Portable, versatile mic for travel recording

J

Joshua Mpho

New member
Hey guys,
I'm backpacking next year through Brasil and the Amazon to Colombia. I'm planning on taking a portable mic with me to record all kinds of sounds I encounter - from birds in a jungle, to a bell in a church tower, to a samba band playing in the street. I'd like to get a mic that's fairly compact, robust, and offers an accurate recording without too much noise. Would also be nice to have an input channel or two to record a plugin guitar or mic, but that's no essential. I'm planning to record a wide variety of sounds, and mix them into music when I get home.

Really don't know what to go for, am a novice. This is just a stab in the dark hoping that someone knowledgeable can help me out.

Thanks so much,

Josh
 
Hey Josua.
The thing to look for is one of the portable recorders from tascam or zoom.
I don't know about instrument inputs, but you certainly get ones with a pair of built in mics and XLR override connections.
 
I just purchased the Zoom H4N bundle, read a lot about it and now experimenting. I am very impressed with the quality, especially the built in stereo mics. This unit has 2 XLR jacks and two 1/4 in mic jacks. Add a couple high capacity SD cards, and some AA batteries and you have your own sound studio anywhere you go. I found one on Amazon for $212, labeled as used but looks like it was maybe a demo. If you have time to watch Amazon for deals might find one for less than the $269 that it normally sells for, here is what it looks like, take out the spaces in the h t t p and paste into your browser h t t p : // amzn.to/15PUeAo , having posted less than 10 post I cannot yet post a complete URL zoom.jpg
 
Thanks for the information John, looks like just what I'm looking for! If you see any good prices online let me know - not in a hurry to buy but keen to try it out!
 
Ooooo sounds like fun.

I have a few things for you.

Here's an article/video I found on The Recording Revolution.com about recording while camping. This is very good, and rather inspiring.
Reader Spotlight: Marco Bucci And His Campsite Recording » The Recording Revolution

For home studio bundles there are several out there to choose from. For example Presonus offers up a AudioBox Studio Bundle for around $300. It includes a 2ch interface, condenser mic, headphones, and Studio One recording software. While portable, I'm not sure it's going to be ideal for field recording. While you can use this to accomplish the campfire recording, it would be unweily for recording while moving.
PreSonus AudioBox Studio | Sweetwater.com

For walking while recording something like the Zoom H4N, or Roland R-26. Here's a link to Sweetwaters portable recorders.
Portable Recorders | Sweetwater.com
 
Hey Raymeous,
Thanks so much for the reply. I really like the campsite idea - great! I'm pretty sure I'm going to go for the Zoom H4n. It seems like it's the best in it's price range for what I want to do. I'm basically just going to be backpacking around, recording sounds and samples as accurately as possible to save, upload somewhere safe and then mix when I get home a year later - so going to collect quite a wide array of sounds, from ocean noises to monkeys in a jungle lol to people talking in a cafe. It's something I've been wanting to do for years. I also like the idea of being able to plugin a vocalist/guitarist/musician to be able to record if I happen to meet someone on my travels who sounds great and would like to try it out for fun.
I've come to realise it may also be a good idea to get a microphone that isn't too heavy to go with it. Do you have any suggestions? I suppose the built in condenser style mics are pretty good... thinking of getting a dynamic mic to go with it or a good condenser mic (but not sure if this would need phantom power and if the zoom h4n recorder could power it).
 
"Portabe" Mic Idea

I was going through my Sweetwater catalog and was reminded of a potential mic solution for you as I had forgotten a special feature that may help you out.

The AKG C1000 is a small diaphragm condenser that has a battery powered option built into the mic. No phantom power needed! This means that you can have the advantage of a condenser mics extended frequency range while not being tied down to an outlet for power.

My friend Matt used an C1000 for his vocals among other things when recording his first solo album "No Stone Unturned". It sounded great to my ears. Today, after expanding his studio set up, he now owns a pair of C1000s that he uses for overheads on his drum kit.

Links:

Mattew Stewart "No Stone Unturned" CD/Previews
Matthew Stewart | No Stone Unturned | CD Baby Music Store

Sweetwater - AKG C1000s
AKG C1000 S MK4 | Sweetwater.com
 
Thanks again very much for the info. I've finally found a friend who can bring me back the recorder and possibly a mic from the states. I'm set on the recorder, but still considering the mic option. The one that you suggested looks good, but I'm not sure if it's worth getting. You think it would make a big difference compared to the built-in microphones? Am intending to record all kinds of sounds to use as samples, so an external mic may be better at picking up more detail in more distant sounds. Look forward to hearing from you!
 
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