Audio recording gear

[RaptorMan]

I'm putting together a system for video production involving, in part, the I1 X5, and I want to record audio to go along with some of the videos. The two components I'm looking at are a decent 2 channel 24bit/96khz digital recorder and a shotgun mike. I think the Tascam DR-05 at $85 is enough for what I want but I have no clue as to the best choice for shotgun mic. I don't want to spend a fortune and would like adaptability to my Panasonic GH2 and perhaps a GH4 or 5 down the road, but I'd also like the ability to pick up and isolate sounds from a distance.

I wonder is it asking too much for a mic to be both camera hot shoe friendly and also capable of picking up and isolating distant sounds. If two different mics are needed which two? I know that parabolic mics are often used for more distant recording, but parabolic's, from what I understand, tend to have very limited low frequency response and that would be bad as one of the sources I wish to record are trains and they have lots of low frequency components.


Brian

 

[lake_flyer]

I'm putting together a system for video production involving, in part, the I1 X5, and I want to record audio to go along with some of the videos. The two components I'm looking at are a decent 2 channel 24bit/96khz digital recorder and a shotgun mike. I think the Tascam DR-05 at $85 is enough for what I want but I have no clue as to the best choice for shotgun mic. I don't want to spend a fortune and would like adaptability to my Panasonic GH2 and perhaps a GH4 or 5 down the road, but I'd also like the ability to pick up and isolate sounds from a distance.

I wonder is it asking too much for a mic to be both camera hot shoe friendly and also capable of picking up and isolating distant sounds. If two different mics are needed which two? I know that parabolic mics are often used for more distant recording, but parabolic's, from what I understand, tend to have very limited low frequency response and that would be bad as one of the sources I wish to record are trains and they have lots of low frequency components.


Brian

You would get a lot (if not only) of motor, prop and wind noise. The mic gain you would need to choose would be very low. And you would need to kill any limiting or compression. But still, most of the sound you would pick up would be the engines (wining loud in 4 different tones) props (also 4 different noise envelopes) and the head wind. I would be surprised if you would hear anything else.

Wouldn't it be better and simpler to record the train sounds and mix them into your video?
By the way, most trains sound the same so there's a ton of train sounds to choose from.

 

[RaptorMan]

No, I'm not talking about audio gear to be installed on the drone but separate gear to record sounds that are latter added to the video. So, for example, if I were recording a video clip with a freight train I'd setup the audio gear on the ground so as to record the train and then fly the drone. And this is just one example of why I might wish to record audio.

So, I think the recorder part is pretty clear and the Tascam DR-05 is more than adequate for that task, but getting a decent shotgun mic that's both camera hotshoe mountable and also able to isolate sounds at greater distance is the challenge. It may be that I'd need two different mics to cover both bases.


Brian