Item |
Description |
Price |
Recorders |
| Fostex FR-2LE |
A really decent self-contained field recorder using CompactFlash (CF) solid state memory cards. It has low-noise, high-gain microphone pre-amplifiers and phantom power on board. The battery life is very good (8 hours) with four AA batteries. |
$500 |
| TASCAM HD-P2 |
This is a really decent CompactFlash (CF) recorder with a SMTPE timecode capability. |
$800 |
| Sound Devices 702 |
The two-channel 702 is a powerful file-based digital audio recorder. It's expensive, but it has very clean pre-amplifiers, which is, in my opinion, its greatest advantage. |
$1900 |
USBPre |
Digital and Analog Audio Computer Interface. It lets you digitize audio from tapes, microphones, as well as transfer digital signal from the SONY DAT recorder to a laptop. It's a digital I/O "Swiss Army Knife." |
$600 |
Microphones |
Headset microphones (all of these microphones are excellent for speech research) |
| Beyerdynamic Opus 55 Mk II |
This is my microphone of choice for detailed, unbiased speech recordings. Make sure to get it with the CV 18 in-line power adapter. Worldwide availability might be an issue. |
$400 |
| Shure Beta 53 |
One of the three great close-talking microphones available today. It has great worldwide availability and good technical support. |
$500 |
| DPA 4066 |
Excellent performance. Modular design makes it compatible with any wired or wireless system, including small field recorders with plug-in power. |
$700 |
| Nady HM-10 |
A really decent low-cost alternative headset microphone. Be sure to get it with the HX-10 phantom power supply adapter |
$60 |
Sennheiser HMD 25-1 |
Excellent quality. The best microphone I have ever used to record speech in noisy environments. The frequency response is not as flat as the omnidirectional microphones recommended here. |
$400 |
Lavalier and handheld microphones |
| Sanken COS-11D |
One of the best lavalier microphones ever. Highly recommended! |
$600 |
Audio-Technica AT831b |
Lavalier microphone. Good quality, unobtrusive. It comes with a very handy battery pack and high-pass filter. This microphone has a directional polar pattern so it is particularly suitable for noisy environments. |
$160 |
| Beyerdynamic MCE58 |
The MCE 58 omnidirectional hand-held condenser microphone is an excellent choice for small digital recorders, such as DAT and CompactFlash reocrders. It is self-powered (1 AA battery), has medium sensitivity, and an unbalanced connection. It's designed for hand-holding. |
$400 |
| Beyerdynamic M58 |
The M58 omnidirectional hand-held dynamic microphone is a ideal for hand-holding. It has a great sound and relatively flat frequency response. It requires a high-gain, low-noise pre-amplifier, so it is most suitable for professional-grade recorders. It is very sturdy and does not require power to run. |
$300 |
Adapters and cables |
A96F Line Matching Transformer |
The A96F transformer connects microphones with an XLR-type connector to the mini-plug inputs. It increases the signal level from the microphone, provides a balanced input, and prevents distortion due to the d.c. bias.[IMAGE] |
$54 |
Pre-amplifiers and mixers |
Sound Devices MixPre |
Very small 2 channel mixer to mix 2 microphone feeds by Sound Devices. My favorite small field mixer and microphone pre-amplifier. |
$840 |
| Rolls LiveMix |
A very inexpensive, two-channel mic pre-amplifier and mixer. It runs on 2 9 V batteries and will be easy to interface with small recorders with a 3.5mm stereo mic input |
$90 |
Laptop computers |
IMB (now Lenovo) X-series notebook |
Very small and light laptop. Despite the Lenovo takeover, the X-series ThinkPads are as good as they used to be under the IBM label. Get either Windows XP Pro or Windows 7 Pro. |
$1000 - $2000 |
Accessories |
| CF and SD cards |
SanDisk Extreme Pro series or Lexar Professional CF cards. Either will work just fine. Make sure you ask your recorder manufacturer tech support about CF and SD card compatibility |
$40 |
| Connectors, gender changers, adapters, etc. |
I have been very happy with Hosa products. They make every audio and video cable accessory known to man. |
$20 |
Pelican Case |
Those are, lightweight, heavy duty cases to carry your equipment in the field. They come in different sizes. They choice depends on how much equipment you want to put in them. |
$60 |
If you would like to read about how to design a field recording setup, please, 
