question about filmsound equipments

[norm14]

Hello everybody

I have a question about filmsound equipments. I want to make sound for ambient, sfx, spfx, foley, music.

now I already have 2 computers (G5 1.8, PC P4) I will get 002r and DV toolkit soon. now I have budget around 6,000 Canadian dollar. Please help me make a decision.

I just getting start into it so I don't know much about the stuffs. especially synchronise stuff. could you please educate me...here is my question...


1 What is the equipments that I have to put in my studio. please give me a compact set which good for start and expand.

2 Which Recorder you guys recommend, dat or disc or minidisc. (I think I don't need recorder which have time code for now) this recorder I'll use for record ambient, foley, sfx,...

3 which microphone is good to start with? how many do I need for begin?

4 which speaker is not so expensive but good for 5.1

thanks

[benderissimo]

Film sound is a tricky area equipment-wise (very subjective). I would get a DAT recorder for recording effects because they are the standard in most post houses. The standard mics among location mixers seem to be the Sennheiser MKH range (MKH 50- mono cardioid, MKH 60 or 70- narrower pickup pattern, MKH 80- stereo) although several guys I know have been using some of the cheaper stereo mics out there and are getting good sounds (be wary of the Rode mics as they are very sensitive to humidity/temperature changes). As far as 5.1 surround goes, PTLE does not support surround sound although you can set up surround monitoring for track laying using discrete outputs from the 002. M-Audio look like they have quite a groovy 5.1 system at a reasonable price- you can even go for a 2.1 system for now and add the extra 3 matched speakers later. I have a foley and ADR business and we pretty much stick to stereo as the surround part of it comes in to play at the mix stage.
To sum up I would say
1. a good mic preamp or channel strip with a compressor built in (the presonus eureka looks like good value)
2. a good mono mic and an average stereo mic (or mono pair) eg Sennheiser MKH 50 (quite expensive but outstanding sound) otherwise AKG do a nice mic that is similar for about $500 US
3. a DAT recorder for recording FX and atmos (although the HHB minidisc recorder is rather good too)
4. a good pair of studio monitors that can be expanded to a surround system eg M-Audio LX-4 2.1 system $350 US
I have also thought about DV toolkit, but it's not strictly needed- if you are in a PAL country (25 frames per second) 1 frame is 40 milliseconds.
Bender

[benderissimo]

Some might also say you need a big leather couch and a flash coffe machine

that's what we were told when setting up!

Bender