Need help w/ field recording budget

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I am president of a club at my school that has a budget of about $20,000 to
spend on field recording equipment. This equipment would be used to record
audio only for on-site video shoots such as short movies, commercials and
news, as well as live music direct from a mixer feed or by using mics. We
would like this equipment to be of the same caliber that you might see if
working for a TV station or big budget film crew. Remember, this is for
audio only, no video. After talking to some local sound crews, I have a very
rough base for a budget and was hoping that you all could help me fill in
the holes (ie. mixer, mics, belt power, blimps, etc.)

Here is the proposed budget so far

HHB Portadrive 24-bit 96khz portable hard disk recorder $10,800
Brunton Solo 2 5000-watt power supply/battery $700
stereo pair of Earthworks QTC-1 mics $1,700

What we already have:
2 fish poles
3 lapel mics
3 generic shotguns mics (anatares)

The cameras all use mini dv and most are Panasonic DVX-100a's. Tapes from
the cam go into sony dsr11 decks for video post. I believe the cameras use
SMPTE timecode. Audio post would go into protools 6.

Obviously we will need more mics to work for different types of field
recording situations, also a good mixer, and basically things like cables
and windscreens. Can any of you guys make suggestions about what gear to add
or what to change? Thanks a ton!

ps: would a high end hard-disk recorder work just as well?

--

Jonny Durango

"Patrick was a saint. I ain't."

http/www.jdurango.com

 

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Jonny Durango <jonnybush_from_officedurango1@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>HHB Portadrive 24-bit 96khz portable hard disk recorder $10,800
>Brunton Solo 2 5000-watt power supply/battery $700

Fair enough.

>stereo pair of Earthworks QTC-1 mics $1,700

Why? You can't boom with these. I'd suggest, if you want omnis, to go
with a pair of microphones with interchangable capsules (like the Schoeps
for instance) so that you can put hypercardiods on them and use them for
booming.

>What we already have:
>2 fish poles
>3 lapel mics
>3 generic shotguns mics (anatares)

Throw those generics out. Get a couple of good hypercardioids and maybe
a Sennheiser 416 shotgun. Get an EV 635A also. It's cheap and you will
need it. Get good headphones and some zeppelins. If your poles are noisy
you might want to consider upgrading them; the new carbon fibre types are
also much easier on the boom op than the older generation of poles.

>The cameras all use mini dv and most are Panasonic DVX-100a's. Tapes from
>the cam go into sony dsr11 decks for video post. I believe the cameras use
>SMPTE timecode. Audio post would go into protools 6.

You need to think about how you are going to integrate the tracks from the
Portadrive into the editing system and how you are going to integrate your
Protools with whatever you are using for video post.

>Obviously we will need more mics to work for different types of field
>recording situations, also a good mixer, and basically things like cables
>and windscreens. Can any of you guys make suggestions about what gear to add
>or what to change? Thanks a ton!

Look at the Rycote catalogue for windscreens. Or make a phone call to PSC
or Film Sound and ask what they'd recommend.

Why do you need any mixer at all with the Portadrive?

>ps: would a high end hard-disk recorder work just as well?

The Portadrive _is_ a high end hard disk recorder.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

 

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Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Jonny Durango wrote:
> I am president of a club at my school that has a budget of about $20,000 to
> spend on field recording equipment. This equipment would be used to record
> audio only for on-site video shoots such as short movies, commercials and
> news, as well as live music direct from a mixer feed or by using mics. We
> would like this equipment to be of the same caliber that you might see if
> working for a TV station or big budget film crew. Remember, this is for
> audio only, no video. After talking to some local sound crews, I have a very
> rough base for a budget and was hoping that you all could help me fill in
> the holes (ie. mixer, mics, belt power, blimps, etc.)
>
> Here is the proposed budget so far
>
> HHB Portadrive 24-bit 96khz portable hard disk recorder $10,800

Do you really need all those tracks? Do you really need all that weight and bulk?



> stereo pair of Earthworks QTC-1 mics $1,700

An odd choice for this sort of work, ceratinly not what I'd choose first (or second, third, or tenth for that matter.)


> What we already have:
> 2 fish poles

What kind? With mics?



> 3 lapel mics

What kind?


> 3 generic shotguns mics (anatares)

Toss them.




> The cameras all use mini dv and most are Panasonic DVX-100a's. Tapes from
> the cam go into sony dsr11 decks for video post. I believe the cameras use
> SMPTE timecode. Audio post would go into protools 6.

I don't recall a timecode port on the DVX-100A, and unlike the Sony I don't think there's an easy way to hang a converter on it.




> Obviously we will need more mics to work for different types of field
> recording situations, also a good mixer, and basically things like cables
> and windscreens. Can any of you guys make suggestions about what gear to add
> or what to change? Thanks a ton!

That's a pretty decent sized budget. Spend more of it on mics to be sure, probably a set of Schoeps with hypercardioid capsules to start.

Look into a Sound Devices 442 mixer (or even a 302 for DV work.) One of those plus a good boom mic fed directly to the DVX-100A at line level is more than adequate for news work.

Either would pair nicely with a Sound Devices 744T recorder (which occupies less than 1/4 the volume of the Portadrive.)

You really need some experience with the gear before you go and drop $20k on it.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <huped.305446$3l3.88417@attbi_s03> jonnybush_from_officedurango1@comcast.net writes:

> I am president of a club at my school that has a budget of about $20,000 to
> spend on field recording equipment. This equipment would be used to record
> audio only for on-site video shoots such as short movies, commercials and
> news, as well as live music direct from a mixer feed or by using mics. We
> would like this equipment to be of the same caliber that you might see if
> working for a TV station or big budget film crew.

I think you have a pretty good start, a good idea of what's needed,
and a workable budget. The HHB Portadrive might be a bit on the exotic
side for a school club (but, hey, when I went to school, I was in the
ham radio club and we had a $50 annual budget). You might want to look
at recorders from Fostex or Sound Devices, or a new one from Edirol
which will be introduced at the AES show. But these things tend to be
announced quite a while before they're actually available, so time
before you can actually get up and running may be a limiting factor as
to what you can choose.

Mics (and accessories) are a big deal, they're all different, and you
can't have too many. It's probably where you should put most of your
budget. You might consider a couple of channels of wireless, and small
mixer (which could be Mackie-class).



--
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However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
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