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Automotive sound recording, equipment recommendations


Jacobjonas

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Hi! 

I’m totally new to the world of audio recording, short of some cheap lav mics, I own no audio recording equipment. My knowledge on the topic is equally abysmal so any help is greatly appreciated. My goal is to record car exhaust and engine noise while driving. Currently I’m using a “double -headed” lav mic plugged into the 3.5mm jack on my canon 5d iv. The recordings with this setup have lots of distortion at high volumes and lots of wind noise at higher speeds. The ideal rig for my purposes would be mobile (battery operated) have at least 2 microphones that are capable of handling very loud exhaust noise and cost under $1000 all in. Based on my research, it looks like a Zoom H4n could fit the bill along with a DPA 4061. Honestly I’m not sure if those two products are even comparable. Another microphone that seems compelling is the Bayerdynamic m201. Thanks in advance for the help- Jacob

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There are a few topics about this if you search around on the forum. From what I recall 4061s are quite popular (alltho they can't take more spl than a less gained 4060 if I recall correctly) along with some dynamic mics. If you end up with a dynamic mic at some point, the h4n would maybe be a bit noisy, but since we are talking loud noises anyway it may be OK. 

 

I just did a recording where I had a plant mic under the hood of an old Mercedes with a 4060 in overcover hardwired to a Mixpre6. It was what I had at the time and it sounded quite good to me. It probably helped that it was not a super loud car and that the mic got some air shelter. 

 

Close to the exhaust will probably introduce much more wind, so consider that. 

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Hi Mattias,

 

I've done lots of this

Yes dynamics are the way to go.

Wind is not a problem with a mike near the exhaust as the noise level you are

recording is much higher than any wind noise.

Make sure you do not put the mike in the exhaust gas low is they are very hot.

 

mike

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Jacob, I second Mattias here in having a good look back at older car / vehicle recording posts on the forum: there are several of us here who have done this professionally and extensively and posted comments.

 

As one of them I would advocate and recommend the DPA lav (4060 if SPL isn't expected to be too high, 4061 or 4062 if it is). If you have a budget of $1000 or some such I would look for a recorder a little over the H4N, even just an F4. That and two DPA lavs would probably be a perfect solution but let us know (try to find out) the expected noise levels of the cars you're trying to record.

 

Best, Jez Adamson

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