Sorry to be so late getting into this discussion; I posted some on this
darn mic, I think over a year ago.
I bought an AT822 five+ years ago and it is so noisy I have never been able
to find a natural environment in which I could stomach listening twice to
any recordings. I should add that I record animals, usually birds, at some
distance, so mic noise is very important. I have found that most sounds in
nature, except very windy, large leaves rattling and waterfalls, cannot be
credibly recorded with this mic. I consider it junk for our purposes.
I suppose I could always use it to make digital recordings (MD, HHb) and it
would supply the tape hiss for which I am now nostalgic (NOT!). ;^) My
son now uses the AT822 for his band to shout and drum into, enclosed in a
sound-proof chamber.
For reasonable stereo in nature, I now use two ME-67 shotgun mics, in an
"X" arrangement. This is a modification of a number of shock-mount
suggestions made by this very group, particularly Walt Knapp and Lang
Elliot (I wonder how Lang is doing).
Two channels, converging at 40 degrees, are cut in a 6" x 12" trapezoidal
block of pink Styrofoam 2" building insulation, a material I use a lot
nowadays - cheep, quiet, waterproof, easy to work, light weight.
The channels start about 6" apart at the back edge, and emerge about 1"
apart at the front edge. Into these channels, two short pieces of plastic
rain gutter-spout are laid, which has had one wall sawed off, so each forms
a "U". Into each gutter-spout is placed thick soft urethane foam, to make
a soft sound cushion for each mic.(camping mattress material). Around the
plastic gutter-spout "U" are placed about 6 fairly heavy rubber bands. The
channels in the pink foam block are cut to a width so that the rubber bands
make a tight fit and each stays in the overall block. Two huge rubber
bands go around the whole rig sideways to keep the channels, U and mics
held in.
To mount the mics, you slide each mic in from the front, and the cable and
connector in from the back, under all the rubber bands, and click them
together. Now the mics cross each other, just forward of the block of
foam, so one mic has to be above the other. It LOOKS awful, twisted,
like. The mics press against each other, foam windscreen to windscreen.
The mics are thus flexibly held about 40 degrees apart in angle, and cross
each other at a point about three inches distal to their screw-joint with
the K-6 unit bases. This point gets the mic diaphragms as close as possible
- the width of the foam windscreens - about 2 - 3 cm.
How to hold it: Now the whole rig has a diagonal hole drilled through the
foam near the front edge, into which is glued a short plastic water pipe
piece. The field handle: A 3/4" wooden dowel is turned narrower at one
end, so it snugly fits into the plastic pipe in the rig. The rest of the
dowel is glue-coated with soft urethane foam, to isolate wrist sounds from
the dowel.
With this rig you can move swiftly along a path, WHILE recording in stereo,
and get so pretty amazing recordings of one habitat fading into another. I
know, it needs pictures, which I'll gladly supply if I ever get unbusier.
Best regards to all,
Marty Michener
MIST Software Associates
PO Box 269, Hollis, NH 03049
coming soon : EnjoyBirds, bird identification software for all AOU area.
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