Shaun wrote:
I am on the phone with my father as I am typing this. He
> played the calls back to me and i near fell out of my chair , he was
> not exagerating when he said there was a lot of static in the
> recording, i could hear the deer but what a mess. I am wondering if
> it is the power lines would it be affecting the mic or the MD
> recorder, I think it must be the mic/dish that its affecting because
> it recorded the noise something else. I was wondering if conceiling
> the recorder in a case of some sort might help this , or if it is a
> bad contact , would the contact spray help any if there was a bad
> connection?
Do not spray contact spray into the recorder, use only tiny amounts
applied carefully, what I'd do is clean the plug with contact spray, and
leave it with a thin film on it when I inserted it. If that improves it,
then contacts are definitely a suspect.
He would have to be under the power lines to get much effect, and they
would have to be on fairly short towers. Maybe within something like 30'
or less from the wires. The way to test this is simply to move away from
the power lines and record something. If it's still doing it a couple
hundred feet away from the lines, it's not them.
Note if it's the right kind of weather, high tension lines do make all
kinds of actual noises. Those will, of course, be louder when the mic is
pointed at them.
The calls did seem very close and loud , except that the
> static/hiss noise was near just as loud. I am not to sure on what you
> meant when you asked me "What indication did he get on the meter on
> the recorder?"
How many bars were showing for the calls, and how many just with normal
low level sound? If he's really got the level way too high, it will
drive the recorder into clipping. That's rough and scratchy static
sounding too, will be worst at the loudest parts of the sounds. The fact
the recording was loud makes it something to check. He could just be
recording with the level too high.
If that's the case, remind him that there is a high/low mic level switch
on the back of the recorder. For most things with that mic high is what
he would want, but sometimes the low setting works better. Learning
level adjustments is a common problem for people new to recording.
There is, of course, the other side of the coin. If he's trying to pick
up at a great distance, then he would have the gain pretty high. Lots of
noises of all kinds from that. And the calls would not differ much from
all the other environmental noises. For the sort of quiet calls he's
working, even with a parabolic he's going to want to get fairly close.
Challenging with deer. This end of it is a matter of trial and error,
and different for each type of subject. This area is something that
every nature recordist deals with, no equipment will eliminate it.
He is now changing the disc and is going to try using
> a new blank for tommorrow , where as today it poured out the who day.
It would be unlikely that it's a blank. If the sound has dropouts, where
it loses intervals, it's possible that the lens on the laser is dirty.
But that's not common. You clean that with a special cleaning disk.
Check where he got disks for that. Hopefully they have them. Don't use
the cleaning disks much as they wear the lens a little each time. I
often got well over a year or more between needing one.
I could tell him about going out on my first long trip with my first MD
recorder. Part way through it would only record correctly if plugged in,
not on battery. I spent a week stringing cords from the car to use it.
It was exchanged when I got back as it was brand new. Things happen.
At least he is getting calls. He's doing well at that by the sound of
it. I'm impressed!
Walt
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|