There's a fella named Scott Helmke that is making a mic that's perfect for foley recordings. The mic is called the Alice. It's a small diaphram condenser that is freakishly acurate accross the midrange, produces very tight lows and the highs are very bright and strong without ever becoming brittle. It handles effects percussion (sleigh bells, claves, etc.) unlike any other mic I've used. I highly recommend it for for your more directional needs. And hey, it's handmade here in america and Scott is there to answer your questions and stand by his product. They street at $175 and are built like a tank.

http://www.scotthelmke.com

For your ambient sounds I would recommend a stereo setup and recording wind, thunder and rain is an art unto itself and rather difficult. Here's a link to some decent info. that you may find helpful. Stereo effects can be acheived with a mono recording but if you can find it in your budget at all I'd recommend looking at some stereo mics for your ambient foley.

http://mixguides.com/microphones/tips_and_techniques/audio_foley_recording_may/

I hope this helps.

Thanks a lot for the help. I will try to fit in my budget a stereo mic too. Alice looks nice, although it looks like it will be a bit hard to obtain, I'll contact scott to find out. Are there any "trusted" brands in recording technology where I can't go wrong?

I'd also like to ask, what's a good way to record "on the field", I can't always have my computer with me - I've seen some people recording through a minidisc player, is that viable? Mics use the same input as electric guitars right?

I would love to have the Rode stereo mic(The one with the "funny looking" head?), along with one of the new Marantz "card memory" recorders and a nice set of closed phones. I could have alot of fun with such a setup(Though we're talking around two grand here... which is why I DON'T have it!)

Even so, for a project that needed effects, background music, etc., carefully look at what's ALREADY done, by someone else. One can download "demo" versions in VERY low quality .mp3, to "time, voice and set" what is needed in the piece, then once "set", only pay for and download just the fx you need, at usable, much higher quality - incredibly convenient! Alot of stuff(Maybe millions of cuts?) is available for web download for very reasonable cost(No CD library wall needed today!), and you can concentrate on getting them properly into your mix. The time and skill needed to get quality SFX is more time/skill than I have...

Your 200 dollar budget would probably "buyout" 15 or 20 effects?
AND, you might be able to "make a deal" for all the effects, music, etc., you need(That you would go through and specify, which would take many, many hours of "webbing", all by itself!) for a price all could live with and a convenience factor/price point few, today, can live without...

TG

Teddy's got an excellent point. There are tons of wonderful sample cd's out there that already have quality foley sounds and are very affordable.

http://www.findsounds.com has an interesting online setup. You can toy with it for free. When you do your searches just stick with 16-bit, 44100 Hz, WAV or AIFF as the file type (for sake of quality and ease of use).

A big name brand mic that would get you by would be an AKG C1000. It's a quality, vanilla, versatile condenser mic. Of course there are others, but to crossover into foley that's the only other condenser I have experience with.

No, condenser mics don't use the same inputs as electric guitars. Dynamic mics, however, can. A good dynamic mic you could use would be the Audix i5.

Personally, I don't like mini-disc in the field. I found it to be a little "hissy" (noisey) but there are others who have had success with mini-disc.

Teddy's right, Marantz is making some nice field units in the mini-disc format and direct to cd format. DAT is the prefered format. The Rode NT4 is a great stereo condenser and will run you around $450. Sony makes some decent stereo mics for digital recording that make quality live and field recordings.

Google for pro portable recorders and you'll find plenty of products to look at.

Thanks a lot guys! TeddyG's idea is good, but too often I've heard exact same samples used in different movies or animations. There are also some very specific sounds I will need, so the condenser mic is not an option really. I'll look into the AKG.

Now, for ambient sounds, this might be a good idea, $450 is quite expensive for what I can get out of it, and therefore I'll probably look around for ambient wind/rain.

So, I understand there are portable recording devices which are built specifically for pluging in a mic? I suppose I can easily transfer to a computer after? I'll have a look.

thanks

alex-