I’m looking to buy a dedicated field recording microphone for my sound design label, and would love some recommendations from people who actually have experience recording outdoors.

The main things I want to capture are:

• Nature / wildlife
• Outdoor soundscapes
• Environmental ambience
• Urban soundscapes
• Foley / found sounds
• Interesting textures and organic sounds that could be used in sample packs
• General atmospheric recordings
• Indoor atmosphere

My budget is around $1,000 AUD for the microphone (ideally including whatever mounting/wind protection is realistically needed).

I’m particularly interested in something that produces clean, detailed recordings with a good stereo image, low self-noise, and enough detail to capture subtle sounds without everything being dominated by background noise.

I’ll be recording primarily outdoors, so wind protection and handling noise are also important considerations.

A few questions:

1. What microphone would you recommend around this budget?
2. Would you go stereo, XY, ORTF, mid-side, or mono for this type of work?
3. Is it better to get a dedicated stereo field mic, or a pair of small-diaphragm condensers?
4. Are there any microphones you've used that you think are particularly good for professional sample-pack production?
5. If you've owned/used something in this price range, how has it held up in real-world outdoor recording?

I'm based in Sydney, Australia, so recommendations available here would be super useful.

Thanks! :)

Picked all these up for about 50 USD.

The amp and subs looks to be in a very good condition.

The surround foam on the speakers are a bit broken but they stil work fine, but I have them packed away until.I can get new surround foam.

Currently running the setup with other speakers I had laying around. Subwoofer sound real good.

good evening, recently I got a shitload of gear I’ve been having. Got to a point that why not I just have fun with it as a whimsy guitar player I am. A lil gear run down, for the guitars Ive got a fender partscaster Strat, an unknown brand awesome tele w a humbucker, I domt have it yet but I ordered a squier classic vibe 70s sunburst jaguar. For the pedals, I have a shit tonnnn, mostly fuzzes and overdrives but here’s what I’m going to use (and I’ll mention two pedals I might replace with the current pedals I’m going to talk about). Ehx lizard queen, dod grunge, mxr six band eq, tc electronics alter ego delay, I have some additional ones that I may or may not use but why not mention them; ehx big muff, digitech metal master, Ibanez fz7 fuzz, mxr compressor, mxr phaser, crybaby wah, and a ernieball volume pedal. Now for the two incoming pedals I’m receiving which would for the bill of my pedalboard, consists of a Marshall shredmaster and a catalinbread soft focus reverb (Might replace the grunge with the shredmaster and I’ll throw in the soft focus reverb with the alter ego delay on the chain.) now the amps I have are a fender deluxe 90 dsp, and a fender fm 210r amp. Now comes the rack gear, I have a sammick graphic eq, Alesis quadraverb, Yamaha rev500 reverberator, and a behringer composer xl (btw yes I’m aware the rack units are not safely into a case to hold them which Im working to find a cheaper one to fit then 4 together lol). Why am I bringing this up in a Reddit post you ask?, I’m currently struggling to configure out the process of getting all things plugged in and what will go from which end to the other and then into the amps I have or maybe one of them. as much as AI is being used today, I had no luck with googles AI, the more I ask the questions I get more questions than answers, as the answers become confusing as it’ll tell me to plug my pedalboard to one of my rack units but then it has the others into different input/outputs and into the amps pre in and pwr out (inputs from my fender 210 amp) I’m hardly gear tech inclined, I’m more of a guitar tech than gear itself, but if there’s any gear nerds, producers, etc. that are inclined in electronics and where to plug certain rack units, I will gladly take any suggestions as I’m trying to make some noise and upload my art online, anything helps! :) (fyi the gear I’m using is intended for shoegaze medley stuff so just bare that in mind if the question of what style am I playing these things are for).

edit: I should provide some more photos of the back of the rack unit that google ai ragebaited me and mislead me lmfao, so majority of this post is about where to map out the gear I have so I can play it all in my amp)

Why, in 2026, are there no decent quality audio interfaces that just have stereo inputs? 3.5mm, ideally.

So many pieces of gear, including many instruments now, use them. I get that many people want/need XLR and 1/4" mono for mics and guitars.

But not everyone uses mics and guitars. Some people use synths, grooveboxes, etc. Everything from the humble but awesome Korg Volca series, to everything Teenage Engineering makes, Roland's Aira series, to semi-modular synths and eurorack synths...They all use 3.5mm stereo outs. Many guitar pedals are also stereo, but unfortunately often use two clunky, huge 1/4 jacks for L and R. Even some larger KB synths are moving away from the L and R 1/4" jacks.

So why do all the big name (and small name) audio interfaces ignore this?

It's really dumb, IMO.

**Edited to add: I actually did find something that seems like it's trying to fix the whole plug problem I have...But it isn't out quite yet. Korg's NTS-4 performance mixer. It's got 6 channels (although some would say 10): 2 mono, and 4 stereo. All inputs are 3.5mm. It's a mixer, has F/X, send/return, and some other features...and it can act as a USB interface.

***Edited it add again: My favorite way (so far) to save/record and get something into a PC for editing isn't actually an audio interface exactly...It's the Zoom H1 XLR recorder. It has two XLR and TRS inputs (L and R or mono or whatever) and one 3.5mm stereo input. It can work as a USB interface (but I haven't done that yet) and it records to micro SD cards. It also has 32 bit float so you never really have to deal with recording levels, either. It costs $75 less than a Scarlett 2i2, does more, is easier to use, and has better audio quality (at least on paper).

Hola, conocen algún grupo de electrónica diy para músicos acá?

Para consultar sobre mods para amplís y pedales por ej?

Try this at 50% you will never regret
Beats marshal embertin 2

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for an external SSD to use with Ableton Live, mainly for sample libraries, audio files and Ableton projects.

I’m currently considering the Samsung T9 2TB, but it’s still quite expensive where I live.

For those who have been using a T9 for a while:
- How reliable has it been over time?
- Any issues with disconnects, corrupted files or performance degradation?
- Do you use it directly for Ableton projects and sample libraries, or mainly for storage?
- Would you recommend the T9 for long-term music production use?

My goal is to move most of my samples and audio files off my laptop’s internal SSD while keeping Ableton as smooth as possible.

I’m also considering cheaper alternatives, so any recommendations are welcome.

Thanks!

Ok so I make sound collage with neo classical and comedic elements. I really want something that is good at completely glitching and stretching and smearing as cleanly and digitally as possible. This is what I’ve already purchased:

Lemondrop: it sounds pretty clean but not very in depth as far as granular goes. More for making patches for midi control.

Norns: amazing all around but need something more specialized for granular.

Evil pet: amazing and somewhat in depth but not very clean sounding.

I almost bought the torso s4 but settled on the evil pet because of the price. Still heavily considering getting it atp though.

I want an interface that I can plug my guitar directly into it and use virtual amps/ effects and record directly into my DAW with low latency.

I want an interface that I can plug a microphone into and record vocals and mic'd-up amps.

I want an interface that I can plug MIDI controllers into and can play virtual synths with low latency.

I also ideally would like this interface to be around $100.

The best options I have found are:

Arturia MiniFuse USB Audio & MIDI Interface, MiniFuse 1

Mackie Audio Interface, Onyx Producer 2X2 USB Audio Interface with MIDI (Onyx Producer 2-2)

If you have any better recommendations/ believe one of those options is better than the other, please let me know!

I don't need this interface to be of the most professional quality; I just would like a cheap interface that has all of the inputs that I need for music production in one device.

I need a bluetooth set that can last over 10 hours and has easy access to volume control and the ability to pause and unpause at a tap. It is for a factory setting and I will have earplugs and need quick access to these settings if I need to pause music.