Marty Michener wrote:
> If you get a really good recording, as I have recently with my ME-67 at 20
> ft with NO
> bass-roll off, and listen to the WAV on Bose Acoustimass speakers or on my
> Sennheiser headphones, you get better than 95% (I am guessing) of the energy
> below about 100 hz. Each beat of the grouse wing looks like you grabbed the
> microphone diaphragm and jerked it out and then in for about a 20 ms .
Since I started playing with the MKH-110's, I've come to believe that
most mics don't get much of the low end energy. It's a bit hard to
quantify as things like sonograms and so on are not very accurate at low
frequencies. I know the MKH-110's pick up a bunch more than the MKH-20's.
I'd love to try the SASS/MKH-110 on grouse. I'll probably have to
content myself with some other low frequency subjects, however. I should
try alligators this coming season.
> I can hear it I can record it I can play it,
> But on most computer systems, my users who want to learn birds, cannot
> reproduce it. The same was true of phonograph players in 1957. The record
> groves were just not far enough apart to give the needle much of a slow jerk.
>
> For listening on today's computer speaker systems, if I left the file that
> way, my users
> might dispute there was ANY grouse sound at all. So, in the outgoing
> version, I have
> to emphasize the mid-range frequencies, so the users at least can hear the
> accelerating
> beat PATTERN of the male grouse and know sort-of what to listen for every
> spring. Their
> only recourse otherwise is to turn up playback the gain so the speakers
> distortion from lack
> of compliance produces audible overtones.
It's not just low end that's a problem. I usually will respond to
someone having problems with hearing details with speakers by telling
them to use some high quality headphones. Even if they follow the
advice, a lot of them think $10 headphones are the ultimate in quality.
I definitely don't assume the speakers are any good. Average speaker
quality has been going downhill. Loud seems to be the only requirement
now. Quality low end response is almost a thing of the past.
Walt
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|