Ibood Professional audio recorder

Bob Z

Is this good enough for recording live bands?

http://www.ibood.com/ie/en

I would probably be recording Video separate. Would it stay in sync with a video camera? Could it be connected to a sound desk? Would it be better sound quality than a decent HD camera?

artvandulet

Bob Z wrote: »

Is this good enough for recording live bands?

http://www.ibood.com/ie/en

I would probably be recording Video separate. Would it stay in sync with a video camera? Could it be connected to a sound desk? Would it be better sound quality than a decent HD camera?

Its irrelevant if it will 'stay in sync' as you'll need to sync them up manually in edit either way if you are using separate Video.
Is it good enough for recording live bands? It all depends what your definition of 'good enough' is?
If I was charging, for instance, for recording a live band, then I would certainly say, no it is not. But it would probably give you a decent ambient record of a gig.
Can it be connected to a sound desk? No. There is no line input on the unit. I'd call that a major drawback.

What are you trying to do ultimately here?

Bob Z

I do videoing sometimes as a job and other times as a hobby

Ocasionally I get paid to Video a band live in a theatre or arts space. I would use a mini dv or sony hd camera. Would this be a better sound than them?

I know you would have to sync it up afterwards but would it keep constant speed? What I mean is if synced it up would band footage would it stay in sync throughout? or would I have to start cutting frames? Sorry i know this question might be a bit hard

artvandulet

Bob Z wrote: »

I do videoing sometimes as a job and other times as a hobby

Ocasionally I get paid to Video a band live in a theatre or arts space. I would use a mini dv or sony hd camera. Would this be a better sound than them?

I know you would have to sync it up afterwards but would it keep constant speed? What I mean is if synced it up would band footage would it stay in sync throughout? or would I have to start cutting frames? Sorry i know this question might be a bit hard

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't.

For your kind of work, ideally you'd want something that can take in line in from a desk and a mic - inbuilt or via XLR. That way you can mix the 2 in edit and you'll have the clean desk feed and the ambience together.
With a lot of gigs, the amps aren't going trhough the desk, or even if they are, the levels are not as you hear them in the venue, as you could be hearing the amps themselves more than the amps mic'ed through the FOH. So a combination of an Aux feed and your own mics would always be best.

You can take this all the way to using an XLR splitter to take a feed from each channel on the desk into a multitrack for mixing later. It all depends on what quality you or client is expecting.

What camera do you use. Does it have XLR ins? Any gigs I've recorded, I've kept it simple. Aux Out from the sound desk on XLR - line level XLR in on the camera. Then on Input 2 on the camera, I either use the onboard mic or else plug in an external mic with a wide pattern to pick up the room.
Both feeds go to tape, so I don't need to resync them in edit, I just tweak the levels of each. I usually have a hand held portable HD recorder in the room too, recording backup audio, in case I need it.
If I was using 2 or more cameras, I'd either lock TC if I have the right cameras or else I'll use a hand clap on stage as my sync point.

Bob Z

The bands I record is mostly more of a record for the venue managers and not actually for the band so doesn't need to be perfect sound. If I was recording for the bands I would I would take the XLR input as you describe. You mentioned locking timecode on different cameras how do you do this?

You also mentioned a back up audio would this device be good enough for that?

artvandulet

I would say it would do a good job recording reference audio, yes. But I've never tried it. Check the reviews. Generally, Zoom stuff is pretty good, you get a lot of bang for your buck. I had one of their multitracks before.

You can lock timecode between cameras if they have a TC connection - normally BNC. You can have one of the camera generate the TC and the other takes its TC from the first. This would only be on pro cameras, never on domestic.

Bob Z

Although I sometimes borrow a Sony HD camera or canon xl1 I sometimes use my own Canon mini dv camera which was fairly cheap and can be picked up in any electric shop would the sound quality on the zoom recocder be better quality Than these cameras for recording interviews?

Bob Z

Sorry posts seem confusing as I do a lot of videoing sometimes serious and other times as a hobby using different types of camera some domestic and other times pro

101001

ive been using the zoom h4 and found the audio quality excellent... It has stereo condenser mics built in. There's also two xlr inputs in.. you can then take a stereo out of the desk and also use another stereo microphone to record ambient audio/non mic'd amps.

There is the potential to record 4 tracks at anyone time and the built in mics are surprisingly good (ive used them as interview mics and good results)

Down side is that its twice the price of the model you are looking at but its a whole lot more versatile it functions as a standalone mic, 4 track mixer/recorder, USB audio interface etc.

Your audio quality will always be defined by the mic you use. You would also ideally want something that'll record from the desk ie have line ins

artvandulet

There ye go Bob. The H4 looks to be a better option for you if you can stretch to it. I'd assume the quality of the onboard mics is about the same on both though, if thats all you think you'd use.
I'd say you would get better results with one of these over a mini dv cams onboard mic.

TommyGun

I have the H4, it does lose sync over time. When i sync to my video for example speeches for a wedding, after a hour the speech will be out by a few seconds.

The new H4n does not have that issue (from what i have read).