Dialogue Tracks

Can anyone recommend inexpensive hardware to buy for creating dialogue tracks? Jim

Stack a good two hundred dollars... and check out the Tascam midi devices. You can find a pro sounding mic at the guitar center...

or snag one of these bad babies!

http://www.amazon.com/MXL-Studio1-USB-USB-Desktop-Recording/dp/B001E9X80K/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1317596656&sr=8-13

Hey James, I have a Zoom H4N recorder and it is fantastic. We recorded the dialogue track for Highclimber in a studio, and when I needed a few pickups, I used the Zoom and the built-mics, and you can't hear the difference. It records everything to .wav files on an SD card that you can easily drop into your sound editing software.

www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h4n/

http://studios.amazon.com/scripts/9135

Hope that helps!

If you have a decent computer already, download the free recording/editing software Audacity. Then basically all you need is a decent microphone. I highly recommend the Sure SM-57, about$100 dollars new, but you can get them for a lot less at pawn shops, craigslist or ebay. Then you'll need adapter cords or a mixer to convert 3 pin xlr to 1/8 inch inputs on your sound card.

You can find usb microphones for as little as $49 sometimes, although I don't know how good they are.

If you need a stand-alone audio recorder, I've seen many people swear by the Zoom h4n, but it runs $250 to $300, and I've had bad luck with Zoom products. Tascam makes a good one that you can find on sale for $49 at The Guitar Center.

I use the Zoom H4N and a $99 condenser mic (MXL V63M) and love it. But I'd bet the $49 Tascam would do a nice job too if you were recording just one or two voices at a time. Personally, I record one voice at a time (use compression) then edit those vocal tracks in "Reaper" (free to try and cheap to buy). Reaper is awesome. I used Audacity (and still do at times) but for editing, slicing, dicing, and gluing a bunch of separately recorded tracks together, you can't beat Reaper.

Hardware recording is nice because computers can be noisy.

I also own the Zoom R24 but when I hook condenser mics to it and try for decent gain levels, I get noise... bums me out too because it cost $500. I hope I find a use for it somewhere because the features are great. You can record a bunch of separate inputs on it simultaneously - which would be great for location shooting and bringing in the boom mic and the lavaliers all at the same time but keeping them on their own tracks.

Favorite feature I've used on Audacity is "Noise Reduction". Saved my bacon a few times. But it can be touchy.

I hear you Robert... for me it's Audacity and Cubase 5.