Using the correct equipment for a job goes a long way to increasing your chances for success. High quality equipment really does make a difference if you have the opportunity and budget.

There are various qualities to keep in mind for different pieces of equipment, but for location recording there are two factors that Stephan rates highly: build quality and weight. This may seem a little unusual after making a comment about how important recording quality is, but if your gear breaks down on location it doesn't matter how high quality it was, its no good to you if it's busted. Also after one or two hours wandering around the wilderness every extra ½ kilogram becomes more of an issue than you might expect.

Currently Stephan's personal gear is based around an old Sony portable DAT recorder. It's far from state of the art, but at the time it was a very good unit for the price and he has grown comfortable using it.

There are many new hard disk recording systems that have become available, of varying quality and price. Stephan has considered, and is still considering, upgrading to one of these. Audio equipment is an area where you really do get what you pay for. There are lower price units that appear to be well equipped from a functional standpoint, but that are often too flimsy to really consider for location use.

From a budget point of view Stephan will always spend at least half his budget on microphones. He is currently using a Sennheiser MKH 60 shotgun microphone with a Rycote windshield and fluffy cover. This is NOT a cheap piece of equipment, but it is worth every cent invested in it.

After upgrading from a cheaper microphone the improvement in recording quality was obvious. These two pieces of equipment form the core of his equipment for location recording and have done so for over three years.

Stephan also utilises a variety of microphones for special situations or to achieve unusual effects. A stereo microphone is quite useful for getting nice ambient material. However, a microphone designed to capture good quality music in stereo may be overly sensitive for outdoor use.

He uses a Rode NT4 stereo microphone, which has given him some excellent results indoors recording choirs and instruments, but he has found it overloads very easily outdoors. This will eventually be remedied with the addition of a good quality windshield, but without it has little tolerance for wind.

Another, more unusual microphone he uses is designed to function underwater. The Aquarian hydrophone was originally designed for use by marine biologists and the like, but Stephan has found it to be an excellent addition to his equipment list, and it is quite reasonably priced.