Has anyone had the opportunity to use this piece of equipment?
Any thoughts on its ease of use, quality, negatives?

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Andrew

www.killerheelsproductions.com

I have had a play with it and liked it. However it seems to be a sort of halfway measure not as wonderful as the Sound Devices or as flexible as the Edirol R4 but much more expensive than the Marantz PMD660 or Edirol R-09.

There's a new Fostex out, the FR2 LE which seems to be popular with location sound recordists. It doesn't have as many bells and whistles but seems to record sound well, which is what you want it for.

If you need XLR inputs and phantom powering, the PMD660 is a lovely bit of kit, otherwise, have a look at the Zoom H2. Both are considerably less than the FR2.

Many thanks for that guru, I'll go have a look at the specs and price of the two you suggest.

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Andrew

www.killerheelsproductions.com

Further to that... It might be worth having a look at the Swissonic MDR-2

SWISSONIC MDR-2 - U.K. International Cyberstore

...which seems to be a very cheap way of solving your problem (£80) although it only records at 44.1 khz (video normally records at 48khz) so you'll have to convert it to sync with your video, although most sound software will do this.

I haven't used or seen the Swissonic myself though, just going on what I've read in the audio press.

Do you need a timecode facility?

No, I don't need a time code facility. What I intend to do is use the on cam mic (XL-2) to record a sound track and then use off cam mics to record what will ulitmately be the sound track used in the film.

As well as the clapper board 'spike' I'll then also have a sync track to help line up the digital recording before deleting the (lower quality) sync track.

It looks like I'll be purchasing the Fostex FE-2LR.

Thanks to all for your suggestions and replies.

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Andrew

www.killerheelsproductions.com

Ah, I didn't realise that you had that much to spend! Before forking out for the FR2 LE, I would seriously have a look at the Edirol R-4. Okay it's a fair bit more expensive than the Fostex but it will suite your purpose better as a location recorder. Especially useful is its ability to record four tracks simultanously.

I've gone ahead and purchased the FR2-LE. Got a good price of £360, the Edirol you suggest Guru does indeed look like a very good piece of kit for the price, espeically with a built in hard drive.

Have to see what buget constrainsts I have for the next movie!!

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Andrew

www.killerheelsproductions.com