That thing you plug the sound into question.

A

Angelshare1

Well-known member
I'm currently using my HPX-170 as a sound recorder when I want to do sound effects. I want to start my own sound effects library but don't want to lug my camera around when I want to record. Plus I get video files of course that use a lot of hard drive space up.

Is there a small device that will just record sound that I can offload on a hard drive when I'm finished? I just want to run around with my shotgun mic and offload on a hard drive. I only need two XLR inputs, nothing fancy. I'm not sure if quality is an issue, but I'll be using a pretty nice shotgun mic like a Sennheiser 416.

I normally don't have a separate sound guy for shoots, just plug right into camera so I don't need anything big and expensive with 10 different channels. Any suggestions?
 
4076687726_21aed2b6b3.jpg


Couldn't help it.

Angel, the stickies are our friends. Embrace them like we all do. The words you are looking for are "Hand-held Digital Recorder".
 
Brings back memories.

Many years ago I was a DJ and recorded liners back stage at concerts with a Marantz cassette recorder, which at the time was the highest quality portable recorder you could carry, sans a 1/4" Nagra.

For those that don't know, liners were where the band would say a line for the radio station like... Hey it's Peter Frampton , and when I come alive in San Diego I listen to KGB FM.
 
Angelshare1 said:
I'm currently using my HPX-170 as a sound recorder when I want to do sound effects. I want to start my own sound effects library but don't want to lug my camera around when I want to record. Plus I get video files of course that use a lot of hard drive space up.

Is there a small device that will just record sound that I can offload on a hard drive when I'm finished? I just want to run around with my shotgun mic and offload on a hard drive. I only need two XLR inputs, nothing fancy. I'm not sure if quality is an issue, but I'll be using a pretty nice shotgun mic like a Sennheiser 416.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Marantz PMD661
Roland R-26
Tascam DR-100mkII
Tascam DR-40
Zoom H4n

Out of those, I would probably get the Roland R-26. It has more channels than you need, but I think it's kind of neat-o. I haven't used one, though. Of those recorders, I've used the Zoom H4n and the DR-100, and they're just okay-ish.
 
David W. Jones said:
For those that don't know, liners were where the band would say a line for the radio station like... Hey it's Peter Frampton , and when I come alive in San Diego I listen to KGB FM.
Click to expand...

o/t but that does bring back memories. At 2UE here in Sydney, I remember recording the Bee Gees singing in one of their distinctive harmonies,
'hullo Hullo HULLOOOO, we're the BeeGees and we're on the Bob Rogers Shoooww' They sounded great.

Their father used to stand behind them and if one was out of tune, he'd smack him over the back of his head. I'd record everything and one time after a funny break-up Rogers says 'we'll play it all tonight on the show.' We did, and next morning their father rang the station mangager and threatened to pull the plug on the whole deal. He was a hard task master and this was before Robert Stigwoods managerial style.

The Bee Gees were kids at the time and it's very sad to read about them now.

Cheers.
 
David W. Jones said:
Brings back memories.

Many years ago I was a DJ and recorded liners back stage at concerts with a Marantz cassette recorder, which at the time was the highest quality portable recorder you could carry, sans a 1/4" Nagra.

For those that don't know, liners were where the band would say a line for the radio station like... Hey it's Peter Frampton , and when I come alive in San Diego I listen to KGB FM.
Click to expand...

Hah, no wonder I never listen to KGB FM...

In fact, really didn't listen to SD rock radio from the time KPRI started to go more 'mainstream', till about 7-8 years ago and KBZT 94.9...

For those who have no idea about what KPRI may have been in the late 60's early very early 70's... from the wiki...

-----
This era is portrayed in the motion picture "Almost Famous," with Cameron Crowe's visit to KPRI's studios at the corner of 7th and Ash in downtown San Diego.
-----
 
Doc Bernard said:
4076687726_21aed2b6b3.jpg


Couldn't help it.
Click to expand...

Nor can I then - this was my first portable cassette recorder:-

nakamichi550-h.jpg

The Nakamichi 550 (though I used a different mic. from the one pictured).

Doing the calculations - it would cost me the equivalent of about £2,500 in today's money - I had to do a lot of saving to get that baby (and I still have it).
 
David W. Jones said:
Brings back memories.

Many years ago I was a DJ and recorded liners back stage at concerts with a Marantz cassette recorder, which at the time was the highest quality portable recorder you could carry, sans a 1/4" Nagra.
Click to expand...

No - the Marantz was never that good.

The poor man's Nagra was the Uher and the best portable cassette was the Nakamichi 550 by a long way.

The Marantz (Superscope) was the best of the cheaper batch, but a long way behind the Nakamichi.
 
Sam Mallery said:
Marantz PMD661
Roland R-26
Tascam DR-100mkII
Tascam DR-40
Zoom H4n
Click to expand...

This is a good list to start - though I think I would remove the Zoom H4n and add the Olympus LS-100 to the list.

For higher quality in a portable (rather than pocketable) recorder I would also look at:-
Fostex FR-2LE (2-channel)
Edirol R-44 (4-channel)
Tascam DR-680 (6/8-channel)
All these are under £1,000 (and maybe even under $1,000).
 
John Willett said:
This is a good list to start - though I think I would remove the Zoom H4n and add the Olympus LS-100 to the list.

For higher quality in a portable (rather than pocketable) recorder I would also look at:-
Fostex FR-2LE (2-channel)
Edirol R-44 (4-channel)
Tascam DR-680 (6/8-channel)
All these are under £1,000 (and maybe even under $1,000).
Click to expand...

They're looking for a small recorder, and I left the LS-100 off the list because it has a .2 second latency on its headphone monitor.
 
John Willett said:
No - the Marantz was never that good.

The poor man's Nagra was the Uher and the best portable cassette was the Nakamichi 550 by a long way.

The Marantz (Superscope) was the best of the cheaper batch, but a long way behind the Nakamichi.
Click to expand...

Not so fast there quickdraw.

Marantz was it's own company and was acquired by Superscope in 1964. But it sold it to Philips in 1980. In 2001 Marantz Japan acquired all of the Marantz assets world wide and in 2002 they merged with Dennon.

So there is only one period where Superscope owned Marantz. Superscope was known for cheap, Marantz (in the Philips era anyway) was high mid level. You could adjust bias, had confidence playback, varaspeed and you could get it adapted for crystal sync.

It was used (in the US) a lot for news gathering and low budget filmmaking.

Part of what was used where probably has to do with trade agreements and taxes. Uher I didn't see around much except for folks who brought them back from Europe, and if I remember right they were only RtoR. We (US) had all kinds of good trade arrangements with Japan so that probably moved the cost benefit gauge in favor of Japan VS Europe. Same reason Mac is relatively rare in Europe VS the US and why there are DSLR's in the US that don't have record limits.

Anyway RtoR isn't comparable to cassette, so really we are talking Nakamichi to Marantz. I have never seen a Nakamichi in use or for sale here so I'm not sure it was much of an option. I do have a matched set of Nakamichi mics (with all capsules) that I bought used though. They are pretty decent though a bit noisy and unfortunately are battery only. I heard they were a favorite of deadheads for concert taping. I've been thinking of getting them modified to take phantom power since that would help with the noise (probably).
 
Did somebody say Marantz?

Did somebody say Marantz?

photo.jpg

Bottom to top, those are PMD221's from 1991, 1995, and 1998. God knows how they made it out of the building when more modern (and expensive :) ) equipment didn't during the Flood of '08. Anybody want to rent one? :D

(sorry for dragging thread further O/T)
 
In the theme of going OT, I've decided to commit to digitizing all of my cassettes. My current "studio" or "workspace" is incredibly small. We recently moved and my new mancave is literally a walk-in closet (with a window - thank goodness). I don't have room for a full-sized tape deck, so I'm going to pick up a smaller unit, similar to the ones listed here.

Can anyone suggest a specific model for me to check out? I want one that's stereo, with the best output connections possible. Stereo RCA is good, dual 1/4" TRS would be really nice, and dual balanced XLR would be amazing (and perhaps not very likely). Any model suggestions with a good reputation for sound quality are appreciated...
 
You know what's sad (at least to me)? My kids will never know what a pencil and cassette tape have to do with each other. I'll never forget the sound of one of my favorite "tapes" (Pearl Jam's first album) being eaten by my tape player because I played the heck out of it.
 
David, Give up. Your kids won't know what either IS let alone what there connection is. They will probably look at you like your talking about buggy whips if you say "tape".
 
@ the OP:

I'm a little late to the party, but if you don't want to spend a lot of money and still want decent sound effects from a "pocket" style recorder, invest in the Sony PCM10. I bought one for doing sound fx work specifically, and I love it. I've been slowly building a really decent audio library of sfx and ambiance tracks. Get a decent headset, I monitor mine with Sennheiser HD280's.

I recently was out getting gunshot sound effects, with a .22 pistol in one hand and the PCM10 in the other...I was worried I might blow my eardrums out since I was monitoring and had the gain up, but after starting low and slowly increasing gain, I was able to get some truly fantastic material that I'll be able to pitch shift and layer (to make the sound of different calibers...for example, I layered some bass and pitch shifted, now I have a great .45 automatic sound effect). Being able to record 96khz 24bit gives you nice overhead for manipulating your audio during effects work.

Also do yourself a favor and get something like a Rode dead kitten...makes a huge difference when it's breezy outside.
 
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