Secondary Audio Recorder for GH1

L

LittleTreeMedia

Active member
Hi All, starting in early December I'm starting to work with a hip hop tour filming live events, interviews, etc and i'm looking at secondary audio recorders that i can use in conjunction with my GH1 or so i can record a board feed of the show. I will also be shooting on my HMC 150, but I will need to me roving around with that camera (and possibly the GH1) shooting broll and interviews so i cant run a board feed directly into that camera.

Researching on B&H it seems that for the cost (my budget is around $300 since i need to buy other gear as well) its either the Zoom H4n or the Tascam DR-100. Looking at the features i like how the Zoom has 4 ch and can record with the internal at the same time as the XLR, but the Tascam can easily control gain levels of the individual channels. There is the possibility that when i use this with the GH1, one XLR will be a NTG-1 and the other a G2 wireless lapel, so it will need to work with both of those.

Does anyone have any experience with either of these and can recommend one over the other? Or a different system? I am editing all the footage in FCP and shooting at 1080p24 (GH1 is not hacked).

Thanks!

LTM
 
I suggest to look at Fostex FR-2LE.
Both Tascam and Zoom have weak preamps (not bad - just made for loud sounds).
And NTG2 is not very hot mike.
You could try to catch Fostex on ebay. Sometimes for goes for $300-$400 :-)
 
I was actually just drooling over the TASCAM and wishing I had one instead of my Zoom (h4 but I've used the H4n and would still prefer the tascam,) primarily because it looks like it has much nicer controls, specifically the level control knob which seems to have come straight off of the HDP2...on the zoom it is very hard to change the levels in real time. It also generally seems much better designed, but again, haven't used one yet. If you're between H4N and the TASCAM I would personally get the TASCAM.
 
Um, worth noting that both of them (I believe) cannot control phantom power individually on each channel, meaning they might not work well mixing mics where one has a battery (like the LAV) and one needs phantom power.
 
I have used all three. The Zoom H4n is useful simply because of it's portability... but you take a random chance of getting crappy preamps. The tascam is better, the fr2le is great but has horrible headphone out monitoring. I am looking to get a demo of the 8 channel tascam box that everyone seems to be raving about. My other recorder is a Sound Devices 702 which is simply stellar sound and headphone amp - it's like being an alien with hyper ears when wearing a set of sony mdr-v6 headphones and using my sanen cs-3e mic.

But... only I notice it.... no directors have noticed the difference from my work weather I wear q big heavy pack with $4000 of sound devices gear and mixers, or my $300 zoom h4n.

However, I went through 3 or 4 zooms, and finally had an engineer friend who mods mics and various electronic things with better preamps play with it, and whatever the hell he did, it sounds better, and it now handles my cs-3e better (gets about 2 hours fulls use on 2 doubl AA)s where before it would pop and crackle and distort a lot easier.
 
Blackout

I know why you like your Zoom.
Look at Sanken specs - Sensitivity (nominal at 1kHz) 40mV/Pa (-28dB,0dB=1V/Pa)




This tells it all.
Rode and most other shotguns are 10-15mv/Pa.

I am waiting for MXL shotgun mike with 45mv/Pa. And we'll look how it holds itself with DR100.
 
Yes the Sanken cs-3e is a weird awesome mic..... but I have to tell you it's magic.... in situations with so much crazy city ambient noise here in NYC, this mic and no other sucked the actor's dialog out of the noise like a magical dialog sound magnet.
 
Been using a Sennheiser MKH-60 lately. Enjoying it, little hot though and a bit cold and mechanical. Still, works great in the Rode blimp. Wishing it was mine :)

EDIT:
Been using it with the TASCAM HD-P2...which I also wish was mine :D
 
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Unfortunately with my budget i dont think i can avoid the phantom power issue. Ben, et al, do you think the Tascam is still the one to go with even though it only records 2 channels at a time where as the H4N can record 4 (the internal mics as well as any external). I know its over kill, but recording live shows i was thinking of having the internals record the room and take a board feed as the other 2 ch. But i do like the better controls of the Tascam especially if i am conducting an interview. All in all, its a tough choice.

I wish you could combine the good of both of them and not the bad, oh yeah they do, but its way more money......
 
TASCAM is probably a much better choice since when recording something like a live show the levels might end up changing quite drastically. On the zoom they're very difficult to control, but on the TASCAM you have a knob for each channel that is easily accessible.
 
I'd go with Tascam DR-07 and Apogee Duet. DR-07 & redhead windscreen for super portability in run-and-gun style. Duet for the best quality I can afford in controlled environment where I can comfortably set up macbook pro. Add 10" ext monitor and ready to go!
 
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