Re: Portable audio recorder w/ xlr, phantom, 0 latency ?

Hypothetical.

Record 30 minute talking head video on camcorder with no external sync.
Record 30 minutes of audio on audio recorder with no external sync.

Drop audio and video into a Vegas Video Pro timeline.

Questions.
If the audio drifts 2 frames after 5 minutes,does this mean that when I get to the 30 minute mark in the time line, the audio will show approximately 12 frames (30/5 * 2) longer at the end, in other words, the audio track will show 12/30's of a second longer?

If this is true, I should be able to adjust the audio by ctrl selecting the end of the audio track and aligning it under the end of the video track (others claim this works in Vegas Video).




Back to the portable recorders.


The Sound Device recorders look a little expensive for my budget.
The Marantz PDM660, is about my price range if it can do the trick. I just haven't found alot of reviews on it.

The Zoom H4 looks like it has a large following and seems to be very price competitive. I also like the size. I'll check into that a little more I found a fair amount of reviews at one supplier, but there seems to be some disagreement as to the sync issues being controllable or not. That being said, it looks like it's being used by many audio professionals and semi professionals and they are getting decent results. I'm not doing feature films or master recordings for CD duplications, so I think the quality of the Zoom H4 would work.

Now it's just a question if the sync drift is consistent so I can adjust it every so often. Also, can I set it up so there aren't alot of "gotch ya's setting up. Sounds like there are lots of settings, or maybe a few extra steps to get to some of the functions.

As I have been writing this and checking some reviews, I think I may have talked myself into trying a Zoom H4. Worse case is I don't like it and sell it on Ebay for a slight loss. I'll think about it the rest of the weekend and may give it a try.

Thanks again for suggestions and opinions.