DISCLAIMER: I am not sponsored by anyone at all. Any brands mentioned/ links shared are because I’ve used the products or heard good things about them from people I trust.

An important part of producing audio dramas, is gathering sound effects. Depending on the sounds you need, and what you have access to, it may be best to purchase the sounds online from place like Asoundeffect.com. For many sounds however, it’s simply more economical to put the money into a simple field recording kit and build out your own personal library of sound effects. The other advantage to recording your own sounds, is that most of the sounds you use will be original and can be recorded and mixed to fit your needs exactly. While it would be nice to have a purpose made location sound bag with a high end recorder like the sound devices Scorpio, and an array of schoeps and Senheiser mics, most of us don’t have the thousands of dollars in discretionary cash to put into that kind of rig. That being said, this is what I’m using in my field recording rig:

Field Recorder:

The heart of the field recording rig is, of course, the field recorder. I use the Zoom H5 that I’ve had for years. It’ll record 24 bit 48khz wav files, which is good enough for me. If you’re looking for higher resolution recording, I’ve heard good things about the Zoom F3, though I haven’t used it myself.

Batteries:

The Zoom H5 can run off of two AA batteries, however the battery life isn’t very long with this option. The H5 can also be powered via usb, so I use a battery bank for charging phones to run the H5, this gives me well over 8 hours of use and a rechargeable battery.

Storage:

I usually record to a 16 gig SD card, separating the different sessions into the 10 Folders that the Zoom H5 allows. For me, 16 gigs is plenty, however if you do a lot of recording it’s always a good idea to carry a few extra SD cards with you.

Microphone:

I’ve been using the Audio Technica AT835a long shotgun mic as the primary microphone in my rig for years and I have nothing bad to say about it. Some people don’t care for shotgun mics because of their narrow pickup pattern, but this doesn’t bother me as most of the recording I’m doing is of specific points of interest, not wide ambiances which would be far better recorded with a stereo pair of omnidirectional mics. My approach to ambiances recently, has been to record the specific elements I want in the ambiance with the AT835a and then mix them into a binaural stereo ambiance with ambisonics in REAPER.

Blimp And Windshield:

I use a knockoff version of the Rode Blimp and Dead Wombat system that I purchased from Amazon. From the reviews I watched, it appears to be nearly identical and in my experience has performed beautifully. For a long time I used a makeshift system because even the price of the knockoff blimp was a bit steep. Once I finally purchased it, I wondered why I didn’t do it sooner.

Headphones:

To monitor the recordings I use the Audio Technica ATM20X headphones. Any decent pair of headphones will do. The M20X’s are the ones that I have, so they’re the ones that I use.

The Bag:

All the pieces of this simple kit need to be held in a portable package, and for that I use a small cooler bag that I got at the open house of a plumbing supply store when I worked for a local plumbing and electrical company. In the outer pocket, I store the battery pack and a few cable ties. To keep the Zoom H5 at the top of the bag, and therefore accessible when recording, I filled the bulk of the main compartment with acoustic foam squares that I cut down to fit. I cut holes in the end of the bag and in the lining between the outer pocket and the main compartment. Through these I run the usb cable from the battery pack to the H5 and the 6 foot long XLR and headphone cables. The bag has a shoulder strap, so I can wear it at my side while walking around and capturing any interesting sounds I come across.

All these elements come together to make a small portable system that’s ready to grab and run on a moments notice, and is handy to take with you whenever you go out. You never know when you’ll be presented with the opportunity to record a unique sound and having a system right there to hit record on is an invaluable asset.