After purchasing my Tascam DR-40X for field recording, I am hoping to build a large array of field recordings and samples of sound for a rich bank to start professional freelance work as a sound designer/sound editor/recording.
I found some very useful youtube channels for in depth reviews of recording equipment, and found a unbiased review of the TASCAM DR-40x. In general their handheld devices are highly regarded in terms of how they are built, but are often criticized for their pre-amps having a higher ‘noise-floor’ than other handheld recorders in their price range like Roland and Zoom models. These channels talked about “FetHeads” from Triton Audio, it is basically a pre-amp which adds to the gain of the microphone, effectively making it louder, but because this pre-amp is really clean, it boosts the signal without adding extra ‘noise-floor’ when you push the gain up. The inbuilt Condensor on the TASCAM DR 40X still has very good reviews, and has an A-B/X-Y Polarity configuration which means it is a versatile recording device. However, if I run into problems attaching shotgun microphones or contact microphones, I will potentially look into the FetHead as a way to compensate and clean up my recordings for professional use. When looking to create SFX, there is potentially layers of 60 odd sound files. Microphone hiss is maybe even a bigger issue than in recording for music as the noisefloor could essentially be multiplied with each overlapping recording.
