Wow! Thanks man - this Fostex looks quite promising and it delivers Phantom so that's a very good opition as I would'nt have to carry an extra preamp around. As for mic's- You think I really need two mic's? Why? It worries me- the same thing started when I joined Gearslutz- I only wanted an advice for a vocal mic , and one year later here I am - stuck with Mc77, Drawmer 1968, Brauner Mic and few preamps that my wife thinks cost 100$
Oh- I just checked the ADK's- I need somethin more portable- I already own few studio mics- i need something I can hold in my hands while still obtaining good recordings. I read that Amon Tobin was using the Earthworks m50 mic pair- but that's out of my range by a bit ;-) Anyone on the SR30 series? I heard that all Earthworks mic's cope well with handling noise.
Cheers
M
The Fostex is a great unit and 24 bit taboot. 24 bit is very nice and provides a more detailed recording compared to 16 bit, as well as greater headroom for very loud recordings and greater ability to bump a low volume recording without loss of fidelity, such as depth/warmth of bass.
Two mics = stereo recording. Most people that record onto magnetic medium want some form of two channel recording to simulate what you're hearing with your own two ears. You probably know mono well enough to judge for yourself what you want but if you only use one mic, you won't get any directional perspective in your sounds, unless of course your one mic is a stereo mic with two capsules.
I can't specifically recommend a mic or pair of mics for you because the sound you obtain is such a personal taste thing...but small diaphragm (SD) mics are what you want for holding in your hand (think about the size of a cigar)...in your price range that would include some of the following which run $600 to $1000 or so a pair...AKG460 or AKG480 with CK61 (cardiod) or CK63 (hypercardioid) capsules...Neumann KM184......MBHO 603 series with KA200 (cardioid) or KA500 (hypercardiod) capsules...or Peluso with subcardioid capsule (new pair in this price range)...and I'm sure there are great stereo mics in that range also but I'm not familiar with them. I also can't comment on the Earthworks mics you've asked about because I'm not familiar with them either.
Your best friend when new and trying to get a feel for new gear is Live Music Archive...www.archive.org. While it won't give you a feeling for what you can get for outdoor nature sounds, it does give you some feel for waht the mic sounds like and in the live music setting...sometimes these are softer acoustic music settings so you might get a nice feel for the performance of the mic that way.
Search on specific model of microphone on LMA and find some samples that have the flash music player associated so you can listen to the MP3 right there on the spot.
Hope this helps at least a little bit.