John
I have two such setups, one at my regular home and
the other at my vaction home.
they both have Radio Shack Condenser Elements (270-092
about $4) feeding into old cassette recorders acting
as preamps, and then into the sound card of a
computer. The mics are out under the roof overhangs
all year and I replace them every two or three years
although in eight years they have never failed except
when one was pecked to death by an Eastern Phoebe.(It
was very close to her nest).
Recording bass is no problem. Recording it is. My home
system faces a wooded lot which has a busy highway 200
yard beyond. Here I pass the preamp output through an
old graphic equalizer to cut down on the bass.
My home system has a 30ft cable run and I have to
shield and ground it carefully to avoid RF
interference.
As I type this I can hear a Red-bellied Woodpecker
jabbering away.
See my web page:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/G_Kunkel/microphone.htm
Greg Kunkel
--- John L <> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just joined this group. I have looked at the
> Naturesongs site,
> searched old messages here but haven't had enough
> time to
> really exhaustively search through them. I don't see
> a FAQ. All
> this is a prelude then to my question.
>
> First my setup. I have various equipment I am trying
> to use to
> record birds at my birdfeeder and other ambient
> sounds around
> my house. The bird feeder is right behind the chair
> I sit in when I
> will be doing the recording. My stereo and computer
> are on my
> left and right. I have a mirror set up to see the
> birds and can
> hear them very well since they are right behind me.
> My attempts
> to record them have been less than successful
> entirely due to
> the hodge podge of equipment I am using.
>
> I have a ~30 year old mic (Arista #605, dual
> impedance 50k &
> 600 ohm unidrectional dynamic). I use it with the
> switch and
> connector set to the red mark otherwise I don't get
> any usable
> level. It has a 4 wire cable that is terribly hummy.
> I can rotate the
> connector half way around so that the red dots are
> not lined up.
> This is probably how you change impedance. Doing so
> doesn't
> improve things notably regardless of how the switch
> is set.)
>
> I have a 1988 RCA camcorder (CC275) that has an
> on-board mic
> that I can use to varying success.
>
> I have a Powerbook Firewire that has an integral
> microphone.
> Whenever I use that I also hear the hard drive
> clicking regularly
> so it isn't useful at all.
>
> Those are my mics at this point.
>
> I have a 1969 Sony reel to reel that I am using to
> feed the Arista
> mic or the camcorder mic into my Sony duplicating
> cassette
> deck. I can also feed the camcorder into the
> Powerbook and
> either record on the Powerbook or feed that to the
> stereo and
> record on the cassette deck. Either way I am not
> able to get good
> levels without either terrible hum or tremendous
> hiss. I am
> considering getting a new mic and seeing if that
> doesn't rectify
> things. I cannot spend much; I'd like to spend less
> than $50.
>
> Other recording I'd like to do from that chair
> besides birds at the
> bird feeder: peepers in the swamp at night which is
> maybe 100 -
> 150 yards away from my house. They are loud! My
> obnoxious
> neighbor and his daughter who screams too much. Loud
> car
> stereos from passing cars. (I realize this is low
> frequency bass
> and may not be able to be recorded without better
> equipment but
> if I can record some of it that would be great.)
>
> What would you recommend in this situation?
>
> Thanks very much.
>
> John L
>
>
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