Taperssection.com

Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: cvarona on May 21, 2009, 05:06:02 PM

Title: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: cvarona on May 21, 2009, 05:06:02 PM
Hey guys,

Im here to ask a few questions if you could please help me answer them.
I am a cinematographer and editor usually working with music.. well there is also an act i am doing a documentary on, and I need a way to tape their shows better because the audio on my camera just does not cut it.

4 things you need to know:

1. I would usually be taping inside of clubs and bars
2. Im not looking to spend too much money, but I am looking for "Decent/Good" Quality.
3. I travel with tons of equipment, so i need something portable.
4. It is a LIVE band (saxophone, electric bass, drums, 2 mc's and a keyboard)

1 thing i need to know:

1. Which recorder should i purchase? I know the basics of audio but am  new to recording so cant piece together all the odds and ends.  Need a fully functional setup.


--
thats about it... if someone could please help me out it would be GREAT help.

THANKS
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: dorrcoq on May 21, 2009, 08:48:06 PM
How much is "not too much"?
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: cvarona on May 22, 2009, 11:44:50 AM
hm i would like it to be around 300$ but maybe i get close to 500... what are my options.
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: rastasean on May 22, 2009, 02:19:02 PM
Why not patch into the soundboard at the club?
H120 would solve that.
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: cvarona on May 22, 2009, 03:02:11 PM
Well sometimes not everything is mic'd.


whats the h120? and theres nothing that could record live from like the center of the club/bar picking up ambient noise etc? like a live feeling?
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: Neilyboy on May 22, 2009, 03:23:36 PM
On the real cheap search amazon for a zoom h2 or h4 (check yard sale as well). Get yourself a stand and there ya have it (I don't know how well this will perform over your camera but im sure it would be much better).

Otherwise for your price range hit up Chris church here (Checkout his thread in Retail Sale) His new CA-14's are supposedly pretty awesome (I myself wish I had the cash to buy a set now).

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,90474.0.html

then all you need is a simple recorder which can be had for ~100 bucks (iRiver, Zoom, Edirol).. You can put together a decent rig for ~400 bucks.

Neil
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: Neilyboy on May 22, 2009, 03:29:13 PM
Here is just one of many samples recorded with Chris' mic's

http://www.archive.org/details/moe2008-04-11.ca-14.flac16

search the forum for 'Church Audio CA-14' and you should find a bundle of them..
His package that he offers for about 300 shipped (on sale through may) includes mics (two stereo sets) and the preamp all you need is a recorder.

Or if you want also browse around on the soundprofessionals website..
many people enjoy these: http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-CMC-8
keep in mind if you go that route you will also need to provide power which they also sell for about 100 bucks..
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: cvarona on May 22, 2009, 06:15:05 PM
thanks neily..

if anyone else has any other suggestions let me know!

totally new to this, sorry
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: Ekib on May 23, 2009, 05:04:14 PM
Does your videocamera has a seperate mic in ?
If yes , all you may need to get is a mic and an attenuator cable. A friend of mine is recording a lot of concerts ( metal ) and most of the videocamerás don't have a LOW or -20 Db switch . So you will get overloading which causes the audio to clip. This is called brickwall.
Please take a look at this thread :

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,121925.0.html

My friend's using an attenuator cable in combination with a pair of Core-Sound mic's. It works perfect now.

There are so many different mic's. The key is to make sure you don't get brickwall !
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: ilduclo on May 23, 2009, 05:17:02 PM
should be able to get a Sony d50 with that amount, simple and makes pretty good recordings without external mics
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: su6oxone on May 23, 2009, 06:43:53 PM
should be able to get a Sony d50 with that amount, simple and makes pretty good recordings without external mics

Yeah, I agree with the suggestion of just using the internal mics of a recorder.  There are a bunch of recordings that someone made using just a Zoom H2 on archive.org and they sound pretty 'decent.'  I don't know if I'd bother with external mics, just get a light stand and stick that baby on it.  :P

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=taper%3A%22Paul%20%26%20Kim%20(PGroove_Lotus_Fan)%22 (http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=taper%3A%22Paul%20%26%20Kim%20(PGroove_Lotus_Fan)%22)
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: pgroove_lotus_fan on June 25, 2009, 11:57:54 AM
should be able to get a Sony d50 with that amount, simple and makes pretty good recordings without external mics

Yeah, I agree with the suggestion of just using the internal mics of a recorder.  There are a bunch of recordings that someone made using just a Zoom H2 on archive.org and they sound pretty 'decent.'  I don't know if I'd bother with external mics, just get a light stand and stick that baby on it.  :P

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=taper%3A%22Paul%20%26%20Kim%20(PGroove_Lotus_Fan)%22 (http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=taper%3A%22Paul%20%26%20Kim%20(PGroove_Lotus_Fan)%22)


That dude upgraded.  ;D

I was actually quite pleased with the H2's performance.  My initial intent was to make sure that cool (to me) shows in Nashville, Huntsville, and Chattanooga got taped in some fashion.  I had attended a bunch of shows in '07 that no one recorded.  I wish that I had joined this site earlier, though, because those "decent" sounding shows were all run at straight 16/44.1 instead of boosting the bit depth to keep more detail in post-processing.  The H2's three position sensitivity switch is less of a handicap now that I've read enough stuff on this site to know to run 24 bit.

paul
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: Church-Audio on June 25, 2009, 05:16:19 PM
I like the tascam dr-1 if you dont want to spend alot of money the built in mics sound pretty dam good. for the price it cant be beat the next best thing is the Edirol r09hr but you need to get a pair of external mics with this because the internal mics are not that good.

Chris
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: Craig T on June 25, 2009, 05:57:16 PM
I recommend Church Audio CA14 cardiods ($120)> Church Audio ST9100 pre ($140)> Tascam DR07 ($150).  Great value for about $410 total.  Leaves you some $ for accessories such as a stand, mounts, SD cards, rechargeable batteries, etc.  Another option is the Sony D50 ($500) using the internal mics to start.
Title: Re: Music Fanataic - Newbie Taper
Post by: yltfan on June 26, 2009, 01:20:10 AM
If you can find some used Nakamichi CM 300 mics, I think that would be a good way to go. No preamp or battery box needed, just some weird 9v batteries ($10-12 each, but last forever). You could plug those into any of the recorders mentioned above, point em at the stacks and get good tapes pretty easily.

Not sure if this stuff is still available, but:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,116076.0.html