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Amazon.com carries both the ZOOM-Q8 and Rode mics.

Thanks!

I got Zoom Q8 And Rode NT55MP , Thanks everyone.

S.H. Lee,

WOW!! Great news!
Please send us your the first recordings. I'll get the same set of mics and Zoom Q8, and hope we can share our experiences here or trough email.
Best luck!

Greetings S.H.Lee,
You have a wonderful setup centered on the new SK7. Sincerely looking forward to seeing the results of this.

Thank you-

OK, me too, i also hope we can share the experiences each other.

But,i did not buy cables and mic tripod yet.

For my first recording with Q8 ,
it's amaze , so fine sound and so stereo.

I really love Q8.

When my SK7 arriving, i will post my first record with
ZOOM Q8 + RODE NT55MP + Shigeru Kawai SK7.

See you soon.

Yes,sure.

But my SK7 is still on the road,
from Japan to Taiwan.

So i must to wait for few days.

Hello,
I revive this thread, focusing on the difference between the SONY HDR-MV1 and the zoom Q4:
- the MV1 is capable of Linear PCM 2ch(48kHz/16bits)
- the Q4 is capable of 96kHz/24bits.
I tried to listen to the difference, but not on a good sound system (samples in this page: http://www.comparatif-audio.net/en/les-qualites-studio/) and it is not so easy to tell.
I suppose having 24 bits can be interesting to optimise the S/N ratio with the large dynamics of the piano...
Anybody has an idea ?

There is great controversy about the merit of recording above 48kHz, e.g. 96kHz.

See here:

I quote from a post in this link:

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=1139953

-----------------------------------------------
The bitrate determines maxiumum possible frequency; 44.1Khz allows for 22Khz treble, which is past normal human hearing limits, although some people can go higher. Bit depth determines dynamic range, from the quietest to the loudest possible sound. If you had extremely good hearing in an extremely low-noise environment, you might be able to hear 17 bits of resolution, but 24 is just silly. 16 bits gives 96db of dynamic range; typical noise floor in a very quiet room is 30db, so you should comfortably be able to get up to 120db or so without audible noise. That's hearing-damage level, so 16 bits is fine.

The reason that CDs so often sound bad is simply because of poor mixing; digital mastering lets the audio engineers screw things up hugely. At least in theory, they'll be more careful with the 96/24 tracks, since people who care about music are buying them. But, as you're hearing for yourself, you can then resample them down to 44.1/16 with absolutely no loss of playback quality.
-------------------------------------------------

Also see also this link

http://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/8881/what-sample-rate-do-you-use-prefer

I have a Zoom H4 and agree with the comments in the link immediately above. If you plan to record then carry out extensive post editing adding effects then 24/96Hz is useful otherwise its just a waste of storage.

24/96 is 34.56MB per minute

See http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may99/articles/recpiano.htm

16 bit dynamic range is 96db

a Grand piano dynamic range is 87db

Ian

Thank you for this full answer. I've read the links, which were interesting. Unfortunately my physics knowledge is too far away to really understand everything!
I'd just note that on the sample rate discussion, they are often debating between 96 and 192 more than between 48 and 96. A lot quote 48/24 but only one quotes 48/16. But they are all in a professional use.
I note also that the grand piano dynamic range is 85dB, but at a 10m distance... I don't remember how distance changes the dynamic, and since dB are logarithmic maybe it is not very different at 1 or 2m, which would be the probable distance of use of a small all-in-one device.
...
Well considering that there is no ideal all-in-one device for audio plus video, and considering that I don't have a Hifi sound system, I think I'll buy the HDR-MV1, and compare with a friend's H4 (later!).

Thanks

For ease of use and quality of sound relative to other easy to use cameras I really really like the HDR-MV1. It's not for everyone. The video quality stinks. You'll get much better results if you buy expensive specialized gear. But that's not the point. It is point and shoot, sounds pretty darned good, and is compact and incredibly easy to use. I use it to make recordings of my kids playing music, very happy with the results. I can set this up in an auditorium on the front row and control it with my iPhone several rows back, then upload in one go with no video editing. Highly recommended as long as you understand the limitations.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOikAS8C24AzZl3d8YQlapbM-f5icy5_uTcLdZG

Mr. Lee,

There are two ways that I have used. One is free, the other involves some software.

1) Free -- at the beginning of your recording, CLAP your hands together loudly - where the camera can see and the microphone(s) can hear. Continue recording. When done, load audio and video to a computer; edit the video using video production software; bring audio and video together onto the video timeline, manually match up the peaks that you will see on the audio waveforms from the camera audio and the separate audio recorder, mute the camera audio, render the video.

2) Use Pluraleyes - this eliminates the need to CLAP at the beginning, or say SLATE (like they used to do when making moves). Make your recordings, load outputs to your computer, run Pluraleyes according to its simple directions. It will sync your audio and video and give you options on how to output them. One benefit is that you could eliminate the need for video editing software, because it will output a video REPLACING the original audio with audio of your choice.

BTW - none of this is simple, or easy, but, in my experience, with some practice you can get it done. In my teaching, I use my cellphone to record students, and if we want better audio than the cellphone provides, perhaps for a competition entry, I record the audio separately, use PluralEyes to sync and replace audio.

Hope this helps you.