The LightningBell Sound Package

(for rent with or without operator)

AKG-C747 phantom powered hypercardiod shotgun microphones.

Yamaha MG10/2 Field Mixer with phantom power and large VU meter LED indicators.

Sony PCM-R300 DAT (Digital Audio Tape) Recorder. (No remote.)

Package with operator rents for $125-$200 a day. Rental without operator runs $25-$50 a day. 1 hour DAT tape supplied at no extra cost with either rental. You need to supply a boom pole or use my fishpole. Having a shotgun mike held on an actual fishing pole (with gaffer's tape) is not the most suave look on a set but it can work really well.

This package is not as cool as renting a Fostex PD-4 DAT 3-input mixer with a Sennheiser 416 shotgun mike. A Sennheiser rental also may come with the zeppelin windscreen and a proper shockmount. That microphone package might rent for $25-$40 a day. The Fostex DAT can run $100 a day. Of course, one of the nice things about the Fostex and other $10,000 recorders is that you can feed timecode into it. That makes a great setup with a timecode slate. The postproduction people may find well-marked matching timecode on the camera and DAT easier to work with.

What my package does do nicely is give you good sound. The thing about DAT technology is that you're getting studio quality sound as long as the sound mixer knows what he is doing. My unit is prosumer level with RCA inputs instead of balanced XLR connectors. But over ten or twenty foot distances that has no effect.

The increase in price of the professional units obviously give you a lot more features that are well suited to studio work. They're easier to use (if more complicated). But if you're doing a shoot with nonunion crew (or even unpaid crew) you might find yourself at the level that works well with this package.

Package Contents Description

Mikes: The microphones are small shotguns. This package has two of them in Pelican cases so you have a backup or you can record in stereo, room tone, etc. These mikes are about five inches long and come with small shockmounts. As shotguns, they have a narrow cone of sensitivity and reach out a distance.

Mixer: The mixer has four phantom power microphone inputs as well as line inputs, effects send/return, etc. I use it because it has a large LED VU meter. (Some small mixers have only three segment VU meters.) With digital recording, it is very important that the levels not go above 0dB. Otherwise the digital recording device overloads and sounds awful. With the good VU meters you're better protected against overloads. This mixer can be mounted on a microphone stand for convenience.

Recorder: Sony DAT quality is excellent. This recorder accepts line inputs from the mixer.