birding-aus

iPod for Birding

To: "Bruce Cox" <>
Subject: iPod for Birding
From: "Dave Torr" <>
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 16:40:45 +1000
Just for removing the start of a track (eg the voice on some bird call CDs)
I have been using mp3tfrim which is small and fast (and free) but must try
Audacity

On 21/07/06, Bruce Cox <> wrote:


From: "Dean Cutten" <>
Subject: [Birding-Aus] iPod for Birding

Interesting comments Dean!

I use Audacity to move taped birdcalls into my computer (to .WAV files).
As
you say it is a free program which I have found both easy and a joy to
use.
As well as editing out the voice component, I also found it great for
editing out the various clicks, pops and other extraneous sounds on the
tapes. There are other commercial sound editing programs around but I
think
Audacity is quite adequate for bird calls.

Dean, I assume you used amplified speakers, which ones did you use?

Another quite cute arrangement I experienced was a guy who used his mobile
phone with MP3 on board, he simply used the phone's speaker which sounded
quite loud.

The last comment I would make is that all MP3 and iPods use "lossy"
compressed formats that remove sounds, possibly audable to birds, but
inaudable to the human ear to achieve compression. Doesn't worry us for
verification purposes but may effect callback.

Bruce Cox.

> I would just like to follow on with the recent thread on the usefullness
of
> PDAs  in birding with reference to an iPod to store bird songs and
calls.
I
> recently bought the Apple nano iPod with 4GB of memory to use in the
field
> to allow one to pull up a bird song or call to confirm or otherwise the
ID
> of a bird. A particular bird species can be located very quickly in the
menu
> list where the songs can be stored in 'playlists'. I have put 5 of the
BOCA
> CD's on the iPod creating a playlist for each CD (and still have plenty
of
> free memory). This can be done through the software program 'iTunes'
(that
> comes with the iPod) which is loaded onto a PC and connects with the
iPod
> via
> the USB. If one wants to edit out any speech there is a free program
called
> 'Audacity' that can be downloaded. The bird song files need to be in MP3
> format for this program to work. Conversion to MP3 from the CD format is
> done in iTunes. If broadcasting is required in the field the iPod can be
> connected to a small active speaker system. (It comes with small
earphones.)
> The convenience of having all the songs stored in such a small unit
makes
it
> a very attractive unit for birding. It is possible some songs might have
> subtle changes made to them after being converted to digital format but
I
> think these would not be very extensive.
>
> Dean Cutten
>
> Victor Harbor,  SA
> Australia

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