My goal is to record indoor Foley sounds - foot steps,cloth rustling,water splashes,door slamming,objects falling etc.
I am on a tight budget and was thinking of getting either 'Rode NT5' or 'Rode NT1A' and 'Focusrite Scarlett Solo'
which is better,the Rode NT5 or Rode NT1A? as i understand it,the NT5 has a flatter frequency response but NT1A has lower self-noise.
Are Focusrite Scarlett Solo preamps satisfactory for above 2 mics or do i need something better?
Thanks in advance.
If your only need is foley, I'd highly recommend a Zoom H4n or Zoom H5/H6. They have incredibly detailed microphones and are sensitive to the quietest sounds. I use my H5 almost daily and it's worth much more than I paid for it imo. I take it almost everywhere I go. Super portable, great recording quality, and direct wav/mp3 recordings up to 96khz/24bit on an SD card, I believe. Definitely worth checking out if you need some nice foleys on a budget.
Ask three people, get three answers. I'd go with the NT1A. The reason is that in order to record realistic versions of such noise, you want room/corridor acoustics to participate and that results in some seriously quiet levels.
When I first set up recording with a Røde NT1A, I tried setting the gain and had a disturbing ticking noise. It turned out that a corridor and a stairway away there was a kitchen clock I needed to disarm in order to get close to the noise floor. That's the kind of stuff you want to capture.
Now if you rely on electronic reverbs/rooms to get your ambience, you may want to record from close up. However, you don't want any proximity effect coloring your noise, so if you are trying for close-up noise sources because of getting them mostly without a room ambiance, you would take a small-diaphragm omnidirectional microphone (which are actually not cheap once you want a low noise floor).
It depends on your project which approach to take, but of the options you list, I'd likely take the NT1A and use a solid distance.
Both microphones will give good results. The scarlett interfaces are a good line of products with decent preamps and ADCs. Keep in mind that the NT1 is way bigger than the NT5 (large capsule vs pen condenser) so it might give you a hard time if you need to mic the source from very close.
If you would like some alternatives, look at Line Audio's CM3. Very flat and small form factor for a very decent price. Way better than anything Rode has to offer IMHO.
