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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