The Tascam DR-10L is a documentary lifesaver

scorsesefan said:
Thanks. I guess since you're eliminating RF interference and clipping the main concern would be handling noise...
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Two words, Rycote Overcover. They are magical. Basically eliminate 90% of rubbing sounds with the OST801s. Still a little occasional cable noise when really moving around but whoever thought these up was a genius.
The furries come in black, white and gray in a kit and you can attach to insides of shirts and blouses or to skin. No more vampire clips, no more collar clips, etc. The only time they have failed was at our ultra marathon,
our runner in the Florida heat and rain became soaked enough with sweat that they lost their stickiness and were flopping around, but those were really extreme conditions.

They are a game changer when laving talent. https://www.amazon.com/Rycote-06550...&s=gateway&sprefix=Rycote+Over,aps,177&sr=8-1
 
scorsesefan said:
I can definitely see using one with the X-T3 and avoiding those preamps...
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Bingo, that's the whole reason we bought four of them, shooting lifestyle stuff for our Docu Series with the XT-3s on gimbals and no sound mixer. I continue to use them for this, shot a walk and talk at a public park the other with the father of one of the kids killed in a mass shooting for a PSA we're producing. Worked great, as usual. These little Tascams are really quite wonderful for the money. I haven't used my Røde video wireless in almost a year now. Wireless is a such a PITA compared to these.
 
puredrifting said:
Bingo, that's the whole reason we bought four of them, shooting lifestyle stuff for our Docu Series with the XT-3s on gimbals and no sound mixer. I continue to use them for this, shot a walk and talk at a public park the other with the father of one of the kids killed in a mass shooting for a PSA we're producing. Worked great, as usual. These little Tascams are really quite wonderful for the money. I haven't used my Røde video wireless in almost a year now. Wireless is a such a PITA compared to these.
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Yeah, I have two Sennheiser sets (g3/g2) and they are a PITA. But besides that I often shoot solo and stripping down all barriers between me and the subject(s) is paramount. I feel like wearing headphones creates intimacy issues because you're not listening to the subjects "real" voice. Anyway, I think I'll pick up a few of these and keep the wireless for the $ shoots... BTW good luck with your PSA. If you can post it please do so. The issue is such an important one for me that I feel like I should be doing more as a filmmaker to address it...
 
scorsesefan said:
Yeah, I have two Sennheiser sets (g3/g2) and they are a PITA. But besides that I often shoot solo and stripping down all barriers between me and the subject(s) is paramount. I feel like wearing headphones creates intimacy issues because you're not listening to the subjects "real" voice. Anyway, I think I'll pick up a few of these and keep the wireless for the $ shoots... BTW good luck with your PSA. If you can post it please do so. The issue is such an important one for me that I feel like I should be doing more as a filmmaker to address it...
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I'll see if I can once they are finished, we will be in production over the next few months as this will be a series of PSAs. The survivors and parents/family of the people killed are going to get training in storytelling from a good theater director and then we are going to record a story podcast. The project is aimed at the survivors and families of those lost to make them aware that there are mental health services available to help them cope with their loss and with the PTSD and tragedy they are facing. They are really PSAs aimed toward the community, not the public but we know that once they hit social media, they will become widely viewed. Trying to focus on the healing, what's helping people cope and the memories they have. Interesting project and hopefully it will help the community.
 
Why not -12 for the safety track? Too much noise if you need to use it? The DR40's we use with our radio students I set for -12, and it seems to work pretty well on the few times they need it.
 
Greg_E said:
Why not -12 for the safety track? Too much noise if you need to use it? The DR40's we use with our radio students I set for -12, and it seems to work pretty well on the few times they need it.
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Personal preference. I have found the -6dB to work great for my subjects and needs, you could set it for -12dB?
 
JeffD7K said:
Puredrifting - any reason you didn't go with a D60?
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You mean the Tascam DR60? If so, I have one. Great little recorder but A, it eats batteries and B, it's not a recorder you can actually put on the talent. The DR-10 is tiny and lightweight and you can put one on each talent and they walk around with it?
 
Yeah the battery issue with the DR-60 baffles me when you think about how long batteries last with their other recorders. My mk1 is just terrible and part is the battery holder, and part the connector inside the recorder.
 
The powering solution with the DR-60D (and the mkII) is a USB power bank. Even a 10,000mAh can power that thing for well over a full shoot day.

But yes, the DR-10L is about the same size as a Senneheiser G3/G4 transmitter.
 
Picked up one of these on Ebay and used on a shoot yesterday (single subject driving car). First impressions are that this is really going to help me as a solo shooter, especially with the XT3. The battery life is insanely long. It was a nearly 4 hr shoot and I was less than half way through one Energizer Alkaline. The sound from the stock mic is good but a little thin. The ergonomic and menu are great on this unit except the power/record slider is a little hard to catch with your finger (and mine are thin). My only other complaints are that the limiter seems pretty useless but because of the dual recording it's not a problem. And I was a little tripped up by the sensitivity settings. I tested my own voice and found H to be a good setting, but the talent clipped on H (he has a loud voice). I put this down to operator error but I wish you could find tune sensitivity a bit more. How is auto levels on this unit? In any case the Tascam is definitely going to be a huge benefit to my solo shoots...
 
scorsesefan said:
Picked up one of these on Ebay and used on a shoot yesterday (single subject driving car). First impressions are that this is really going to help me as a solo shooter, especially with the XT3. The battery life is insanely long. It was a nearly 4 hr shoot and I was less than half way through one Energizer Alkaline. The sound from the stock mic is good but a little thin. The ergonomic and menu are great on this unit except the power/record slider is a little hard to catch with your finger (and mine are thin). My only other complaints are that the limiter seems pretty useless but because of the dual recording it's not a problem. And I was a little tripped up by the sensitivity settings. I tested my own voice and found H to be a good setting, but the talent clipped on H (he has a loud voice). I put this down
to operator error but I wish you could find tune sensitivity a bit more. How is auto levels on this unit? In any case the Tascam is definitely going to be a huge benefit to my solo shoots...
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I tend to stay away from any auto setting as well as the limiter. Dual recording mode should have given you a lower db file even on H. If you have the latest firmware you can set it to -6 or -12db.
 
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mico said:
I tend to stay away from any auto setting as well as the limiter. Dual recording mode should have given you a lower db file even on H. If you have the latest firmware you can set it to -6 or -12db.
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Yeah, dual recording set to -6, but the talent was so loud that he clipped the safety track :/
 
Since were talking about this recorder Tascam just released a firmware update 2.01 which fixes a manual text input issue when set to dual record mode.
 
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