Location Recorders for SFX

[azs]

For those of you that do location/SFX work in the field - whats your preferred field recorder? Sound Devices, Cantar, Deva?

[tsvisser]

I have two... Nagra VI and Zoom H2. Both are pretty stellar in their own way. Never used the Cantar, too expensive for me. Used the Sound Devices 744t, and really really like the compactness and performance of that unit - not quite as ergonomically as nice to use as the Nagra, though, but it does have great metering.

[rhumphries]

I have the SD 702t and also the Zoom H2. I used to have the Deva II.

The Deva II was useful at the time that I bought it. The newer Zaxcom recorders are overkill for what I am recording these days. I'm mostly running around and recording things as they happen as opposed to setting a date and running a remote recording session where I would need to record more channels.

The SD702 has been great. It's sounds good, is easy to use, relatively small, but runs really hot!! temperature wise, that is. I've actually been nervous that I was going to cook the thing when recording on a hot summer day. I did in fact have to send it in for a replacement once because a board came loose inside, and I suspect it was temperature related, but I haven't had any problems since then and that was a couple years ago.

The H2 is a cheap p.o.s. with a difficult menu structure that seems to go back to default settings too often and the metering is in the wrong place unless you are trying to record yourself playing guitar. It's also susceptible to handling and wind noise. Having said that, it's great to have in my jacket pocket to grab all of those sounds that I just happen upon. It's worth the $200 or whatever I paid for it and I won't be upset if it accidentally gets run over by a truck.

-Richard

[philper]

Originally Posted by tsvisser

I have two... Nagra VI and Zoom H2. Both are pretty stellar in their own way. Never used the Cantar, too expensive for me. Used the Sound Devices 744t, and really really like the compactness and performance of that unit - not quite as ergonomically as nice to use as the Nagra, though, but it does have great metering.

SD 702T and Tascam HDP2 here, mostly, also Zoom H2 for grab stuff.

Philip Perkins

[dsteinwedel]

I've used the following 3 recorders extensively. Here's what I've found.

SD744--Great compact machine. Sounds good, decent limiter, bright and easy to see meters (although I'd prefer a different scale with more granularity towards 0). I did have to send it back once or twice for channels flaking out and something else. However customer service/tech support is top notch.

Fostex FR2--Another very good recorder. It's a little bulkier and more plastic-y than the 744 but it sounds great. The pres are good and the limiter is fantastic. My only complaint about this machine battery life on normal AAs--poor. If you get this invest in a battery rig too.

Zoom H2--For $150-200, this is awesome. Records 4 channels (with built in mics) @ 24/48 and 2 @ 24/96. The pres aren't great but the recordings work if you can get close enough to the source or a loud enough signal. The menu/OS/limiter all suck but you can keep it in your pocket and pick up any interesting sound you find, any time, any place.

If I had to start all over again, I'd probably get the FR2.

-Dave

[kamikaze]

Great thread!

I'm in the market as well. I was looking at the Zoom H4n, won't be out till march, but looks good for the price.. was also looking at the Sony PCM-D50, a bit more $, but still on the low end for gathering raw samples to twist back in the studio.

Just curious if any of the "cheaper" end handhelds are capable of capturing sounds that will work for my needs, and noise is a big concern..

[Patch Morrison]

Marantz 671 here

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Another nod for the Fostex FR-2LE. The preamps are GREAT! and I can take it into places that I would be afraid to take a "better" unit. The cost is minimal but it can do 96 KHz at 24 bits. We use it in conjunction with our FX-1 for remote recording and it performs well.

[eastwestaudio]

Used to own a FR-2. Liked it a lot, but always put a sound devices 302 in front of it. I wish I kept it.

Currently I have a 744t that I like a lot. Great sound, great size, can record 192/24 if I ever really want to slow something down. It does get hot, but that's never caused a problem for me - make sure whatever bag you put it in has some airspace around or below it to help with this.

Also have a Zoom H4 for carrying around day to day. XLR Pre's might be a little noisy, but I've made some great recordings with it. On board mics are rather useful in my opinion.

As far as Sound Devices vs Cantar vs Deva, I think you really need to look at your budget. Cantar and Deva are great recorders, but purely for SFX gathering are quite pricey machines. Sound Devices offers much more affordable products with a wide range of input possibilities...might be someting to think about.

-Greg-

[smurfyou]

I like the FR-2 as well. Very good pre's and limiter. Battery life is horrible, I think using AAs is a design flaw. Power adapter is chintzy as well. But I like everything else about it. Would be nice if it had some basic mix/routing capabilities, oscillator, and slate mic....but then it would be that much more expensive. The Sony D-50 sounds great for an all-in-one.

Anyone seen the new Tascam DR-100? Looks much improved over the DR-1, although have to wait and see if sound quality is better.

[iluvatar]

I've got an Edirol R-4 Pro and it's... meh. I would not recommend paying full retail for it, but if you keep an eye out on ebay, they go for about $1000, which is what I paid and about the same price as a new R-44. For that price, it's fine.

For my tastes, the metering is rather poor, the battery life is terrible, and it's kind of noisy (although some of this is the internal headphone amp which makes it seem noisier than it ultimately winds up being). But it's got AES & SMPTE I/O, so it could work well as a supplemental recorder if you need a few more channels on occasion, and a 4-pin XLR power connector so you can use an external battery.

-Dan.

[kamikaze]

Curious enough, I found this comparison chart for audio samples, Portable Recorder Sound Samples

Is it me? or do all these have lots of noise on the speech example?

[Angus]

I've had a Sonosax MiniR82 for a couple of years. I use it mostly for multi-channel backup for location music recording.

Plusses: unbeatable size; decent battery like (+/-4 hrs) with standard high-capacity AA rechargeables, two quiet pres plus line ins, 8 chs digital in, TC, now with mirroring of all 8 ch to CF card, currently (finally) pretty solid firmware, fantastic build quality

Minuses: only 2 quiet pres, decent metering but what can you expect on a 1" LCD?, dodgy support from Sonosax, uses crappy 1.8" Toshiba 'iPod' HDs, somewhat kludgy playback mode, tiny size requires almost all functions to be accessible only via menus, size requires that mic inputs be via Binder connectors vs. XLRs, line inputs on 1/8" minipin

Verdict after lots of use: unrivaled feature set per cubic inch. I wish it were supported by a company like Sound Devices.

Angus

[Petrus]

SD722 and Olympus LS-10.

I used to have Fostex FR-2, but it really is only a 16 bit recorder (analog noise) so I upgraded to SD722 (which is a 19-20 bit recorder, like all similar units, Nagra, Deva, even Cantar). Great piece of audio engineering!

Zoom H4 I have used but did not like too much, plastic feel, switches get turned in pocket, wrong defaults at start-up. LS-10 feels solid and works as advertized, exept that it is 15 bits both mic and line in in reality, not 24 bit. Which, let's face it, is good enough.

[tsvisser]

Originally Posted by Petrus

SD722 and Olympus LS-10.

I used to have Fostex FR-2, but it really is only a 16 bit recorder (analog noise) so I upgraded to SD722 (which is a 19-20 bit recorder, like all similar units, Nagra, Deva, even Cantar). Great piece of audio engineering!

Zoom H4 I have used but did not like too much, plastic feel, switches get turned in pocket, wrong defaults at start-up. LS-10 feels solid and works as advertized, exept that it is 15 bits both mic and line in in reality, not 24 bit. Which, let's face it, is good enough.

Its refreshing to hear someone talk about word / bit length in terms of real world performance rather than spec. Long live 20-bit HDCD!

I'm very curious to hear someone report back to me the performance of the Nagra LB. This unit looks very interesting.

[hrn]

The Korg MR-1000 is great for any kind of recordings, and the built in preamps are good too.

[Petrus]

Originally Posted by tsvisser

Its refreshing to hear someone talk about word / bit length in terms of real world performance rather than spec. Long live 20-bit HDCD!

Yeap, they are pressing the 24/96 thing in their LS-10 broshures, but I got little less than 90dB dynamic range when I tested it with SD302 mixer and line in. At least now I know to use 16 bit setting to save memory card space as 24 only records 50% more random bits.

It is funny how cheap units loudly present themselves as truly hi-rez 24/96 systems, but for example Lavry Engineering when describing their Lavry Gold AD at 20 times the price clearly say that the last bits are random. At that price they can afford to be honest?

No single stage AD that I know of has better than 21 bit true resolution. Still even these lowly 300 buck hand recorders with sub-16 true resolution can make awesome recordings, better than anything over 30 years old (what comes to S/N levels at least).

[Atomick]

Another SD 702 and Zoom H2 combo here as well. Considering adding an MP-1 in front of the Zoom to have a tiny package for spur-of-the-moment specifics (those two plus a small hypercardioid pencil fits in almost any bag!), but the H2 is great for ad-hoc ambiences - couldn't have captured some interesting SFX any other way. I moved to the SD702 after having tired of the FR2-LE's noisy headphone amp and horrid 2-control-surface ergonomics, but even in hindsight the FR2-LE was an absolutely fabulous value.