Audio Recorders for film, video, & podcast production — 2022 edition

In this week’s episode, I share my thoughts and opinions on the audio and sound recorders for video, film, podcast, and livestream production I have used. In this updated version, we also add podcast and consumer wireless microphone recorders. The section on body pack recorders is also much larger in this video.

In-depth reviews:

Index
00:00 Start
00:06 Summary
00:16 Introduction
00:47 Handheld recorders
01:30 Zoom H1n
02:58 Tascam DR-05
03:44 Zoom H4n Pro
05:28 Zoom H5
06:23 Zoom H6
06:55 Zoom H8
08:04 Tascam Portacapture X8
11:00 Body pack recorders (and wireless recorders)
12:32 Zoom F1
13:06 Tascam DR-10L
14:19 Tentacle Track E
16:31 Zoom F2
17:58 RODE Wireless Go II
19:20 DJI Mic
19:54 Consumer field recorders
20:40 Tascam DR-60D Mk II & 70D
23:40 Prosumer field recorders
28:25 Zoom F3, F6, and F8n Pro
34:55 SoundDevices MixPre II Series
43:55 Podcast recorders
44:34 Zoom Podtrak P4
47:23 Zoom Podtrak P8
48:55 Zoom LiveTrak L-8
49:58 RODECaster Pro II
53:15 Professional field recorders
57:49 SoundDevices 8XX Series
01:03:14 Aaton Digital Cantar X3, Zaxcom Nova, Nomad, and Deva, Sonosax SX-R4+
01:04:17 Please buy my courses

Copyright 2022, Curtis Judd

#Audio #Recorder #Zoom #RODE #SoundDevices #Tascam

[arnoldmunthe]

I have listened to most of your posts over the years, and bought a few of your tutorials, and this was by far THE BEST summary of the field today. Simply WOW, and a huge thank you. It seems the production companies all over the world are setting lower and lower standards, and you are doing the opposite — setting high standards. I learned more in an hour today than going through endless reviews and tutorials over the past six months. Great Curtis!

[BrendanEvan]

One video to rule them all
One vid to show them
One video to rate them all
And in the audio help them!

Thanks Curtis you’re the man

[vidyoustrm]

The way you give us access to all this information about the world of sound. Surely it takes you a sacrifice.

Dear Curtis, Thank You.
May God Bless You

[curtisjudd]

Correction on the ZOOM F3, F6, and F8nPro, when in line level mode, the inputs' max level is +24dBu. It is only in mic mode that the max input level is +4dBu. If you plan to record from a sound board, of course you should switch the inputs to line level mode and that should be fine as long as the engineer operating the sound board does not saturate or clip the mixer's main mix. Also, if you are going to record an extraordinarily loud sound with a microphone, you also might want to switch to line level mode to give yourself a bit more headroom.

Note that the MixPre's max input levels are +14 dBu in mic mode and +28dB in line level mode. That's a bit more headroom. That's a potential advantage for MixPre if you record a lot of REALLY wide dynamic range audio.

[matahari]

Congratulations for 200.000 subscribers. Thanks for your factual, friendly and „ unhysteric“ style of presentation.

[DiveHard]

Your videos are among the most informative and helpful on YouTube - thank you!

[DanielWayShadow]

Amusing thing, I'm a film school student and the story you tell at 4:05 - 5:04 exactly happened to me. With that exact recorder + exact mic + exact problem. Newbie ditch warning folks!

[davidfirth]

What I like about your explanations is that while you do work professionally and have a more critical ear for noise floor, etc., you don't stomp all over the cheaper gear like the Zoom H6 or smaller Tascam units. For a hobbyist or someone with no need for professional-level results, the lower end and/or older gear can be very beneficial. You leave the door open for people to be in that space. Thanks

[sidehop]

Wow, I absolutely love how you really take the time to explain any jargon that anyone new may not know instead of us trying to Google and research further. A great teacher, I must say!

[dwftube]

Wow, that's a pretty comprehensive overview. Lots of useful info for people at all price brackets.👍

[brokeforever]

The audio and video quality on this channel is the best I've seen ever, even the oldest videos have top notch audio. I don't think there's any other channel on Youtube that even comes close.

[andreimanilkin]

When I see Curtis, first I like, then I watch! It doesn't matter what the topic is. Everything is interesting, everything is useful.

[cruisingforone]

I really appreciate you describing the corporate philosophies between Zoom and Sound Devices. That helped a great deal, I keep going back and forth between them.

[dlep]

Thanks for the comprehensive info, clear and concise. And the production quality is top notch as always, a pleasure to watch.

[patrickchase]

I've tested the Rode Wireless Go II and DJI Mic simultaneously with Sanken COS11Ds (two of them mounted side-by-side on a dual clip), and the Wireless Go II's noise floor was ~4 dB better even after fine tuning the gain on the DJI. They were recorded through Rode VXLR+ adapters into a MixPre 10 II.

[JonathanCabot]

There's a lot of good stuff in this video, but the #1 thing is how good you make this video sound!

[hamradiowithkevin]

This video was so incredibly helpful. Thank you Curtis for making Videos like this.
The information and language you use, helps beginner level users like me to understand the concepts better.

[SoundSpeeding]

My brief opinion/rankings (from the perspective of a professional production sound mixer, who has a wide range of experiences from the lowest budget indie/student film sets to the biggest budget netflix series / blockbuster movies ):

All handheld recorders... don't bother, in fact, actively avoid them! As they're so extremely unsuitable for location sound recording for film/tv. Especially when there is something else available that is so much better and probably cheaper too...

The Tascam DR60Dmk2. Don't settle for anything less! (well, ok, you could get the even cheaper mk1 secondhand?)

The Tascam DR70D is only slightly more though. (or for a bit more, and adds timecode, is the Tascam DR701D. But it appears it has been discontinued)

But if at all possible (I understand for some people, the DR60D might be all their budget allows) I'd avoid all these consumer recorders which lack timecode, as a proper prosumer ones with timecode and high quality preamps are exceptionally affordably now in 2022! We live in an amazing era, to have audio gear that's so accessible, which wasn't an option when I was starting out.

Let's look at these, the prosumer recorders I'd recommend:

Zoom F6.
Zoom F8n Pro. (the original F8n is just as good, in fact I'd prefer it! The original original F8 is ok too, not too much worse than the F8n. But if you have professional aspirations just get the F8n)

There is also the F4, which I loved, but it has sadly been discontinued 😞 And there is the Sound Devices MixPre series. Originally the first gen MixPres at launch were quite inferior to the Zoom F Series then. As I feel Sound Devices rushed out the MixPres to respond quickly to the earth shattering game changer that was the Zoom F8.

But since then the MixPres have had a lot of firmware updates, and improved Gen2 hardware, and I feel MixPres are easily on par with the Zoom F Series. Is a coin flip which to get, down to personal taste.

Although the extreme small size of the MixPre3 does make it the obvious choice for anybody who wants to use it with/under their DSLR/Mirrorless camera! Just go get the MixPre3 asap.

And the MixPre10 costs so substantially more than a Zoom F8n, then it is hard to justify the MixPre10 for anybody starting out (which is most people who are considering a MixPre or F Series). As you're likely very short on cash, and there are so many other areas in your sound kit that need those $$$ instead! So why spend extra for the MixPre for no real net benefit over the F8n??

And if you're comparing a recorder that's more comparable in price to the F8n, the MixPre6.. I just think that's too unfair to the MixPre6! As the F8n is just so much better designed for the sound mixer overall. The MixPre6 is a fantastic *secondary* recorder, to supplement your 633/833/etc, but for primary usage as your only recorder? I'd take the F8n every time!

Now I haven't mentioned any professional recorders yet. But I'll just quickly mention the cheapest model from each of the four brands (the only four brands that exist for us), and you can research them more yourself (or feel free to ask me any questions!). Have listed them in order of popularity:

Sound Devices 833
Zaxcom Nova2
Aaton Cantar Mini
Sonosax SX-R4+

Oh, and a quick final point about bodypack recorders: would you record your video without ever looking at your camera's image??

If you say "yes" ( to be fair... I've kinda done this a few times, such as when running 5x cameras filming a wedding ceremony! I'll set up a couple of unnmaned cameras, then cross my fingers and wish for luck), then bodypack recorders are fine for you.

But if you say "no", why on earth would you treat your audio like this??? You wouldn't record you video blind. Don't record your audio deaf!

[linda_lawson]

Curtis, you have outdone yourself! This is a tremendous resource. Thank you.

[andreforde]

Thanks Curtis! It's always an education, and you've advanced me just by sharing your knowledge.