Good field recording Mic.?

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paintedtape

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Heeyall, I just scored a super fly Marantz PMD 201 tape recorder and I'm wondering: What's a good/inexpensive mic I could use with it? I have some mics that will work for recording music and close up talking (SM57s/8s, ect.), but what's up with those cool chrome ones I see the journalists with? I know nothing about this stuff...

I guess it originally came with a small plastic looking thing. I'd use that if it worked well enough. I'll be using it for found sounds/field recording of ...many things.

THANKS!
 
The 635A is a common--if pretty ancient in design--reporter mic but it's not great for general recording. Most location recordists carry a short shotgun type of mic. The Sennheiser 416 is more or less the standard for this but likely outside your price range and it requires a phantom power supply.

When I was doing this sort of thing, my back up mic was always the Rode NTG1 and it was hard to hear the difference between that and the more expensive Sennheiser. However, the NTG2 might be ideal for your needs. It's the same microphone as the NTG1 but can be powered with an internal battery so it could plug straight into your Marantz with no other gear.

For outside recording though, don't forget a good wind gag....and a short fishpole mount comes in handy too.

Bob
 
EV RE50 has similar audio performance to the 635A.

Cheers,

Otto
 
I used those all the time for field gathering in college. Mics were always an EV 635A or RE50, absolute workhorses.

Of course you could use an SM57/58 too but for newsgathering and similar, super tough omni mics made more sense and those EVs were the industry standard.


Make sure you pack plenty of extra batteries with your kit, those bad boys were great at crapping out about, ehh, 5 seconds after hitting "REC" :D
 
Again, those mics being mentioned are work horses...for a journalist doing an interview or an "into camera" with the mic being held close to the person speaking. They're far from ideal for recording general atmosphere or sound effects. They're also not great for getting people speaking where you have to be more than a foot or two away. It really comes down to what the OP wants to record, but for general field recording, some form of short shot gun is far more useful and the TRUE work horse. If I could have only one mic in the field, it would be a Sennheiser 416, Rode NTG2 or something similar.

Bob
 
My recorder for this sort of thing is the Olympus LS-10 (new version is the LS-11).

Small and pocketable and instinctive to use.

I also have the Rycote special Windjammer with it.


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Bobbsy said:
Again, those mics being mentioned are work horses...for a journalist doing an interview or an "into camera" with the mic being held close to the person speaking. They're far from ideal for recording general atmosphere or sound effects. They're also not great for getting people speaking where you have to be more than a foot or two away. It really comes down to what the OP wants to record,
Click to expand...


That's fair enough, I'll agree with you there other than to say that for general field gathering/atmosphere, a rugged omni IS a good choice, and there we're back to the mentioned EVs. A shotgun would be nice for pinpointing effects/speech at a moderate distance, and/or if lots of ambiance is not as desired, agreed there...also good for warding off bears and hillbillies :D
 
Bears, fine. However, for hillbillies I'd want a long shotgun like a Sennheiser 816. A 416 lets them get a bit close....
 
Hey, I have the Marantz pmd430 and it's arguably one of the best cassette recorders ever made - these things were standard issue among news gatherers in the 1990s, for radio and print news outlets. I've used mine for recording live shows and it's a total gem for that sorta thing.

For mics, I bought two miniature omni condensers from Naiant Studio along with a 9V phantom power supply. I've typically used condensers with this because of what I was recording, but I used cheap Radio Shack mics for effect and really enjoyed that too.
 
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