Reddit reviews Zoom H6 6-Track Portable Recorder, Stereo Microphones, 4 XLR/TRS Inputs, Records to SD Card, USB Audio Interface, Battery Powered, for Stereo/Multitrack Audio for Video, Podcasting, and Music

You should really consider one decent mic for each person. And you should consider carefully before locking yourself into the USB ghetto.

I'd really suggest a recorder and a few decent dynamic mics unless you were planning on recording a Skype guest or something similar.

The Zoom H6 ($399) would let you just press record and then you can remove the SD card and import the four XLR tracks (and even a couple ambient tracks if you like or replace the supplied mics with two more XLR ports for a total of six). It also does allow you to act as an audio interface straight into your DAW as you see fit. But honestly, why would you? Unless you needed to mix in a Skype call or something similar it would be simpler.

http://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H6-Six-Track-Portable-Recorder/dp/B00DFU9BRK/

The default inexpensive dynamic mics that do a decent job are the Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB ($60) and AT2005-USB ($50) or the Samson Q2U ($38-52, the price varies), all essentially identical mics with the 2100 having a Limited lifetime warranty. They do a decent job of reducing crosstalk and ambient noise, especially for the price. All have USB or XLR interfaces.

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATR2100-USB-Cardioid-Dynamic-Microphone/dp/B004QJOZS4/

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT2005USB-Cardioid-Dynamic-Microphone/dp/B007JX8O0Y/

http://www.amazon.com/Samson-Handheld-Microphone-Headphones-Accessories/dp/B001R747SG/

The Samson's price has been varying from $38 to $52 of recent. For the money they sound good and do a decent job of reducing the ambient noise. Plugged into a Zoom H6 they work well (never used the Q2U myself)

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I love my Zoom H4N Pro portable recorder. If you have the money for it you could go with the H5 or H6.

1x Zoom H6 (https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H6-Six-Track-Portable-Recorder/dp/B00DFU9BRK)

2x AT2005USB
(https://www.amazon.com/Technica-AT2005USB-Handheld-Dynamic-Microphone/dp/B007JX8O0Y)

Here's what I'd suggest (as podcaster with ten years experience). If you can afford it buy a hardware recorder. The Zoom H6 has four inputs, and each one can support phantom power. It'll do multichannel recording on its own - no laptop required, and is infinitely more reliable than any software solution. Then buy four cheap as chips mic (e.g.: something like this) - whatever kind you like. If you stick at podcasting you can upgrade the mics later, but the Zoom will still be an excellent recorder / preamp, and will stand you in good stead for years (as well as being mobile). If you want to hear sound quality of this solution check this out this episode of my podcast from a couple of months back.

On your recorder question, here's why I recommend the [$299.99 DR-70D] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P8PPVO2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00P8PPVO2&linkCode=as2&tag=battleforthew-20) over the [$269.99 Zoom H5] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DFU9BRK/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00DFU9BRK&linkCode=as2&tag=battleforthew-20):

• Tascam stands behind their audio recording performance. The Tascam has great numbers - and Tascam publishes them on the DR-70D's [specs page] (http://tascam.com/product/dr-70d/specifications/) (e.g., 20-40,000Hz frequency response at 24bit/96kHZ, 92dB Signal to Noise Ratio). Zoom, on the other hand, does not publish the H5's frequency response or S/N numbers on its [specs page] (http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/h5/spec/). I've done some research, and I still can't find a published S/N for this recorder.
  
  
• Form factor. Mounting your recorder below your camera is a lot more convenient. Before I got mounted my DR-60D (pictured [here] (https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-y7bqNyUEErI/VK_gSSlaEfI/AAAAAAAAJJ8/0r4vpbtDUqA/w963-h543-no/P1090337.JPG)) below my GH4, I had a DR-40D (pictured [here] (https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-N2fhpkBqQyA/UlAwzPz9p8I/AAAAAAAAIKA/Cr572sFRSW8/w724-h543-no/P1120289.JPG)). Finding a place to mount a recorder on your hot shoe or rig is a much bigger hassle than simply screwing it onto the bottom of the camera.
  
  On your boom pole question, if you don't need carbon fiber the [$229.50 K-Tek KE-110CC with Internal Coiled XLR Cable] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00306MX6K/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00306MX6K&linkCode=as2&tag=battleforthew-20) is a great value for your money.
  
  Hope this is helpful and good luck with your new GH4 setup!

If you aren't streaming anywhere a Zoom H6 with the Zoom EXH-6 XLR Capsule seems like it would fit the bill for you nicely. It's portable and records all 6 tracks separately. No mixer necessary in the case.

Okay this is going to be a long post, so here goes.

​

If you really want to get into sound design, youre going to need a few essentials. A DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), an audio interface, a handheld recorder, and a microphone.




DAWs

As far as a DAW goes, there's a few alternatives you can go with. I personally use Avid Pro Tools for near everything I do, but also mess around with Reaper. I've found that most studios will use one of these two. Most DAWs will have a pretty steep learning curve, so be ready for that.

Pro Tools First is the free version of Pro Tools. It has a lot of limitations, but for starting out it should be fine. If you want less limitations it costs big money, but I'm sure you can find a crack or two as long as you don't use it commercially.

Reaper is starting to grow on me lately. You can customize it to your needs, and the full version is only $60. You can also just deal with a popup everytime you open the program for ten seconds and use it for free. I mainly prefer Pro Tools over this because the video engine in Pro Tools is much better. But for batch editing multiple sound files, Reaper is muuuuuch better.

​

Audio Interface

This basically takes over as an intermediary between high quality audio and your computer. You can plug a microphone right into it to record sound straight to your computer. You can do this with a USB microphone as well, but the quality is a million times better with one of these.
I would recommend either the Behringer UMC22 or the more advanced Focusrite Scarlett Solo. Both will do the trick, I just prefer the mic pres on the Focusrite a bit more.


Handheld Recorder
Handheld recorders allow you to record anything you want to without having to deal with any cables. They should be compact but durable.

The Tascam DR-40 is a great intro recorder. It was the first recorder I got 5 years ago, and it still holds up. I've dropped this thing so many times and it still powers through.
Another favorite is the Zoom H4N. This was a favorite among most of my classmates as it was the one my school supplied, but I didn't feel like going through the checkout process all the time so I saved up and got the Tascam. It has a newer version, the Zoom H6, which is pretty slick, but comes at a higher price point. It also comes with some interchangeable microphone capsules so you can get different types of recordings. I'll cover more of this later.
I'll leave off with the recorder I have now, the Sony PCM-M10. This thing is a godsend. It's discontinued due to a newer version coming out, but you can find this guy on eBay for around $300-400. It's smaller than a phone, and the sound quality is amazing. If you have the money to shell out for this guy, definitely go for it. Every sound designer inn the industry I know swears by it.


Microphone

So the first thing you need to know is that there's a load of different microphone types. Its a lot to cover, so I'm just going to link you to this article that will cover the basics of what you need to know. Basically I would recommend different microphones for different things, all depending on what you're trying to capture.
A good all-around microphone is the Shure SM57/Shure SM58. They're essentially both the same microphone. But these things will LAST. Like,people have run over them with trucks and they sound fine. Definitely a good starting point

For vocal recordings, I would recommend the Rode NT1A. This mic is a great starting point for capturing voice, and is durable to boot.

For capturing foley/field recording, I would go with the Rode NTG2. Its a shotgun mic with great quality for the price, and never let me down in all the years Ive been using it. I won its successor, the NTG3, in the Riot Creative Contest a few years back, but still use the NTG2 from time to time when I need to.


Some Extra Stuff


Theres a lot of cool, free plugins out there. I've used both Blue Cat's and Melda's plugins, and they all get the job done with a bit of tweaking.

As far as building up a sound library goes, I would recommend recording literally everything you can around you and playing with those sounds with plugins as a good starting point for building up a library. There's a few resources out there that give out free SFX every once in a while, GDC has had a bundle go up for 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. You can also check out the BBC Sound Effects Library. Be careful about getting libraries and bundles though, as they add up quick. I have to go through my sound library soon, and I probably have around 500,00+ files but only really need a few thousand.

For all your sounds, you're going to want a file manager. A great and free one is Mutant. You just add the directory where you downloaded your sounds to, let it load them in, and voila. You can search easily for what you need.


Hopefully, all this was somewhat helpful to you, or to anyone else reading this who's interested in sound design!

We used to record on a Blue Snowball mic and then upped our game, and we did it without using a mixer based on some tips we got from this subreddit.

We have 4 people recording, and chose to use a Zoom H6. It can record up to six tracks (but the most we've used is 4). Our microphones are Samson Q2Us, which is the same as an Audio-Technica ATR-2100 mic. (We chose the Samson Q2Us instead because they came with headphones and cheap stands and cost less.)

We decided to get boom arms with shock mounts and pop filters in order to reduce noise. To be honest, the Zoom H6 alone, using the capsule mic, produces better sound than our Blue Snowball. I also like the H6 because I can take it on the road and record mobile interviews clearly, even in noisier environments.

Here's one of our latest podcasts recorded with this setup, and here's an old one with the Blue Snowball for comparison. (Jump around the episodes a bit and you'll see the difference.)

Good luck with whatever you choose!

When I go all hardware, I used to record to the Tascam DP-008EX and then bounce the track to my Tascam 424.

Recording to tape can sound different depending on the type of music you are recording and how you mix and level the individual tracks. For reference, here are 3 tracks I recorded to cassette:

• Angband
  
• 7h22
  
• Snow
  
  These days, I use the Zoom H6 pretty exclusively for my hardware recordings (because I can do overdubs and record ambient sounds with the microphone). If you are looking for a hardware device for your recordings, anything from the Zoom R line you might like. And if you have any interest in the cassette sound, I am sure you can find some cheap(er) options than online around you area. Check thrift stores and Craigslist.
  
  Also, your 2 tracks are nice. Keep writing music!

The Audio-Technica ATR2100/AT2005/Samson Q2U are very good podcasting microphones, and are versatile by having both USB and XLR connections.

The Zoom H6 is a good recorder. If you want to save money, get a Behringer mixer (1-XLR, 2-XLR, 4-XLR) and a Zoom H1 to record with.

The Audio-Technica ATH-M30x or ATH-M40x are good headphones.

Get any pop filter that fits your price. A Neewer boom arm is OK for podcasting (that's what I use), but the next step up is a Blue Compass, Rode PSA-1, or Heil PL-2T.

The Neewer boom arm comes with a plastic shock mount.

Monoprice.com has pretty good quality cables for cheap, but price almost equals quality for audio cables.

Audacity is a good audio editor.

Check out Better Podcasting, The Audacity to Podcast, School of Podcasting, The Feed, and Podcasters' Roundtable for podcast advice. Pod Squad is a Discord server that I help moderate where you can also get more help from other podcasters.

Are you planning on recording the audio that will be used in the music video? If so, I definitely wouldn't be using shotgun mic for that. You need to think of this more as recording music instead of audio for video. Maybe just pick up a Zoom H6 with XY capsule for recording your music. Set that up somewhere near the band off camera and just let it record. That will cover your microphone and audio recorder all in one and I'm sure you'll like the result a lot more.

I second Zoom. They're fantastic little recorders, especially for the money. I would recommend one of these two.
https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H6-Six-Track-Portable-Recorder/dp/B00DFU9BRK/ref=sr_1_4?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1504653648&sr=1-4&refinements=p_4%3AZoom%2Cp_6%3AATVPDKIKX0DER

https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H4N-Digital-Multitrack-Recorder/dp/B01DPOXS8I/ref=sr_1_2?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1504653648&sr=1-2&refinements=p_4%3AZoom%2Cp_6%3AATVPDKIKX0DER

The built in mics are excellent, in case you ever end up with no soundboard usage, and you can input a few sources when needed, while monitoring live.

Yup. I've actually been looking at a recorder like this which incorporates 4 xlr inputs AND a digital recorder too, and it's battery powered, but price. :(

Get a used h6. Should be around $300 w/ shipping.

Get the H6 adaptor capsule. $70 new.

Get 6 wired lav mics. $25 each * 6 = $150.

Total= $520 + tax

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That all said, spending $100 on an omni-directional USB condenser mic is not the worst idea, even though everyone else hates it. Look, if you're only publishing this so a couple of people can listen to it, what's really the return on the $600 investment? Is having perfect audio really going to increase your listenership? Is this for archival purposes, or for public purposes?

Microphone: Get a dynamic mic. I recommend the ATR-2100 or the ATR-2005 which functions as USB and XLR.

Mixer: I usually get some hate for recommending the Zoom H4n or Zoom H6, but they do the job for quite the low price. Also consider the Behringer 1024.

Headphones: These headphones are quite pricy, but I've heard good stuff about these Sony headphones. You can always check out Daniel J. Lewis' post about headphones.

Mic stand: I think we may be over budget at this point, but you can pick up some Musician's Gear Boom stands from Guitar Center or the On Stage mic stand. There are some scissor arms for cheap, but they are made cheap.

For my tabletop rpg podcast its me and a player at the table and two others Skyping in from separate locations. I highly recommend having separate mics and a mixer. This allows you to record each track. If you only have one track and someone coughs or makes a noise, then you can't really edit it out.

However, since its only two people for me, I can cheat and set each mic to be panned left and right so I can split the two tracks. I'm not as such how to easily do more people without something like a Zoom H6.

You might be best off picking up a field recorder like the Zoom H6, and using Reaper. With $400 you're going to have a hard time getting a quality interface, mics, and a daw, but I think the setup I mentioned would get you started nicely with the added benefit of being able to record anywhere very easily.

Sound quality on any sub-$500 recorder is going to be about the same.

The DR-70D's form factor is great for DSLM cameras. Controls are much more intuitive as well. I really like mine.

That all being said, once you use the H6N, everything else is inferior. Battery life, inputs, and control layout on that recorder hits all the right buttons.

I use anchor its awesome, the support team is always really helpful and quick, plus they post almost everywhere.

If you already have a mac book tho you can record right into it. if your budget is around 1000 you can get some nice stuff. My set up rn is just a zoom H6 and two audio technica mics and a pop. If you want a nice headset thats not too expensive I like these.

The zoom is nice because it can double as a mixer and it portable, the mic can plug into your computer through usb so your not just stuck recording into the zoom.