Portable power options for field recorders? Best way to provide phantom power?

T

Terrence Wilkins

Active member
Hey guys, at the moment I'm currently running around with a Tascam dr100 mk2 with a rode ntg3 and a pair of sennhesiser hd 380 pros . My only problem at this point, is the horrendous battery life of the AA's while providing phantom power, currently I'm getting about 25-30mins with good batterys.

It's becoming a real pain in the ass, I've all ready made my money back from my current setup so i don't mind investing in a better recorder. My current budget at the moment is £1000, so far I've looked at the tascam hd-p2, roland r-44 or the fostex fr2 le.

If any one could point me in the right direction that would be great, or even provide a solution for my power woes that would be much appreciated. If theres a better way to power the tascam, i'd do that and save up for a sound devices setup. (I am aware there is a battery pack add on that lets you run the tascam off 6 AA's but i can't see it helping that much) I would love something that somehow uses big camcorder batterys?

Thanks for your time.
 
Hello, Terrence!

For starters, there's THIS STICKY on recorders. The good thing is that you have a pretty decent budget for upgrading. It may not, however, be simply a matter of battery life with phantom power. Most recorders are going to have shorter battery life when they provide phantom. Really, ANY device will run batteries down faster when supplying more electricity as that's just the way it works, but that aside...

Adding a mixer on the front end of the recorder can provide better pre-amps and a more robust phantom power supply. It also gives you flexibility in signal routing and much better signal metering and monitoring. The easy answer to your DR100mkII is to add something like the Sound Devices MixPre-D, but the recorder is not bag-friendly. The MixPre-D is a great front-end to many of the smaller recorders. There's also the Sound Devices 302 which gives you more input flexibility with three ins, though mixing three inputs to two record channels does mean that two of them get doubled (if you're using three sources, of course). Moving up, the Sound Devices 442 (discontinued, but you can find them used within your budget) gives you four inputs with direct outputs on each for feeding a multi-track recorder. Then there's the 552 which has 5 inputs with a built-in, two-track recorder, but that's way above your stated budget.

So really... what are your needs not just right now but in the forseeable future? Will you be adding mics? Is time code a concern?
 
The DR-100 is a good recorder, It's pre-amps ain't the greatest and as Alex stated good pre-amps/mixer would make a difference. If you have an unbalanced wireless mic (G2/3 for instance) plugged in the the other channel, it could be partially shorting out the Phantom Prw,. this can greatly affect battery life as the Phantom is present to both channels. An external mixer would remedy this as well. Your other option is an external Phantom Power supply.
 
Sound Devices MixPre-D will power two phantom mics for half a day on 2 AA batteries. Add the Porta Brace MX-24 Audio Mixer Case with RM Pocket for your sound person, and cable to feed your Tascam DR-100MK2 with LINE level signal and you are pretty much set. 4-6 AA batteries will get you through an entire day.
 
I've used the Fostex FR2-LE for several months and I would definitely recommend it as a recorder. Good battery life (6-7 hours w/o phantom, probably half that with phantom power on), the mic pres are pretty good, and being able to name files is very useful (the naming menu is a little wacky, but easy once you get used to it).
 
JuicedLink Riggy or Assist.

Just received the Riggy and it works like a charm - super low noise preamp.
 
I think one might be able to adapt a lipo with the right voltage to match th recorder. I've been wanting to get something for my Tascam DR-680, which is an amazing recorder BTW. 6 channels with phantom for 600.00 at B&H.
 
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