Question for audio recording bods

Have got a decent(ish) camera but even the best cameras come with the advice of using an offboard mic to record audio. We recently borrowed an Edirol Pro4 to record the audio seperately and combine it at edit, which works and the audio is stupendous, broadcast quality. But we want to become independent of borrowed gear.

Does any one know of a great wav recorder that we can use indoors and outdoors? We can't afford an Edirol for ourselves (they're going for £500+) so we're looking for a cheaper alternative. I've found a zoom h4, which has balanced xlr inputs and onboard condensers but that goes for £200. Is there an obvious contender that I'm missing? Do xlr inputs really matter or can I get a cheaper recorder (SD card media) that has unbalanced mic inputs because in most instances the mic and recorder will be hidden and up close to the action and so have a very short length?

Any audio bods have a working field solution or know whether I should fret over xlr v unbalanced inputs?

Cheers in advance

Jesus I thought I was pretty up on audio stuff till I read this! How about Simon at Giraffe, have you asked him?

The only mic I use is a Shure SM58 that I've abused so much over the years but still it refuses to die.

Quote: Lee Henman @ March 8 2009, 1:33 AM GMT

Jesus I thought I was pretty up on audio stuff till I read this! How about Simon at Giraffe, have you asked him?

The only mic I use is a Shure SM58 that I've abused so much over the years but still it refuses to die.

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I thought I was up on it too until I started trawling the Net for answers.

The SM58 is a great workhorse. We use it with a Delta 1010 external PC sound card for most audio / music work but because the 58 is omnidirectional / cardiod we're moving to the AKG c1000s and using it as a (independent from camera) shotgun for video work.

Good shout, re: Simon.

Er. Er. Well I can't give you an objective opinion! For a 'normal' sketch, I use the 2 XLR inputs on the Z1 camera. A shotgun mic (SENNHEISER ME66) on one. And a radio mic (Sennhiser) on another. Both are brilliant. The radio mic (without a cable) is essential when booming is not possible/ or a hassle. I think you're talking about recording with an audio independent to the visual? No idea about that! I suppose the disadvantage is having to match the audio up to the visual in post. Although no great shakes, perhaps.

Appreciate that's not much help. Feel free to e-mail me - simon@planetgiraffe.com. Or a couple of decent forums, I use, for filming/ post production:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/ http://forums.creativecow.net/

Did you get any lights?

Cheers Simon. Yep, I'm keeping sound and video seperate. I've been trialing with some longer scenes and I've found a clapper board keys in the audio and video start-point and the synch stays pretty close for a good few minutes. I tweak it during the cuts to iron out any drift. Odd way of doing it, but I'm used to working with sound files as separate entities, more so than video.

We got our hands on a cheap builder's 1K rig for the main fill light and a few 150W bulbs for spots and highlights. Cheap and nasty but learning how to use what little resources we have.

Will check out those forums. Cheers.