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Re: ATRAC don't get no respect

Subject: Re: ATRAC don't get no respect
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 14:47:16 -0400
Laloux, Dominique wrote:

> Unfortunately, I live in Belgium, one of the most polluted countries on
> Earth. And beside water pollution, there are very few places in Belgium
> where one is not be confronted to sound pollution. I did not realize this
> until I turned a microphone on and tried to get a simple, clean recording of
> a bird call. I quickly learned that I would have to live and record with
> this pollution... I just moved from a K6/ME66 to a second hand MKH416P48
> microphone, and I use the Portadisc as a recorder. No matter what I do, it
> looks like I can't really get rid of the background noise (there is nearly
> always a highway a few km away). Of course, Sunday mornings are better, but
> still...

Our ears and brain are excellent sound filters. It takes recording, 
where the mic does not filter to discover just how much we are ignoring.

> Low-pass filter doesn't seem to be enough... I guess the solution might be
> in cleaning up the sound files with a good software (I have Cooledit 2K).
> But the results are not always great either (http://www.pca.be/samples/).

The low pass filter is part of it but is not magic. It's probably also 
misused, the low frequencies are often natural. But filtering with 
software can improve things. The trick is to do so without messing 
things up too much.

> Is it something other members of the list are facing as well ? Any
> suggestion beside leaving Belgium for Australia (or Canada, as I have a
> Canadian passport) ?

I think all of us have this problem. Best advice is to be always ready 
to record. Opportunities to record, particularly fairly short segments 
occur all the time. If you are ready you can improve your odds.

That's part of the other advice, record lots. With experience you will 
develop tricks that will help. Hard to describe, and often location 
specific, a experienced recordist often can get usable stuff where 
someone with less experience can't. Keep recording.

Yes, it's always nice to get a chance to record in some ideal 
environment. But, more and more it's just wishful thinking. One airplane 
in the sky can make the most ideal site unusable for a long period.

One other trick is to practice fieldcraft. The closer you are to the 
bird, the less gain you need and therefore the less of the far noise you 
will pick up. Remember, a rock band destroying the ears of the entire 
audience with it's extremely loud sounds is using microphones. They 
avoid feedback by having the mics very close, with low gain, often 
against their mouths. They also use directional mics, pointed away from 
the speaker system.

Also, if you are close to a bird up in a tree, with a directional mic 
pointing up at him, it's not pointing at that distant freeway. Study the 
location of unwanted noises just as completely as you study the wanted 
ones. Plan your recording location to take advantage of your mic's 
directionality.

Walt




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