Homebrewed Music

I probably seem a little obsessive about finding minimalist recording rigs using my Zoom F6. The low noise preamps and extreme dynamic range make the audio recording job vastly easier, but I miss having an all-in-one recording solution using a single tripod. I am always looking for new interesting places to shoot my Look At Me Play Guitar videos and a minimal equipment load opens up a lot of possibilities. Fewer pieces of equipment also means easier setup and teardown.

The previous post details my first experiment, using adapters and bars and accessories, and I’ve used the hex bar approach for a published video. And in this video I’m using the “omni AB plugged straight in” technique, although in that session I was using the Schoeps CMC62 omnis rather than the Line Audio Omni1s.

This time I’m looking at two other solutions and I think I’m getting closer to the ideal. One approach is to mount a miniature mic directly on the guitar, something I’ve experimented with in the past. I pulled out a pair of vintage Countryman EM-101 mics and taped them in a position I had never tried before. The other rig uses DPA 4061 miniature omnis and their XLR adapter which happens to plug straight in to the F6. With a little tape and bell wire I rigged the 4061s in an AB configuration. While it won’t win any prizes for neatness I think this rig will get a bit more attention.

Both of these approaches will probably get more attention, I can definitely think of situations where either of these could be useful. If you’d like to listen to the these recordings in more detail you can download uncompressed WAV files and compare them – Countryman EM-101 and DPA 4061

I’ve done some videos with the DPA 4061 array if you’d like to check it out:

I’ve recorded audio for many videos using the Zoom H6, it’s a terrific tool with decent audio quality, lots of features, and excellent battery life. But Zoom recently released the F6 recorder with a new level of capability. The F6 combines very low noise preamps with dual ADCs and 32 bit float recording, and the combination nearly eliminates any issue with setting input levels. But the F6 costs more and requires more external gear. Which one of these is right for you?

I’ve found the terrific dynamic range of the F6 to be a real benefit to my projects. For my hula show videos I no longer worry about the drums clipping while the chanting is down in the noise floor. With the F6 I can recover those extra loud and extra quiet parts in post in a way I never could with the H6. When I’m shooting “look at me play guitar” videos where I’m the whole video and audio crew as well as the talent I never lose a track that I played well but set levels poorly.

Still, there are trade-offs as there always are. Besides the extra cost of the F6 the H6 includes attached mics that are very handy – using the F6 means bringing mics, cables, mic bar, mic clips, and some kind of mic stand. The H6 has XLR and 1/4″ combo jacks so I can plug my guitar pickup directly in while the F6 needs some kind of adapter to attach a 1/4″ plug to the recorder.

I’ve done a couple of videos that examine the trade-offs and demonstrate the capabilities, hopefully these will be useful in helping you decide which recorder meets your needs.

First, here’s a visual look at the extra gear you’ll need for the F6 to handle the same project as the H6:

Next I did a little demo of the dynamic range capabilities of the two recorders along with some post-processing to demonstrate the recovery of a very low recording level and a badly clipped recording:

To really appreciate the differences between the results from these two recorders you might like to download some files and play with them yourself. I’ve uploaded .WAV files from each recorder for your enjoyment:

• H6 Mic
• F6 Mic
• H6 Pickup
• F6 Pickup

Although the H6 is wonderfully handy with its attached mics, combo jacks, and compact form factor, the F6 has captured me. Sure, carrying the extra gear is going to be a hassle, but in the past when I’ve compared the H6 mics to good standalone gear I could hear the improvement from the external mics. And having the ability to handle a guitar pickup when the player hits the strings just a bit too hard is going to make my videos sweeter sounding. All I need to do now is to stop fooling with equipment and start playing more slack key guitar!

The video forums and sites I visit go in a lot of different directions, but one of the most consistent points they make is the importance of audio in video. Those of us shooting “look at me play guitar” videos actually have it easy compared to folks doing documentaries or dramatic films, because we usually don’t mind having the microphone(s) visible in the shot, but since we’re showing off our music we really need the audio to shine. For acoustic players like me that means using microphones. The natural sound of the acoustic guitar just doesn’t come across with any pickup system I’ve found yet, so learning to position mics for a compelling recording is a big part of making a satisfactory video. (more…)

Those folks at IK Multimedia have figured out how to trigger my impulse buy urge and they did it again with the iRig Acoustic Stage. The iRig Acoustic is a sound-hole mounted MEMS mic that plugs into a smartphone. The Stage version comes with an MEMS mic and a preamp/mixer. This Stage preamp offers tone control, anti-feedback, and the ability to mix an external source. (more…)

I read lots of posts by guitar players and other performers who want to shoot video of themselves performing. They want decent quality video with decent or better audio, usually on a budget. And they usually don’t want to embark on a technical education project or take up a new hobby, they just want to point and shoot and play. (more…)

In my comparison of the Sony HDR-MV1 to the Zoom Q4 I noted that the Zoom comes with wind protection in the form of a rather effective hairy windsock. This feature gives the Zoom a clear win over the Sony for outdoor recordings using the built-in mics. (more…)

The digital camera market is so vigorous that it seems like every niche gets exploited. There are even video cameras aimed at musicians of all people. I call them “music cameras” and the basic idea is a small, light, simple camera with fairly high quality stereo audio. (more…)

While the folks on the high end forum at Gearslutz may debate the relative merits of multi-thousand dollar a/d converters, I suspect that most of us home recordists feel that consumer level a/d and d/a does the job. We’re a lot more likely, though, to ascribe big differences to microphones, looking to different mics for different sources, different tonal flavors, different styles of music. But really, how much difference will we hear if we choose between two very different mics? (more…)