What is the best, most affordable recording gear I can buy?

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nikrobinson1

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Hi, I'm a film student and looking to go into the sound department for film.
At my school, we've been using a zoom recorder and shotgun mics, occasionally a mixer.

At the moment i'm looking for freelance gigs and need my own equipment.

Just wondering what would be the cheapest but decent quality recording gear I could get my hands on.

Would it be wise to invest in zoom recorder?

Cheers.
 
"Best and most affordable" are two mutually opposed concepts!

I guess what you really mean is.."What can I get pretty cheap that will do the job?"

For film work I would say this is practically unanswerable because it depends on the job!
One speaker in a chair. Easy, tripod, recorder, mic all together, hit the button, job's a good 'un. (IF you are not in a swimming bath or similar!)
Two speakers seated. Bit harder. FOUR bodies arguing, moving about? Bloody nightmare!

The Zooms and their ilk get a good rep for what they are. I would find it tricky to have my controls attached to my mics under the subjects nose? T'were me I would use a mixer, 4 mics lines at least running into a laptop. Even then you are going to get just two panned channels which will limit post shot editing.
You might have to plant radio mics on people to get any sort of dialogue back due to movement or local noise. This will probably be of unacceptable quality and need to be post dubbed.

Whole art,science, bag of tricks film sound. Rather glad I have nothing to do with it!


Dave.
 
Ok that seemed to clear up any questions I had about mic'ing people in different types of scenes. But what would be the absolute "cheapest, versatile that will do the job gear" to get as a beginner with little money?
 
nikrobinson1 said:
Ok that seemed to clear up any questions I had about mic'ing people in different types of scenes. But what would be the absolute "cheapest, versatile that will do the job gear" to get as a beginner with little money?
Click to expand...

I don't want to appear to be some professor of semantics, cos I ain't! But words is WORDS.

"Versatile" means to me, in this context, something that will be able to perform well in a variety of situations and we have already seen that film sound capture WILL be very variable. That will not be cheap.

You have used a handheld recorder (I haven't), how did that go? I suspect they are a bit of a "One Job Wonder"?

You can't do F1 on a shoestring and you can't do film sound for a few 100bucks!

Dave.
 
Worst complain for the Zooms is preamp noise, but hell are they versatile!
It depends a lot on what you're going to do.

I've seen a pro video of a pro mountain biker shot with a neck-slung H4n plus a strange bulky contraption of an omni mike for ambient sounds.
The sound to that video are mostly noise (good noise, like dirt & leaves rustling under the tires, but "noise" nonetheless), so you don't need the same purity as you'd need, e.g. for a classical concert.
That's also true for Foley.

The H6 looks like most of the same (some complain the lack of the overdub feature, better research it carefully before buying...), but with a better sound quality and more versatility (up to 6 channels, different mic capsules).
A huge plus: portable recorders also run on batteries, good "out there on the field", when you don't have acces to the mains & don't feel like hauling a car battery with you...
 
nikrobinson1 said:
Ok that seemed to clear up any questions I had about mic'ing people in different types of scenes. But what would be the absolute "cheapest, versatile that will do the job gear" to get as a beginner with little money?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure of the types of freelance work you would be doing. I used a Zoom H4 with a shotgun mic to capture wildlife sounds and a handheld condenser mic for interviews with adequate results. You will also need some good closed back headphones. Here are a couple of links that may help you get started. How to Use a Portable Audio Recorder in Field Production | B&H Photo Video Audio :listeningmusic: Portable Digital Recorders | B&H Photo Video I have ordered other things from this company and I've found the service and products satisfactory.
 
For a solo professional the minimum is going to be Sound Devices. I usually end up using whatever recorder the production company owns which is almost always a Sound Devices 302 going into a camera... Once I used a Wendt X5 and it worked well though not nearly as much gain and the headphone output was awful. One comany uses a Zoom.... I bring my old MOTU Traveler to put in front of it and it works OK. The 'respected' local guys are usually using Zaxcom Devas. Personally I would recommed as a 'budget professional' recorder a Sound Devices 302 and whatever digital line in recorder you can afford.

Juiced Link did a helpful audio shootout a couple years ago which is still very useful because this equipment is still very common:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKVeBqhXMvM
 
A few considerations:

What you need is going to depend a lot on what sort of work you're going to be doing. There are two main ways of working--using a field mixer that plugs straight into a camera or "double system" working that involves a separate recorder like a Zaxcom the will sync with the camera. The Zoom is probably not suitable for either of these methods of working so you'll need to analyse your potential clients carefully and come up with a decision on what you need to buy.

For microphones, the bare minimum will be one short shotgun and probably at least 2 portable radio microphones (the sort with battery powered receivers at your end). Three or four radio mics wouldn't hurt. If you're doing news or current affairs work, something that can be used as a handheld mic is often asked for.

For your shotgun, Sennheiser is industry standard but the Rode NTG 1 or 2 are very good mics for a lot less money. I used to carry one as a backup for my Sennheiser 416 and the people back in editing never noticed the difference if I swapped. (I'd probably go with the NTG 2...it's the same mic but can operate either with phantom power or on it's own internal battery, something that can be a lifesaver when the shit hits the proverbial). Whichever mic you choose, you'll need a good shock mount and a wind shield. You'll also need a good, long fishpole. Don't skimp on the fishpole and get a strong but light one. Cheaper ones weigh more and believe me you'll be grateful you spent the money at the end of a shot several minutes long.

I won't recommend radio mics because you'll have to consider legal frequencies where you might be working.

A general thought...I know you want to be as cheap as possible but, except for the world of wedding videos and the lowest of low end corporate, you're probably going to need more than a student budget would allow. I'd seriously suggest you might want to try and get work as a sound assistant where you don't need to provide your own gear, both to get some experience and also to get an idea of what work you want to do and what gear you want/need.
 
I'd not rule out external recorders just because of the synch issues, many modern video editors allow you to synch an external audio track automagically (by comparing waveforms), and it usually works ok.
No need for wordclocks or audio jacks, plus you have the added benefit of keeping the two data streams separate, thus being able to save one in a worst-case-scenario and not needing a super-fast recording medium because you can record a low-bitrate audio stream with the video file.
 
Yes, you can do it and I do it myself on home videos.

However, this guy wants to charge clients money for providing a professional service--and a professional production will expect the use of pro gear. If I were an editor receiving material where the audio was on a free running stand alone recorder causing me to go through and sync things up (and there are slight artefacts from working this way) I'd be more than a little pissed off.

Bottom line...you can work this way on your own stuff or maybe on student productions but as soon as you want to work in the professional world and charge money, you need the right gear.
 
Bobbsy said:
A few considerations:

What you need is going to depend a lot on what sort of work you're going to be doing. There are two main ways of working--using a field mixer that plugs straight into a camera or "double system" working that involves a separate recorder like a Zaxcom the will sync with the camera. The Zoom is probably not suitable for either of these methods of working so you'll need to analyse your potential clients carefully and come up with a decision on what you need to buy.

For microphones, the bare minimum will be one short shotgun and probably at least 2 portable radio microphones (the sort with battery powered receivers at your end). Three or four radio mics wouldn't hurt. If you're doing news or current affairs work, something that can be used as a handheld mic is often asked for.

For your shotgun, Sennheiser is industry standard but the Rode NTG 1 or 2 are very good mics for a lot less money. I used to carry one as a backup for my Sennheiser 416 and the people back in editing never noticed the difference if I swapped. (I'd probably go with the NTG 2...it's the same mic but can operate either with phantom power or on it's own internal battery, something that can be a lifesaver when the shit hits the proverbial). Whichever mic you choose, you'll need a good shock mount and a wind shield. You'll also need a good, long fishpole. Don't skimp on the fishpole and get a strong but light one. Cheaper ones weigh more and believe me you'll be grateful you spent the money at the end of a shot several minutes long.

I won't recommend radio mics because you'll have to consider legal frequencies where you might be working.

A general thought...I know you want to be as cheap as possible but, except for the world of wedding videos and the lowest of low end corporate, you're probably going to need more than a student budget would allow. I'd seriously suggest you might want to try and get work as a sound assistant where you don't need to provide your own gear, both to get some experience and also to get an idea of what work you want to do and what gear you want/need.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the advice, I'll have a look around for gear, everyone on here has a different practice and set-up it seems.

Also, the only problem with looking for work is, from what I've seen with volunteer work (probably the best to get more experience) most people don't already have sound equipment.
 
Just saw in the current issue of SoS that SE Electronics have produced a small range of affordable film mic gear, starting with an active shotgun mic at £99.00. You guys over The Pond will probably get them for the price of a burger and a beer!

Dave.
 
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