Sound Recording

i've been into field recording and such for a little while now and i was wondering if there were any proffesional sound recordists out there who could help me?. My 8khz from my mp3 player lost their shine a little while ago so i need a new setup. My questions is what do you use? i needs details manufacturers/suppliers/specifications. Also i reckon i can afford an omnidirectional cardioid mic what are your experiences of using these (if you have)?.

*NB before i get any sarcy posts i have posted this on some tech forums*

There are quite a lot of portable recorders now that record to solid-state media like Flash or Smart Media cards. These have the advantage of being virtually silent in use so you don't record the sound of hard drive whirring or tape motors. Off the top of my head, there's the Zoom H4, Edirol R09 and R01, and the M-Audio Microtrack. Most of these probably do more than you'll need.

There's no such thing as an omnidirectional cardioid mic, do you mean an omni condenser mic? Personally, if I was going to do this, I'd go for a stereo mic rather than a single omni. Not sure what's out there, but a friend used to have a little Sony stereo mic that would fit fairly nicely on the end of a portable recorder. Condenser mics need phantom power so make sure whatever recorder you buy can supply it. (Most of the above include mics of some sort built-in, I think.)

Have you considered getting a Walkman Professional - normally a few on eBay.

The Zoom H2 is out now and cheaper and better for field recording. There are a few reviews on-line, and plenty of discussion on the SOS forum, do a search.

awesome cheers guys, i was looking at those wm-06c's on ebay i need quite a few seperate recorders so in retrospect because of cost i think this is the only option but ive heard good things about the sound quality.

sam i, yeah i just reread my post and smacked myself in the head. i meant condenser the one that takes everything in (yeah?) as oppposed to the sounds directly in front.

omni is one that takes sound from all around, cardioid is one that mainly picks up from the front.

Still reckon you'd be better off with a stereo pair.

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*phones the bank manager*

i should probably just give up on music and just get into microphones :D

that SOS forum looks like it could be very useful indeed

Yeah - the Walkmans are good - when I was working at the National Sound Archive that's what they used for field recordings.