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Best value on camera microphone for usable scrap audio?


sondreg
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@sondreg The 440 is very cheap too, and it is directional stereo! but yeah, do not overthink about it, a good priced 600 would be ok.

@maxotics just that post production in sound is it not only about gain/volume/amplification, there are a lot of parameters that can be changed!

True, I am not a friend of ADR, but try to do sound on a modern Hollywood film (with 3425 explosions around the actor, while jumping from a spaceship to a platform a few Khm above the surface of a planet!)! ADR is a necessity and a tool. I am a big fun of Italian cinema, and their un-synced sound was always a burden for me, especially in Fellini's films.

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Nice score on the MKE600! Only a student/videographer grade mic, but at that price you can't complain. 

If buying new, then I recommend the Aputure Deity as a low budget shotgun to go for. 

But yeah, with care some bargains can be found by hunting around secondhand.

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@Dimitris Stasinos at this price point and tier, just whatever, get the Deity if you will, or the NTG4, or the 600, or anything from AKG or BeyerDynamics (these are excellent sound companies by the way, with decades of manufacturing professional sound equipment). It is not really that important. I probably buy myself a Sennheiser 440 for this Xmas, as in my opinion, all the other mics are backup, 3rd or 4th options, which is good to have in case something goes wrong, or you really need an additional shotgun, and for that reason the 600 is perfect in my opinion.

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4 hours ago, Kisaha said:

@Dimitris Stasinos at this price point and tier, just whatever, get the Deity if you will, or the NTG4, or the 600, or anything from AKG or BeyerDynamics (these are excellent sound companies by the way, with decades of manufacturing professional sound equipment). It is not really that important. I probably buy myself a Sennheiser 440 for this Xmas, as in my opinion, all the other mics are backup, 3rd or 4th options, which is good to have in case something goes wrong, or you really need an additional shotgun, and for that reason the 600 is perfect in my opinion.

Which one is your primary? I was looking for a Sennheiser 416 but a couple of comparisons online did not justified (at least to my ears) the price difference from the Deity.

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@Dimitris Stasinos 416, but I am a professional sound man, and going to an even more expensive one (the MKH60 probably, or biting the bullet and going Schoeps or DPA) is on my future plans. I would take the NTG3 before the Deity. As I said, most peoples ears and mindset are not set for pro sound, so whatever you take is going to be good enough, the 600 is just fine for 90% of the people, and for 3% of the circumstances (on a camera).

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13 hours ago, Dimitris Stasinos said:

Which one is your primary? I was looking for a Sennheiser 416 but a couple of comparisons online did not justified (at least to my ears) the price difference from the Deity.

If you're doing this professionally, then the price difference is small enough in the grand scheme of things to just get a mic that "people trust" (the 416). 

But if people don't care about the specifics of your sound gear (or you already own an even better mic in your kit, like I do with a Sanken CS3e), and you're not doing full rate sound jobs, then is perfectly ok to save your pennies and get an Aputure Deity or Rode NTG3 instead.

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@Kisaha & @IronFilm Thanks guys for your suggestions. I have a long relationship with music production but i am a newcomer at boom recording. I am planning to buy a zoom H5 and a mid range shotgun mid. Probably that would be an MKE 600 or a Deity. The only thing that concerns me is Deity's high noise floor in addition to Zoom's consumer level pre amps (i am sure you are using higher end recording devices with better pre-amps as professionals). So both in mid & high budget setups,  i guess that mic selection must include as a parameter the recording device and it's pre-amps, right?

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@Dimitris Stasinos I am not being harsh, but what you suggest is the lower of the low, not a middle solution.

A middle solution would be a Zoom F4/8 and a 416 or a Sound Devices MixPre 6/10 with a 416. Good shotguns are above 1500€ (I assume you are living in EU?), and good recorders are to the thousands (a lot of them!). Then you have to add a whole lot of accessories (a good boom pole is essential, Ambient is amazing for the price), and if you start with wireless, that is a nightmare, I still haven't managed to make a worthy wireless kit. Also, you would need a whole set of microphones for different occasions and uses. Dynamics, Omni, cardioid maybe, stereo, recording atmospheres etc They do not have to be exceptional, all of them, but you would need some sort of "arrows in your quiver", as the more experienced sound men like to say! 

IronFilm has some suggestions in his blog/site, and already mentioned and discussed in this forum. Do a little search, but H5 is a no go for me (better get the Tascam 100mkIII), and MKE600 is just so basic, I do not know what to say about it. 14 year old kids doing their blogs with the 600!

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1 hour ago, Kisaha said:

@Dimitris Stasinos I am not being harsh, but what you suggest is the lower of the low, not a middle solution.

A middle solution would be a Zoom F4/8 and a 416 or a Sound Devices MixPre 6/10 with a 416. Good shotguns are above 1500€ (I assume you are living in EU?), and good recorders are to the thousands (a lot of them!). Then you have to add a whole lot of accessories (a good boom pole is essential, Ambient is amazing for the price), and if you start with wireless, that is a nightmare, I still haven't managed to make a worthy wireless kit. Also, you would need a whole set of microphones for different occasions and uses. Dynamics, Omni, cardioid maybe, stereo, recording atmospheres etc They do not have to be exceptional, all of them, but you would need some sort of "arrows in your quiver", as the more experienced sound men like to say! 

IronFilm has some suggestions in his blog/site, and already mentioned and discussed in this forum. Do a little search, but H5 is a no go for me (better get the Tascam 100mkIII), and MKE600 is just so basic, I do not know what to say about it. 14 year old kids doing their blogs with the 600!

I totally get your point. The 416 is a reference and the starting point in paid jobs, along with professional recorders like MixPre, my little research also confirms that. But what you consider as a lower end solution will totally work perfect for me, as i am a videographer in first place ( i want this setup for interviews).. The 14 year old kid you mentioned might make more money for YT views than me from audio recordings...Anyway, thanks to you guys i ended up looking for an NTG3 which i think will perfectly fit my needs. As for the recorder i have mixed feelings about Tascam as a company. They have terrible QC issues, i had an audio interface that turned into a fog machine...twice.

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@Dimitris Stasinos NTG3 is a great choice, Imhave extensively use it for years, 416 ain't that far away in price though, and I prefer its sound a lot better. NTG3 is more forgiving to not very experienced with sound people though, maybe that worthy a thing. Until recently, and the F4 series, Zoom was less appropriate for video productions. Tascam was more specialized towards video, I, and a lot of people, use Tascam for years and years, especially now that they had a mkII version on most of their classic designs, with even better mic pre amps. Good luck!

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On 11/23/2017 at 7:14 AM, Kisaha said:

A middle solution would be a Zoom F4/8 and a 416 or a Sound Devices MixPre 6/10 with a 416.

Even though I almost always agree with you Kisaha, in this exception I would say an F4/F8/MixPre6 is *NOT* a "middle solution". 

As MixPre6/F4/F8 are very clearly low end options (even if they're at the top end of the low end, and have many features that only a few years ago you'd have only seen in the higher end ones). 

The middle range of option is Sound Devices 600 series (664/688/633), Zaxcom Maxx, Sonosax SX-R4+, etc

High end is Aaton Cantar X3, Zaxcom Deva 24, etc

I still feel the F4/F8/MixPre6 are *EXCELLENT* recorders which are amazing for their price, but it is good to keep some perspective here, out of the whole wide range of options out there they are certainly not some middle ground, but instead very much so sit on the cheap side of the price spectrum.

 

On 11/23/2017 at 7:14 AM, Kisaha said:

IronFilm has some suggestions in his blog/site, and already mentioned and discussed in this forum.

http://ironfilm.co.nz/which-sound-recorder-to-buy-a-guide-to-various-indie-priced-sound-recorders-in-2017/

http://ironfilm.co.nz/aputure-is-shipping-their-new-microphone-aputure-deity-meant-to-be-a-competitor-to-the-sennheiser-416-like-the-rode-ntg3-is/

On 11/23/2017 at 8:59 AM, Dimitris Stasinos said:

As for the recorder i have mixed feelings about Tascam as a company. They have terrible QC issues, i had an audio interface that turned into a fog machine...twice.


Seems you've just been unlucky? If anything, I'd say Tascam has perhaps a better reputation than Zoom? (up until the last couple of years, Zoom had zero "pro recorders", while Tascam at least had a presence in that market)

But if you really want to avoid Tascam, then consider Marantz?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1340332-REG/marantz_professional_pmd_706_6_channel_dslr_recorder_recording.html

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Thanks @IronFilm. I totally missed the Marantz PMD-706. At this price it looks like a bargain for all these features, though i am expecting slightly worse preamps than F4? I did saw your suggestions on your blog last week after Kisaha mentioned it (nice blog by the way). Did you experience high noise floor while using the Deity, or it's just that many are using bad preamps?

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