Mid-budget portable and home audio recorder

[Mark S]

But in the future, after getting more experience, I do plan to do multi track recording myself.

...If your going to direct and do another task (not recommended) it should be shooting. The director needs to SEE the shot and you can't watch and listen at the same time. Your mind will focus on one and usually that will be a visual if you have one. If you are watching the take you will miss things in the sound. Multi track will take all of your attention so that goes doubly.
...
Again I will emphasize directing is a full time plus job. You can't successfully direct and do just about anything else. You might be able to squeeze in camera work since it keeps you in the scene but you certainly can't do something that requires you to be out of the moment analyzing what is being recorded. For visualls that backs off a bit doing industrials and docs.
...
But even if you are aiming pretty low there should be one person who's sole focus visual, one for sound, and one for performance. If you are shooting with less than that I don't think you can do high quality work in a reasonable amount of time.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I do plan to do multi track recording/monitoring, but not for the type of productions you are probably thinking of. I'd do it for training, simple advertising, etc. where the camera can just be fixed or held by a camera operator with very simple instructions. If I get as far as producing films for entertainment, I wouldn't do the sound myself.

Mark, it sounds like you have already sold yourself on what equipment you are going to purchase, and now youre looking for validation on your theory.
is the Tascam well worth the cost? of course it is if you truly will use it and its benefits, will a DR40 do the job you are talking about (industrial education films) just as well? YES

When I originally posted, I was leaning toward the DR-680 but was willing to consider other models as suggested by other posters.

Earlier in the week the free case offer with the DR-680 at B&H photo disappeared, so I looked into the DR-40 and H4N again. That's because that case was what made the unit just portable enough for all of my envisioned uses, and after dropping my idea of ambient recording those both had enough channels.

BUT, it's good I didn't buy either. I found out that there's a good chance I'll be able to do the audio for something that needs the capabilities of the DR-680 (or a mixer plus a 2 or 4 channel recorder). I saw the free case offer was back so I ordered a DR-680 and should be getting it early next week!

 

[Chadfish]

Cool Mark! Please post your DR-680 impressions here after you've had a chance to play with it. It's a great recorder.

 

[Philip Goetz]

Hey Chadfish, or someone else... I've got a Marantz PMD660 and never realized it didn't have a MIC/LINE switch on the XLR in. I've plugged mic into it and used the 1/8 line in before... but... I've got a demo of a guitar amp and want to do something a little different. I want to use the Shure 57 and a Sennheiser MK4 (Studio condenser mic). I could just run them to the PMD660, but I want to get higher quality. I've got a friend with a Presonus MP20. XLR in, but I don't know if the XLR out is LINE. If it is I could just run that to the camera I am using, AF100, probably, which is easily set to LINE. The trick is to have a good preamp when jumping from MIC level to recording or MIC to LINE, right? I don't have a SOUND DEVICES or other recorder with really nice pres (XLR MIC IN). My second option is to use an Allen and Heath board with USB out. It comes with some sort of capture software to throw on a computer...

 

[recordingwhiz]

Mark, congrats on the purchase, please keep us informed on your project and how it worked out for you. Im sure there are plenty that would like to hear opinions on the recorder.

Cheers

 

[Rick R]

Hey Chadfish, or someone else... I've got a Marantz PMD660 and never realized it didn't have a MIC/LINE switch on the XLR in. I've plugged mic into it and used the 1/8 line in before... but... I've got a demo of a guitar amp and want to do something a little different. I want to use the Shure 57 and a Sennheiser MK4 (Studio condenser mic). I could just run them to the PMD660, but I want to get higher quality. I've got a friend with a Presonus MP20. XLR in, but I don't know if the XLR out is LINE. If it is I could just run that to the camera I am using, AF100, probably, which is easily set to LINE. The trick is to have a good preamp when jumping from MIC level to recording or MIC to LINE, right? I don't have a SOUND DEVICES or other recorder with really nice pres (XLR MIC IN). My second option is to use an Allen and Heath board with USB out. It comes with some sort of capture software to throw on a computer...

I would use the Allen and Heath board and USB out for audio capture with an additional send to the camera for sync purposes and back-up.
Right you are, the 660 does not have a mic/line XLR switch (like the 661) and the 1/8" TRS input is sensitive and easily clips the input stage when -10dBu (or so) is exceeded. The preamps were 'decent' but not great by any means, the internal mics were pretty much useless except for aural note-taking. A reliable machine in my experience.

 

[Mark S]

Happy so far!

Happy so far!

Cool Mark! Please post your DR-680 impressions here after you've had a chance to play with it. It's a great recorder.

Mark, congrats on the purchase, please keep us informed on your project and how it worked out for you. Im sure there are plenty that would like to hear opinions on the recorder.

Cheers

I received the DR-680 and have had a chance to test it out a little bit. It hasn't been the most demanding testing, nor have I been able to take advantage of all the features (right now I only have the NTG-2), but I'm happy with it so far. There is one thing that I don't like though. If you go over about 50% headphone volume, there is noticeable noise. It doesn't fade in as you slowly raise the volume either; it steps up at certain points on the dial. I'd read about the headphone noise somewhere when researching the product, but it's worse than I anticipated.

Also, this isn't a hit for the unit itself, but I don't think I'd ever use the 192 kHz recording just because of the massive amount of memory it takes.

 

[Rick R]

I don't have a 680, not do I know it's HP amp, but some headphones require much more power than others. (for instance the 600ohm AKG K240s needed lots of juice) The venerable Sony 7506 HPs are very efficient.
IMO, 192 kHz recording (or even 96k) is overkill for most dialog type work. I use 48k/24 most frequently. (96k sometimes for S/FX with a lots of HF content. With the low cost of memory these days though, 192 kHz for music is reasonable.

 

[Chadfish]

Hey Mark

On the 680 there is a "Mix" button that takes you to a screen of 8 virtual faders showing the monitoring level of each track. The levels don't affect the recording level. They are just so you can mix 6 tracks down to 2 (7 & 8) while recording, OR so you can monitor multiple tracks at the levels you want. I suggest you turn those up to 75% (or more) on the channels you are recording, which will give you more signal in your headphones. Also I have found that the 680 seems to record a bit quieter than what the recording level meters tell my eyes, and I end up with tracks that could be turned up. So when I have my record levels up properly, along with the mix levels up, I have no issues with the headphone levels or hiss. I think if you're getting hiss your gain staging just needs to be tweaked. Or you could always get some sort of headphone booster too. But try the Mix levels first.

These are the size of a match book and charge by USB: http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Headphone-Amplifier-Booster-Control/dp/B004BO7N8S

EDIT: And as Rick says, your cans may be weak. My Sony 7506 cans are industry standards, cheap, and never seem too quiet.