what gear to record foley FX in the field?

[girvan]

Hi, I want to start to build up a sound fx collection. Once in a while I get work adding sound fx to animations and what not and I don't have the $$$ to buy a Sound Ideas Library or anything so I thought I'd buy a portable digital recorded and gather my own. Any recommendations on a piece of gear(s).

Thanks.

 

[Stealthtech]

Just be sure to use a high quality mic and be aware of your suroundings (the enviroment) A digital recorder should do the job well.

 

[TexRoadkill]

DAT or a Nagra deck is pretty standard. You could use minidisc but the consumer decks usually don't allow digital transfers and the format is inferior.

You may also need a battery powered preamp. It just depends on what level of quality you are going for. If your goal is to do it really cheap then a minidisc is probably the best option.

 

[muttley]

On the economy side is a Roland MS-1 With decent mic, and 20 min card is very handy and accurate.



da MUTT

 

[mikeh]

I agree that DAT is the norm for field recording. A mic pre with a battery pack may or may not be needed depending on the type of mic (and typs of sounds) - naturally a condensor mic would need power (unless you use a mic with batteries).

I'd also suggest looking in music stores (in particular used record/CD stores). I've found a ton of sound effect records, cassettes and CDs fairly cheap. While it can be a challenge to load the sounds into a sampler and get clean cuts - you would face the same problem with samples from the field.

Keep in mind most foley is comprised of combinations of sounds - it may be easier to create sounds in the studio, than trying to capture sounds in the field.

 

[girvan]

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I agree that buying sfx CDs second hand would be the way to go. Problem is - I live in a very rural community and the local pawn shops (even on the not-so-far-off) major center never have anything other tan Wham and Depeche Mode cds. I'll keep looking though. Maybe find a used DAT deck too.