What does your recording chain look like?

I have several variations of rigs I use to record live music:

Recorders: Sound Devices Mixpre 10-ii, Zoom F3, DPA d:vice (not really a recorder)
Mics: DPA 4061s, DPA 4015gs, and soon Neumann KK14s with custom (thanks JF) active cable mounts

Editing: logic pro with RX 9 and Ozone 10

I've got nothing... started investigating a Zoom iQ6 stereo microphone for the phone and the Rode VideoMicro II for a nonexistent camera.

Purely for hobby recording. Compact, low-cost, maybe reasonable quality?

Doing research on vintage cassette Walkmans and MiniDisc recorders revived my curiosity in field recording.

Edited February 15, 20233 yr by HiWire

I got started with portable cassette (Marantz PMD-430 and sony D3).  

What are you looking into recording, and what's your budget?

Probably live music and other random stuff. The budget is super low, which is why I've started at around $200 or so.

I already have GarageBand and Adobe Audition, so I should learn to use them.

Edited February 16, 20233 yr by HiWire

This popped up in my feed - interesting gadget (Teenage Engineering TP-7 field recorder) from Sweden:

 

So pretty and I'm sure well-made given it's TE. But I'm not convinced of its utility. They have a matching microphone (CM-15) and mixer (TX-6) as well, which I feel similarly about. Then again, everything they have ever made has been really neat but very expensive niche products... Kind of the Leica of the field recording (and electronic music production with the OP-1) world. Or maybe more like vintage Braun, given the obvious Dieter Rams influences. Paying 80% for a design and experience and 20% for a product.

Edited December 7, 20232 yr by revolink24

Kind of mini Nagra-ish.

on the left, lectrosonics spdr 2 channel 96/24 digital recorder (or 48/24 with a fail safe recording 20db quieter)

on the right sound devices 552 mixer/backup recorder and zoom f6 recorder. 5 channels of transformer mic mixer into 6 channel 192/32 recorder

 

both setups cost me almost exactly the same

This is the microphone setup I’ll be running at Christmas jam tomorrow

 

 

That's awesome! You play music and record it using that? 

Other people play music and I record it  

for the kind of recording I do this is in the running for the most d-_-b way to do it  

 

outside mics are dpa 4015 sub cardioids mics at a 90 degree angle to get room “space”

next in are schoeps mk41v HyperCards at a 110 degree spacing to catch clarity and make up for being a little farther back than is ideal  

 

the football is a schoeps surround setup called double midside.  It has a front and rear facing mic and then a 3d mic to add sides

i can blend them or isolate any of them depending on how things turn out  

Sonosax recorder and preamp are basically the best battery powered options on the market, 12 channels of 192/32

 

 

Thoughts on the Bumblebee DIY ribbons?

I would use them for small string ensemble recording

i have heard and really liked AEA R88, Royer SF24 and Coles 4038 .. 

My only ribbon experience is kinda theoretical at this point.  I bought a nohype stereo ribbon but haven’t found the right place to use it yet. 

10 hours ago, luvdunhill said:

Thoughts on the Bumblebee DIY ribbons?

I would use them for small string ensemble recording

i have heard and really liked AEA R88, Royer SF24 and Coles 4038 .. 

I don't have experience with a lot of ribbons, but I was fortunately stopped from going down that rabbit hole by my local professional musician friend, Dave, many years ago.  There are a lot of ... not good ribbon mics in the budget area.  And yes, I know "DIY" ≠ budget, but since ribbon mics are so easy to get wrong, I wouldn't.

I have my beloved Shure KSM313, which I would recommend for string ensembles (and vocals, which was going to be my primary application), but they are not cheap, and a matched pair will be even worse.  Instead of ribbons, you would do well getting a matched pair of large condensers, like a Rode NT2A.  (I have two, but they're not matched...that said, if you're not adamant about imaging, you can always do a Blumlein pair, which doesn't require a matched pair, and yields a very comfy stereo playback experience.)

General comment for both of you: I would recommend listening to grawk over me on this subject, he has far more experience in this.  I even still have some of his hand-me-downs.

A recording engineer friend of mine (drivin' n cryin' is one of the bands he records) swears by the Cascade Fethead ribbons

wow... intense! and awesome, looks like some fun kit Grawk

*goes back to boring out a skull*

Ok, I really like the Royer SF-12 - just need gain. Currently using a MH ULN-2 with 3D card. Now I need to do the recording bit, any suggestions? I assume I will not be able to record directly off the digital outputs at a reasonable price point, so would something like a mixpre-3 ii be a reasonable choice? I suppose I could just use a laptop as well but keeping it small, battery powered and transportable would be handy.

Sorry I missed this before. Deity will be releasing an aes capable recorder soon-ish. It’s the PR4. Otherwise I’d probably get a tascam fr2 or zoom f3 for 2 channel.