Opera singer looking for portable recording rig

H

haydenmuhl

New member
I'm looking for suggestions on a microphone and portable digital recorder. I have two specific uses in mind.

  1. Recording myself at voice lessons, or when practicing on my own for my own reference.
  2. Recording my performances to share with people.

When I say performance, I don't necessarily mean live performances with an audience. It could be me and a friend making a recording in a living room. In general, this will be one opera singer (me) and a pianist. Occasionally, I might perform with one or two more people, but I do not intend to use this for recording large groups.

I've read enough of the stickied threads to have some understanding of what different types of mikes exist, but I don't know enough to know what will suit my needs. I would like something durable and portable enough that I can carry it in my backpack on my bicycle, then download the recording onto my laptop at home. When it comes to recording quality, what I want to avoid the most is having the recordings sound like you are listening to the world through a paper towel tube. It doesn't need to be studio quality, just good enough so I can learn from my recorded lessons, and have the recording be pleasant to listen to for the people I share them with.

I'm open to having a built in mike on the recorder, or purchasing a mike suitable to what I've outlined above. I've read on these forums that there can be a trade off between a mike being "accurate" and "flattering". In other words, the mike can color the sound. I'm not sure how much I want a mike that colors the sound, because I would like to know how I sound to a live audience, but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise based on the collected wisdom of the forums.

Also, please don't be afraid to go into technical details. I'm a software engineer and have a basic understanding of electricity, circuits and acoustics.
 
Hi there,
The best bet is probably to pick up one of the portable recorders that have built in mics and xlr inputs, like the zoom H4N.

That way if you don't like the built in mic sound, then you can think about hand picking a suitable mic for your application.

The chances are the built in mics would be more than adequate for what you want.

They are fixed in X-Y position as standard, so the direction in which you point the recorder will make all the difference.

stereo_fig2.jpg
 
Agreed. The mics in the portables from what I've seen are at least decent, and now they’re coming with the XLR’s to allow even better options.
A quick note too that mic position, surroundings/noise/room echo’ being as big in quality factors as mic quality at this point.
 
I googled a bit and found this on a review.

The built-in mics are slightly bright, and as conformed by their rated response, they indeed are about 5 dBs hot on the high end.
Click to expand...

I was going to post a link to the review, but the forum won't let me. Googling that quote brought up the review.

I'm a guy, and male opera singers tend to have a big spike of energy around 3-5 kHz (singer's formant). This is part of what gives them their characteristic "ping" and helps them cut through an orchestra. These mikes look like they are a bit hot right in that region. Is that something I should be concerned about? I don't have much perspective on how much that 5 dB will do.
 
You may well be correct. It is hard to say though without trying it out.

I don't know how experienced you are, but if you're downloading to the computer anyway, it'd be very easy to import the tracks to a DAW like reaper and apply an equaliser to taste.

If you don't know how to do that there's a great manual, and plenty of people around here who'd be happy to talk you through it.
 
Yeah you may be on to somethig in that, yes in a lot of cases we'd like a bit of lift' in a mic, but that is getting into the higher range of boost as recording mics go. Frankly I haven't really compared many of these recorders specifically. I have the R44 (Ederol -spelling?), theirs are bright too. They all will likely have some boost up there. You might just want to do some more comparing as far as that goes.
Also, IMO you might like to have the ability to defeat their on-board limiters as well.
 
I agree the H4n is a great choice. While the mics in it are not ideal as vocal mics, the upside is that you can plug whatever mics you want into it. So- just add one or two dedicated vocal mics, say Marshall MXL V67g or better, AKG C2000B. Still portable. Then add a couple of cables, a desk stand, and some headphones. You can carry all of that in the panniers of a bicycle without much trouble. That way you can use the onboard mics for ensemble or distant recording, and external mics for any specific source, including voice. And- in 4 track mode, you can use all 4 mics, and mix and match in the final mix. For ultra-portable, you ditch all the add-ons, and just take the H4n.
 
Richard Monroe said:
And- in 4 track mode, you can use all 4 mics, and mix and match in the final mix. For ultra-portable, you ditch all the add-ons, and just take the H4n.
Click to expand...

I did not know that. That's Richard.

To the OP, if editing after recording is something that interests you, this is a great, yet simple idea.

As Richard says, the H4n could cover and ensemble, piano, choir, or whatever accompanies you, then you could hand pick your own mic for your voice.

I imagine a nice dynamic, or even a 58 would give you reasonable isolation from the group, if as i say, that's something that interests you.
 
the H4n also has onboard EQ, comp and a bunch of other effects. It can be used as an audio interface as well, if you find you require that function. It's a pretty decent device.

Lately, I've been reading good things about the Tascam DR100 MkII. You may want to take a look at that one as well. The coolest thing about those Tascam devices is that they have a dual-recording feature that allows you to record one stereo set at "peak" (your optimal volume level) and a second one a little quieter (I think -6 or -10db) - that way, if there are volume spikes in the performance or the device gets bumped or something and the sound is distorted, you've got a backup copy that is pretty much guaranteed to be clean.
 
Peaks are not a major issue. The compressor/limiter in the H4n works rather well, without obvious "pumping". The H4n has multiple mic inputs- 2 XLR/1/4" combijacks, which provide phantom power, either 24V or 48V, if the XLR jacks are used. When 1/4" jacks are used, they can be configured for high-z, to accept instruments or high impedence mics, such as harmonica mics. It also has a stereo 1/8" input that accepts stereo mics, such as are often used with camcorders, or even computer mics requiring plug-in power. In 4 track mode, it uses either the onboard stereo mics or the 1/8" stereo input (but not both), *and* whatever is plugged into the combijacks. I often use a SONY ECM-MS957 stereo mic plugged into the 1/8" jack, and a pair of AKG C2000B's plugged into the combijacks. As it turns out, the C2000's are rated to use phantom power down to 24V, so setting the H4n for the lower phantom power level works fine and extends battery life. When using the onboard mics, it is really handy to have the remote control card, so you can put the H4n where you want the mics to be, and avoid handling noise which gets picked up by the onboard mics when you are pushing buttons on the H4n.

The only downside to 4 track mode is that it limits resolution and bit depth to 16bits/44.1kHz (same as a CD). In stereo mode, it will do 24bits/96kHz. Also note that the cool effects, EQ, etc., mentioned above can only be used in 4 track mode. In stereo, all you get is a limiter. Of course, this isn't a major problem. First, 16/44.1 is fine for the vast majority of uses, including many commercial products. But if you *really* want that high bit depth, you can record 2 tracks, dump them into a computer, then add 2 more, and 2 more, and then add any EQ/FX you want in post production in the computer. Most of what I do with the H4n is recorded simply in 16/44.1, using 2 AKG C2000B's, and it works just fine. I don't care that much about 24/96, because most of what I do with it is going straight to CD anyway. I would, however, use 24/96 for video, if I intended it to wind up as a DVD. It really is a cool little machine.
 
One thing that was miss by you Richard is the stereo 1/8" input can be used to take an AUX feed off a live mixing console along with the microphone recording ... then mix the two to taste! ;)
 
Richard Monroe said:
I agree the H4n is a great choice. While the mics in it are not ideal as vocal mics, the upside is that you can plug whatever mics you want into it. So- just add one or two dedicated vocal mics, say Marshall MXL V67g or better, AKG C2000B. Still portable. Then add a couple of cables, a desk stand, and some headphones. You can carry all of that in the panniers of a bicycle without much trouble. That way you can use the onboard mics for ensemble or distant recording, and external mics for any specific source, including voice. And- in 4 track mode, you can use all 4 mics, and mix and match in the final mix. For ultra-portable, you ditch all the add-ons, and just take the H4n.
Click to expand...
I think this is overkill for my purposes. It's great that the H4N can handle these peripherals if I want to get more serious with my recordings.

I found a video on YouTube which is representative of what I would like to do. I can't post a link, but if you search on YouTube for "7V-pynEib0A" it will be the first hit. The woman in the brown dress standing at a piano. The description says that this was recorded with the built in mikes on the H4N, and I think the quality is adequate for my purposes.

I did some searching on a singers forum and they say a lot of good things about the H4N. Another recorder that seems to be popular with classical singers is the Edirol R-09. Any thoughts on that? The mikes are configured a bit differently and it doesn't seem to be quite as featureful. I don't think it has XLR inputs. How would the different mike configuration alter the recording? Would it be less directional?

then you could hand pick your own mic for your voice.
Click to expand...
For my purposes, I'm happy to record the ensemble (piano + voice) on the same track.
 
haydenmuhl said:
I think this is overkill for my purposes. It's great that the H4N can handle these peripherals if I want to get more serious with my recordings.

I found a video on YouTube which is representative of what I would like to do. I can't post a link, but if you search on YouTube for "7V-pynEib0A" it will be the first hit. The woman in the brown dress standing at a piano. The description says that this was recorded with the built in mikes on the H4N, and I think the quality is adequate for my purposes.

I did some searching on a singers forum and they say a lot of good things about the H4N. Another recorder that seems to be popular with classical singers is the Edirol R-09. Any thoughts on that? The mikes are configured a bit differently and it doesn't seem to be quite as featureful. I don't think it has XLR inputs. How would the different mike configuration alter the recording? Would it be less directional?


For my purposes, I'm happy to record the ensemble (piano + voice) on the same track.
Click to expand...

Well that's just it. The H4n can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Its primary virtues are flexibility, small size, and affordability.
 
Richard Monroe said:
It was missed because I didn't know that. Cool.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Stumbled into it one day and thought that it was pretty cool.

You can get for instance. A full band with the microphones in a room type sound and if needed add the vocals off the console to reinforce them.
 
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