thought to operate. I need one unit that I can plug everything into and control. I need switches and knobs, not menus. I need blinking lights to warn me of things. I need to be able to troubleshoot quickly. I need to actually hear something in my headphones other than mush.
I first considered a field mixer, but that would not help me if I wanted to preserve multiple tracks. The only mixer with 4 ins and 4 outs costs $3 grand, and I still need a recorder. After much input on this and other forums, maybe a mixer is not necessary, so I narrowed down to the R-44 and maybe the Tascam DR-680.
I appreciate any further input. Especially any negatives about the R-44, as I don't see any yet. I am also working on a laptop based solution. I have a firewire interface, MOTU 8Pre, just no laptop yet. I am a startup business and will add personnel at some point, but I need to get everything working first. I need to get through a gig without something going wrong. Thanks for sharing my pain.
Needless to say, it was rather chaotic. I went home with no idea what I had. Having way too much on my plate, on one set, I forgot to push the record button a second time to bring it out of standby. I did this on both the Microtrack and the H4n, not realizing it until after the set was over. I did the same on the camera for half of the first song.
The Zoom would not accept line level input from the board. The Microtrack did with lots of attenuation. The Zoom recorded the mics well, especially its own onboard mic. The headphone amps are so weak, I could not tell if my audo was good or not, especially with the loud live music. It's great that the Zoom can record 4 channels, but not good if you can't tell which is which. You could not control anything independently if you did. On both hand-held units, just about everything important is buried in some menu. Not good in a high stress environment.
Why am I self-aggrandizing and sounding like such a fool? All to make the point that saving a few dollars on equipment is not worth it if you cannot operate it with confidence. Since I usually work alone, and operate one or two cameras, my audio capture has to be very user-friendly and reliable.
I am not ashamed to say that I need equipment that requires little thought to operate. I need one unit that I can plug everything into and control. I need switches and knobs, not menus. I need blinking lights to warn me of things. I need to be able to troubleshoot quickly. I need to actually hear something in my headphones other than mush.
I first considered a field mixer, but that would not help me if I wanted to preserve multiple tracks. The only mixer with 4 ins and 4 outs costs $3 grand, and I still need a recorder. After much input on this and other forums, maybe a mixer is not necessary, so I narrowed down to the R-44 and maybe the Tascam DR-680.
I appreciate any further input. Especially any negatives about the R-44, as I don't see any yet. I am also working on a laptop based solution. I have a firewire interface, MOTU 8Pre, just no laptop yet. I am a startup business and will add personnel at some point, but I need to get everything working first. I need to get through a gig without something going wrong. Thanks for sharing my pain.
And I certainly agree with you about unreliable equipment, microscopic buttons, and endless menus to wade through, all reasons I don't trust the inexpensive compact consumer recorders.
