Homebrewed Music

Talk about an unfair fight, this seems to be just that, based on price alone. The GH3 currently costs around $850 (Ooops, today it’s $1000 – camera prices have become highly variable it seems) for the body only, the original price was about $1300 with a kit zoom lens. The Q4 at $299 is a lot easier to fit into most budgets. And we’re talking about a very specific niche here, the “music camera,” in this category the audio quality is right up there in importance with the video. (more…)

I started shooting video with a low end SD tape camcorder and the results were mediocre at best. I spent a lot of energy trying to get better quality with that system, but my videos were still pretty homely until I got my hands on a Flip Mino, which brought HD video to a camera that fit in the shirt pocket and cost about $100. But with the pace of technology the Flip and similar products were soon overwhelmed by the smart phone revolution and it seemed like nearly everyone had an HD video camera in their pocket. The market for dedicated pocket HD video cameras dried up overnight.

The folks at Zoom figured out a niche product, though, that let them charge a premium for a little plastic lens camera – they put good microphones and clean audio processing in the package and marketed it to their existing customers, musicians. (more…)

I’ve been using my Panasonic Lumix GH3 as my main video cam for the last year or so and it’s a terrific tool. The articulated display, live HDMI out, high bitrate codecs, WIFI connectivity, and luscious image quality have made it my favorite shooter. But I’ve avoided using camera audio even though the GH3 does have some intriguing audio features. (more…)

The H6 has four XLR inputs built-in to the body with individual phantom power options. I noticed in an earlier comparison that the preamps behind these XLRs seemed very high in quality, basically indistinguishable from those in my RME UFX interface in a quick and dirty comparison. I set out to do a more careful comparison to see if my initial impression was correct. (more…)

Zoom has been pushing MS or Mid-Side recording technology in their recent products. The ones I know about are the MS decoder in the H4n followed by the rear-facing MS mics in the H2n. Their latest video camera, the Q2HD was the first with the distinctive ball shaped mic array housing. Now the new H6 recorder includes an MS module also featuring that ball shape, and in the “announced but not shipping” category we have the iOS mic, the iQ5 using that styling as well. Doug Young was the first H6 owner I talked with and he immediately identified a self-noise issue with the MS mic module. My initial explorations all focused on the XY mic module and the external connection preamps, but now I’ve had a chance to experiment with the MS module a bit. (more…)

I’ve been interested in the new Zoom H6 since it was announced back in April of this year. I’ve long hoped to find a multi-channel portable recorder with performance comparable to a nice consumer audio interface at a friendly price. In other comparisons I’ve done the lower priced battery powered gear added a bit of noise that I don’t hear with a comparably priced audio interface, even when using the same mics. But technology moves on and there have been some terrific new preamp-on-a-chip products released in the last couple of years, so Zoom’s claim of improved preamps seemed plausible. Now that I have my unit I’m trying those comparisons again. (more…)

There are a number of comments I expect to hear when microphones are discussed. Someone is likely to call the Rode NT1a harsh, strident, shrill, or some similar indication of high frequency problems. And when asked to recommend a mic for recording acoustic guitar, the ADK A6 is one of the more common responses. So how obvious are the differences between these two mics in a four way blind comparison? (more…)

There are dozens of commonly repeated internet “certainties” related to PC recording, I think it’s possible that the most common is the need to replace the built-in soundcard (now usually a chip on the motherboard) with some sort of “real” interface. My first recordings were done with Shure SM57 into a Behringer Eurorack mixer through a chain of adapters into a Soundblaster soundcard, and I recall being blown away by the quality. That wonderful experience was followed by years of frustration and expense as I tried to buy my way to better recordings. (more…)