I thought I was the only guy that used a 442 with my F8 and Diety mics. I mainly do it because I prefer the preamps and limiters on the 442 and I rarely need more than 4 channels.
I have the zoom F8n and I love it, I'm really interested in improving my preamps tho, I got a mixpre and never really got used to it so I'll just stick with the F8N. You think the 442 is a good option in order to improve those preamps? Thanks
The Deity microphones are no longer available. What is the best wireless microphone you recommend - say for shooting an indie narrative / feature film and you will need to put lavs on all your talent?
Jeff actually made a new sound bag video and this would be a great question for him! Here's a link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-65hX5xOiiZo.html
Do you notice a difference in sound quality when pairing it with the SD 442? If so, how much? I ask because I can buy this mixer at a cheap price but don’t know if it would improve audio quality. I own a 788t recorder btw. But I see people use a 442 along with 7xx series.
The Zoom F8n is still being made but the SD 442 & 552 are not. The MixPre series seem to be filling that void with even better features. Jeff recently upgraded this bag to a Sound Devices MixPre 10T for an even smaller kit.
I appreciate your video. This might have been asked already but if the Zoom F8 has all the capabilities and features and with 8 channels. Why use the 442?
It's a great question! The answers come from a certain amount of paranoia about device failure, and experience in the field. The one thing that can go bad over time is the SD media. Once on a shoot Jeff had his SD card fail and it locked up the F8n and stopped recording. However, in the signal chain, the boom mic was running into the 442 first, with a breakaway cable running from the 442 right into the camera, thus, the take was saved because it was being recorded to the camera. Had it ONLY been the F8n, it would have ruined the take because it would be doubtful that the sound would have carried through the F8n to camera. When that SD card failed, it omitted a high-pitch squeal in his headphones. He finished the take and all was saved to camera, thanks to the 442 in the signal chain. The other nice aspect of the 442 is the larger Faders. The Zoom F8 utilizes the same knob for fader as gain and you have to dive into a menu to switch between the two, which is a royal pain. So in a Live video scenario if you are running sound to PA speakers, while also recording the program, you can run the sound out of the 442 to the speakers, and then independently control the recording as a separate set of gain and fader controls on the F8n. Splits the duties between devices rather than trying to use all one device. Jeff upgraded out of the Zoom series recorders and exclusively uses Sound Devices now for both live conference recording and location sound for TV as he prefers the functionality of the Sound Devices faders and trim over the Zoom interface. This is a nice setup for certain situations, but more-modern devices have overtaken this particular setup in performance and flexibility.
We do not recommend the H4N or Tascam 60mkii for professional work. They are OK if you are starting out, can be helpful units for better audio for weddings, for example, and the H4n is decent for a backup in those scenarios... but as professional devices they lack the quality preamps and fast functionality for audio recording. They have 'hissy' preamps and they eat up batteries and have poor connectivity to clean external battery power. We recommend the Sound Devices or Zaxcom series mixer/recorders over any Zoom or Tascam product. You get what you pay for - we've had Zoom H4ns fail as well as Tascam products fail, which is not a good thing if you are getting paid for the service. The H4n has a slow start-up time, and tries to do too much in a small package, which means corners are being cut, especially given their lower price-points. They are great for capturing audio at a lower fidelity, or if you need reference audio or recording a class, that sort of thing. But not recommended for professional-level work. They lack the features that pro mixers need such as clean preamps, timecode, a variety of quality Outs to send sound to cameras or IFB, generating reports, organizing the sound files around the actual camera takes... and many other features. The Zoom F4 or F8n are the lowest-end mixer/recorders that we recommend for professional sound-for-video. They are great devices but you get more with the Sound Devices or Zaxcom products.
It’s not that bad. I’ve done many 12 hour + days recording features like this. You just need the right harness or a Porta Brace Super Strap. I power the whole rig with a 7.5 Ah lead acid battery on my back. Weight distribution is key. The 442 preamps and limiters sound so good, the extra effort is worth it.
