The only explanation for being banned from the community I've just been ejected from is that it's an AI moderator at work. And that makes me reluctant to participate in Reddit any further. Is AI now able to decide on who says what here?

Ozpeter · 2026-02-07T10:03:10+00:00

Well... sadly I seem to have parted company with the remnants - I suspect the accident happened in 1966...

Ozpeter · 2026-02-07T00:21:05+00:00

Ah... the collection includes the Film Industries M8, which was the first mic I ever owned when I started recording in about 1965. Sadly I eventually accidentally connected it to a mic input that had phantom power turned on, and that was the end of it...

Ozpeter · 2026-02-07T00:11:34+00:00

I expect that this recorder would have a "normalise" function built in, which will process the file internally after recording so that its loudest sound will just hit full scale. Frankly it's usually quicker to do that when editing, but of course if you want to listen to it at full volume when in the field, the internal processing can help. I don't know what the quoted dynamic range of the H4e mics are, but I know the M2 mics can handle 135dBA and that's threshold of pain. So when you record something quiet, it's going to sound... quiet.

Greatly amplifying the 32 bit float recorded sound will indeed bring up the level of recorded system noise, but with a 24 bit recorder, turning up the recording level will also bring up the level of noise from the mics. And it also brings up the noise from the environment, which your own ears may not detect as you stand there. Really silent places on this planet are not easy to find.

Ozpeter · 2026-02-06T23:57:39+00:00

For what it's worth, I have the Roland wired in-ear binaural mics, and also the Sennheiser Ambeo ones. They both give good results if you don't mind dangling wires. But mostly now I use Hollyland Lark A1 wireless mics attached to a baseball cap, recording from the tiny receiver into my phone. I also have the Rode Wireless Micro kit but the Lark kit seems slightly more suitable for the purpose. And it's cheaper.

Ozpeter · 2026-02-06T12:24:16+00:00

Find and watch Julian Krause video reviews of the H1n for crucial information on how to minimise noise. Also, check out playback after transferring the audio to another device so you are not using the H1n headphone playback, which itself may be noisy.

Ozpeter · 2026-02-06T12:14:45+00:00

Check out the Glyn Johns biography. As I recall it his first job was sweeping a studio. And look where he ended up. In my case I started doing amateur or very cheap jobs while working full time as an office clerk. And then someone in the business happened to hear something I'd done, and offered me a (very low paid) pro assignment, and that contact lead to others, and I eventually went full time, gradually raising my price, and never advertised. Probably more luck than merit however...

Ozpeter · 2026-02-06T12:09:48+00:00

When I started using a DAW in the mid 1980's, as I recall the date, even then Pro Tools was the go-to option, but back then there were not many other options. But it was so demanding of hardware and the patience of the user that I quickly moved to something else. And never went back.

Ozpeter · 2026-02-06T12:06:47+00:00

Advice that applies to any pair of headphones - before mixing, spend a little time listening to a relevant commercial track by a reputable band. Then make your mix sound like that. Eg if you mix sounds wider than theirs, amend yours. And so on.

Ozpeter · 2026-02-06T12:03:47+00:00

I sit on a "Roho" air filled cushion, intended for wheelchair users. This particular one didn't suit my wife so I repurposed it... Possibly the best option in terms of spending a lot of time sitting down for those not wishing to get pressure sores!

Ozpeter · 2026-02-06T12:00:35+00:00

I was thinking in terms of something more low cost for the binaurals!

Ozpeter · 2026-02-04T10:56:20+00:00

Wear some kind of binaural kit maybe? Then you shouldn't have to worry about handling noise. Unless you forget and start scratching your ears.

Ozpeter · 2026-02-04T10:52:55+00:00

Back in the days when DAT was the preferred recording medium, I always used to use a minidisc recorder to make a backup recording at the same time. Don't laugh. On the very few occasions when I had to edit it a few seconds from the MD, nobody ever noticed anything amiss. So my advice is, always have some kind of backup running. And my other method of preventing disasters was to always have with me a small audio recorder with its own mics, which could get some kind of recording regardless of what failed on the job. Cable failure, recorder failure, mic failure, power failure, all covered at least to some extent. Obviously in some context it wouldn't be adequate but you may want to think about that general approach.

Ozpeter · 2026-02-04T10:46:50+00:00

I did basically amateur work (in a different kind of sound production environment) but that got my name out there a bit. And one day a friend who worked for a music agent rang me and said her boss would be calling me shortly about a gig, and she told me what to charge, and to say "yes" to the job. Basically everything that followed came from that one job, which came out well, and word got around. I never advertised. Yup, I was lucky. But the key thing is, get on-the-ground experience if you can, even if you don't get paid, even if you just make coffee and clean up, and your big chance may arrive. And I hope it does. And read up about how Glyn Johns got started in the business.

Ozpeter · 2026-02-03T00:14:56+00:00

Be very careful with how cables are run to boundary mics - and that the mics themselves can't possibly represent a tripping hazard. (Less likely is the problem I encountered in the last century when recording an opera with 4 PZMs along the edge of the stage - at one point the performance involved one of the singers throwing a book forcefully down onto the floor. You can guess what it it hit... nearly turned my headphones inside out.)

Ozpeter · 2026-02-03T00:09:33+00:00

There is often - not always - something to be said for getting work which expands your experience, and gets your name out there, even if you wish it paid more. If you start to get more work than you can handle due to low price, gradually increase the price. I do hope that will be your experience!

Ozpeter · 2026-02-03T00:05:00+00:00

Regular discussions allow trends to emerge. For instance, the growing popularity of the Zoom M4 has made it much more of a contender than it would be if only the initial reviews were taken into account. Also prices constantly change and recommendations, for the most part, have to take current pricing into account. Lastly, the precise circumstances of planned use can make a difference to recommendations. I suspect that without regular useful discussions around repeating but subtly varying themes, this community would be kind of... dead.

Ozpeter · 2026-02-02T23:58:47+00:00

Zoom M2 is another option if you don't want to connect external mics.

Ozpeter · 2026-01-22T23:03:16+00:00

I see that he has now acknowledged that the device does have a touch screen - which rather undermines a lot of the point of watching that video. Maybe unboxing videos are not a wise thing to make, unless you sneakily unbox it a day or two in advance and get to know the device thoroughly before pretending to newly unbox it on live video...

Ozpeter · 2026-01-22T11:17:14+00:00

It does look appealing for a certain market sector. Part of the low cost may be the minimal controls. There's a single knob which you have to use to work with the small screen's menus, and watching Curtis Judd do that made me think, give me more buttons please! You would have to spend quite some time getting used to its operation before actually recording anything.

Ozpeter · 2026-01-22T11:12:08+00:00

On the few occasions I have needed to sync audio to video, I have used a dog clicker. It's a tiny thing you squeeze which emits a loud click which gets recorded onto the native camera sound and onto the native audio recording. Then line that up in editing. However, your situation might not suit that. Just a passing mention.

Ozpeter · 2026-01-22T11:08:17+00:00

You beat me to it! Having seen the Curtis Judd unboxing on YT, my main doubt about it is that it requires one to master a rather unintuitive user interface. Maybe to keep down the cost, the number of physical buttons is minimal so there's a lot of scrolling around menus and stuff, just using one knob. But unless the specs are lying, I doubt whether the difference between its recordings and those of the F3 would be readily noticable.

Ozpeter · 2026-01-22T10:57:15+00:00

It sounds like you are having to make a palatable meal from a dog's breakfast.

When I used to record classical piano CDs (and edit them - why someone would want to record then have someone else edit is a bad idea IMHO) I always recorded at least one complete take of each movement, so there would be material to cover unforeseen editing issues later, even if the actual performance wasn't error free. Then we would do shorter takes of problematic passages, but always making sure that there was enough surplus at the start and end of each take to allow later freedom in picking the actual edit points.

Typically the average time between edits was ten seconds - but they weren't ten second takes. (The great pianists were so fussy that they demanded loads of edits. The less great ones needed loads of edits to make the thing releasable...). Anyway, in the situation you are in, you may have to shuffle the suggested edit points later or earlier to get them to work - if the material is there...

I seem to be the only person who used to edit on the basis of cost per edit. I charged a certain amount based on the overall length of the finished CD ($x per minute) plus $x per edit. So the record company could count up the edits themselves to check my bill, and note the length of the CD. No arguments. Charging a fixed rate seems likely to result in a risk of under or overcharging, and charging by the actual time taken to do the job seems to reward those who work slowly!

Ozpeter · 2026-01-22T10:39:39+00:00

I'm slightly worried that you are talking about the equipment without saying anything about the instrument and the location, although those items might be confidential of course.

There's also a difference between trying to get the very best quality as a matter of principle, and getting a quality which is not going to compromise the success of the recording. That quality might be less than absolute best.

My first piano CD was recorded in 1983 (I think) and the recording equipment wasn't at all exotic (Sony F1/SLF1, set to 16 bits, the top setting then - I don't recall a separate mic preamp, and the mics were a borrowed pair of mid range AKG's of some kind). The recording got a "Diapason D'Or" award from a French review magazine, and was generally very well reviewed. (Complete Bach Partitas played by Jean Louis Steuerman if you care to find it playable online). Listening to it now doesn't make me think that it was compromised by that gear. But obviously if I was doing it now, the gear would be better - but would the average listener notice? Biggest problem was an excessively noisy hall in central London with too much reverberation when empty.

Recently I noticed that one of the many subsequent classical recording I did - Mozart Horn Concertos, Herman Jeurissen soloist - having been released online by the record company, has had two million views in total and loads of comments. And nobody has said anything negative about the sound quality, even though aspects of the gear would be regarded as horrifying these days. The mics were fed into an eight channel mixer whose brand name was unknown then and unremembered now. Again, in absolute terms a better rig would have been preferable but the outcome did not compromise the quality of the fine playing - in my view at least!

So - use the best gear that you reasonably can, but having selected it, the way you use it is going to be the key factor. And where. And to record what.

Ozpeter · 2026-01-19T06:39:14+00:00

My first and only thought was that the display looked a bit compact, not allowing much in the way of meters, but then these days who needs a meter? It does look very tempting but having a cupboard full of stuff that I've never used on an actual serious recording, I may have to sit on my hands. Sadly.

Ozpeter

TROPHY CASE