Topic: Recording Foley; buy a hand-held recorder or a external mic for DSLR?

[phaedarus]

Hello everyone,

Although I haven't worked with audio much in the past, I'm interesting in building my own foley sound library for my 3D animation work.

I'm at an impasse as to whether or not I should purchase a hand-held recorder for this purpose or buy an external microphone that I can mount on my DSLR camera for use with its video recording feature and then extract the audio from the resulting film.

I won't be recording sensitive audio such as concerts or musical instruments, it will be strictly foley sounds and a voice recording or two.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

Thanks.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

No question - standalone recorder.

You won't always have your dslr, and extracting the audio will be a pain.  Plus, the audio from the dslr is likely to have issues of various sorts that I won't bother going into.

The sony m10 is a great choice.  However, for what you intend, you'll want some kind of case that allows simultaneous use and drop protection.  Because sound sample gathering is more prone to dropping gear.  I haven't seen any silicone m10 skins.  I'm sure you can figure something out, and use a lanyard.

I also see olympus recorders used frequently in news gathering.  Some of them are smaller than the m10, which can be an advantage for what you are doing.  For foley, the battery life and standby features of the m10 are very important features.

[phaedarus]

Thanks for responding.

It looks like I need a handheld recorder unit after all. You recommended a sony handheld one?

One more question, is it possible to use a handheld recorder as an external mic on say, a PC for live chat? That was one of the other reasons I was thinking of picking up an external mic but if I can kill two birds with one stone, all the better.

Thanks.

[ScoobieKW]

I will second the Sony PCM-M10. It is a great recorder with long battery life, good onboard omni microphones and a very nice preamp for use with external microphones.

It does not work as a computer microphone.

That said, for your main stated purpose it will do you well. One thing to consider is that the PCM-M10 has internal omni-directional microphones, all noise in the area will be picked up, not just what is in front of you. For many foley applications, you may be better served with microphones with a tighter pattern. (less side and rear pickup) In this situation cardioid or hyper/super cardioid mics will be useful. Some handheld recorders have a stereo pair of cardioid mics that will capture more sound in front of the recorder than to the back.

For most of us on this board, we use separate mics, choosing the pattern that fits the needs of the situation, in this case an M10 will do well. However the M10 does not have the power supply to power many mics (phantom power) so you will either need a separate power supply, such as the denecke PS-2 (used by many field videographers) or choose mics that will work with PIP (plug in power) a lower voltage power supply that the M10 does provide.

[notlance]

Why don't you look into a USB microphone or a USB mic pre with a standard mic?  There are quite a few mono USB mics available, and a couple of stereo mics too.  I own one of these:

http://www.mxlmics.com/products/USB/USB_007/USB_007.html

It's a good enough mic and simple to use.  Seems like it might meet your needs.