Noob with a mission

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Member Since: Apr 21, 2009

Hello, I'm a lighthouse keeper in an ecological reserve who has zero experience with sound recording. A big part of managing and promoting the reserve is our website that has live streaming video, up to date weather conditions, educational resources, etc. (www.racerocks.com). I have a budget of ~$800 (CAD) and am in search of a portable, reasonable quality sound recording setup. End product will be mp3 and audio layers for video.

For the mic, wind is a big issue out here, lots of it most of the time. Directionality is pretty key as I'll be looking to record with a lot of ambient noise (i.e. focus on a group of birds with others around).
For the recorder, something that is CF-based would be convenient as I have lots of capacity in that department.
Other than that I leave it in your capable hands!

Thanks for your help.

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Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006

Apr 22, 2009 02:27 am

I looked around but didn't see any CF based field recorders.

Personally I would look into something like the Zoom H4. Two condensor mics in an x/y pattern with the ability to use different mics if as well.

www.zzounds.com/item--ZOMH4

For the price, you could buy alot of SD cards with that extra cash :)

I know Sony makes something similar but am unsure if the price difference is worth it.

I'd wait and see if any others have first hand info as I do not own one.

I am not a crook's head
Member
Since: Mar 14, 2003

Apr 22, 2009 09:44 am

As far as a microphone, you might want to look into shotgun-style mics. They're used mainly for the audio portion of films/videos. They're very directional and the ones that I've seen have a windscreen on them.

Here's a few to get you started shopping:

www.zzounds.com/cat--2841

But yeah for portability, affordability and ease of use for a beginner, Zoom has the market cornered on pocket-sized recorders. Other brands have similar offerings but Zoom pretty much has the entry-level price range dominated.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002

Apr 22, 2009 07:02 pm

Actually M-Audio has the MicroTrack that uses Compact Flash. Just found that one. There are others but they run in the $500 plus range and are a larger format of portable using heavy battery power. They are not very compact like the H4 or the others in that range.

Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006

Apr 24, 2009 01:01 pm

Nice, didn't see that one.

Member
Since: Apr 21, 2009

Apr 24, 2009 01:03 pm

Thanks for the advice, I should have specified I'm in Canada, so zzounds.com won't ship here. For the price difference I think I'll stick with an SD machine and get some more cards.

Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006

Apr 24, 2009 01:16 pm

Sounds good, glad you got it figured out. From reading the reviews online it sounds like the mics on that Zoom create a pretty nice clean sound. There was some comments about plugging external mics in not being as clean as the integrated, just an FYI if that's something you plan on doing.

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