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anonymous 21 December 2007

Hi

We're picking up a Canon XHA1 HD digital video camera and are trying to figure out a reasonable audio recorder to use. We plan on using a Sennheiser MKH-60 shotgun condensor microphone as we've heard it performs very well for interviews. However, we've also heard that the XLR inputs on the canon camera are not-so-great quality especially the signal to noise ratio and that external recording devices are recommended.

Can anyone recommend a decent portable digital recorder that can record at least 24-bit 96Khz uncompressed audio through XLR inputs? We can't break the bank on this as most of the money is going into the camera, but it should be good enough for documentary-style project and we do have DP with Waves plugins to mix and master the audio.

All of this will need to be brought into a Digital Performer Mac OS X DAW environment if that makes a difference.

Any info will be appreciated.

Thanks

Comments

BRH Fri, 12/21/2007 - 17:57

You mean 16b 48k, not 44.1k
Actually, shooting HDV you are recording MP3 audio. That is the biggest problem. SD on that cam is 16b 48K.
What would really make it easier is to use an external mixer, to help keep the audio level up to the top of the dynamic range above the electronic hash of that camera. You can't really monitor the level going into the cam while operator is using it.
If you go the external recorder route, be prepare to log and slate every shot.

anonymous Fri, 12/21/2007 - 18:10

I just bought a Zoom H4. It's very portable and can handle both XLR input and the 24/96 recording. It records to SD memory cards (about 1 hour of full resolution recording per GB). There are two built-in stereo mics. Cost is around $300. The reviews were generally positive except for comments about the controls being very 'fiddely'. In addition, for video syncing, there is a problem in that the H4 tends to record very slightly slower than the video (300ms per hour). This is easily adjusted in post.

There is also an H2 from Zoom but it has no XLR inputs. M-Audio has just released a similar unit but with no XLR inputs.

A couple of threads/reviews you might find interesting:

RemyRAD Sun, 12/23/2007 - 12:21

When using an external recorder, you'll do better by recording at 24-bit 48kHz. If that's not an option than 16-bit at 48kHz for television. You don't want to use 44.1kHz for television as the mathematics doesn't quite work well when trying to convert it to 48kHz. So, the same for 88.2kHz, not a good option. Fugetabout 192kHz.

Your microphone is a good choice but make sure that it is a phantom powered microphone and not "A/B" powered as that is not the same as Phantom. I believe the MKH815 required A/B powering? You'd think I'd remember since I've used them over the years??

Synaptic senility
Ms. Remy Ann David

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