In this episode
we'll look at some accessories
for field recording.
Field Recording, by its very nature
warrants good practical kit.
If there's any equipment
that can help in any way
it's always welcome.
There's an army of people
working hard by developing stuff,
to ease your day.
Let's look at a few essentials.
I'm sure by going out into
the field, you'll have bits and bobs
leads, adapters, batteries, power banks
and array of things
that help your day.
You need a bag
that helps you
and not hinders you
by hiding what you need
when you need it.
I like to use the Zoom PC F8 bag
because it's so handy
for keeping everything in one place
and where I can find it.
Not only that,
you have your recorder
available and dry.
It's lightweight
with adjustable compartments
which allows you to have everything
the way you like it.
I love this bag for its simplicity,
weight and diversity.
Another major component
of anyone's kit nowadays
is backup power.
We talked about this before
in the being prepared show.
If there's one thing everyone needs
nowadays it's a power bank.
Be very careful when buying a bank.
The cheap ones are not a great idea.
If you can afford it
get yourself a decent power bank.
Now look at the mAh number
or milli ampair hours.
It tells you about the battery life;
the bigger the number,
the better the life of the battery.
So consider an mAh number
of about 15,000
then you should be able to charge
the average phone about 10 times
from that power bank.
You can also charge a lot of equipment
from power banks,
so you should consider this
when buying kit that you may need.
Research the gear.
Can you run your recorder
or interface off USB power,
such a handy option
when you're out on location.
One of the things that I spent tragic amounts
of time cleaning up
is wind noise and noise from
recorders that aren't isolated.
Look at this picture.
This is me in the eighties
recording some TV stuff.
The one thing I will always ask sound recorders to do
is always use a wind sheild.
You never know when the perfect take
will be destroyed on a perfectly still day,
with just a breath of wind.
Whenever I'm recording,
I'll be sure to use windshields
with a dead cat.
My dear old friends in Rycote
have been part of my recording day
for decades and why?
Because nobody can match
them for the quality of the build
and the effectiveness
of their products.
I love them.
They makes shields for every mic
and recorder imaginable.
For full-scale blimps to windshields
for portable recorders
and even have a line
in windshields for lavs.
I've always found their blimps robust
and ready to accommodate
any shotgun mic.
My personal favorite
would be the super shield kit.
It accommodates a huge amount of mics
and gives me the wind reduction
and shock mounting
that I've loved all these years,
in fact nobody does hair like Rycote
and I genuinely mean that,
the technology is amazing.
Do yourself a favor,
do not buy any of those cheap
internet versions
of hairy windshields.
They're just a complete waste of money
and studio time.
Nobody does hair like Rycote.
The other thing you really need to invest in
is a decent suspension mount
to avoid vibration
and other interference
traveling through your camera boom pole
or hand through to your mic.
You need a decent suspension,
I got the Rycote portable recorder
audio kit and found it invaluable.
It has a handle for handheld
and hot shoe adapter for DSLRs.
You could even use it on the boom pole
or a mic stand.
It's an awesome piece of kit.
Zoom do a hot shoe suspension
for DSLR as well for their F1
It's exceptionally handy
though it does no have the standard socket
for a tripod or a boom
which is slightly limiting
in its application.
Whilst I'm on about Rycote
here's a really clever little product.
A major problem with location audio
is Lav mics rubbing off clothes
and they've been used with clips.
It's so frustrating.
Try out the new stickies,
you attach the mic to the clothes
which facilitates zero movement
and zero rubbing noise.
If it's windy
use one of the over covers.
Oh I love innovation
simple and exceptionally effective.
In another show we talked about
the Zoom F Series,
the F8N and the F4
Two super diverse essential recorders.
In the field the small form
can sometimes be a little too small
especially when I want to be doing a mix
on the fly and trimming some inputs
so here's the F control
for the F8, F8N and the F4
It's a hardware interface
for these recorders
that gives you tangible access
to the most essential functions
on your recorder mixer.
I loved it last year
when I was involved
in a large multi camera eSports event.
We beamed out globally,
everything to hand,
it was just so nice.
I could talk for hours
about every type of product there is
and still not mentioned hundreds.
I wanted to focus on the products
that I have used.
I found them super effective
for any recording that I've done.
From recording large scale multi camera setups
to just recording SFX.
These products really help me out in my day
and then also back in the studio.
I'm Keith Alexander
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Nobody does hair like Rycote.