Sound recordists help?

[Ben_UK]

Hi there,

I don't know an awful lot about sound recording, all I know is that clipping and distortion should be avoided and so on.

I have been tasked with the job of recording sounds from a race car, but I need to make sure the recordings are clean and as high quality as possible. I have no gear, so I will need to obtain some (preferably cheap) equipment which can be mounted to a roll cage. I was thinking maybe a second hand mini-disc and microphone from ebay. Thing is, I have no idea what kind of mic I should be buying.

Can anyone advise?

Cheers,

Ben.

[slimdude]

This article should give you an insight, and information to what you're looking for:

http://www.creativefieldrecording.co...s-on-a-budget/

[Ben_UK]

Thanks for the link.

[bigshot]

If you are mounting the sound equipment to the car itself, it's going to be pretty tricky. Heavy vibrations and very loud sound. You're going to need really tough equipment.

[ZoetMB]

Are you supposed to be recording sounds inside the car (like the driver talking?) or sounds outside the car?

In both cases, but especially with the mic outside the car, the levels are beyond rock and roll levels. So you're going to have to have microphones and mic preamp or mixer that has lots of padding built-in. -20db probably isn't even going to be anywhere near enough.

Even then, it's going to be difficult to record because it's so loud that the diaphragm in the mic is going to extend so far, it's probably going to distort right from the start.

You're going to have to run some tests. I don't think you can wait until recording day.

What's the purpose of all this? You might be better off recording from a distance away and not mounting the equipment on the car.