Ivan Aleksic wrote:
> Hello to the group!
> I have been reading this newsgroup since last fall and I have found it very
> useful. As a new member of this group I should introduce myself. I'm
> herpetologist and I work in a Institute for biological research in
> Belgrade, Serbia (former Yugoslavia). I've had limited experience recording
> frog calls with a borrowed Dan Gibson parabola and Sony MZ-R30 MD recorder.
> Now, I'm planning to record frog calls for scientific/conservation
> purposes. My (Project) budget is limited (about 1000$) and I must start
> with modest equipment. I already have a Sony MZ-R30 recorder (thought I
> look for direct Wav recording - portable HD recorders). I'm little bit
> sceptical about transfer from MD to computer (only analog output, ATRAC
> compression...).
If what you are recording for is documentation of distribution, you
don't have to worry at all about analog or ATRAC. It will provide more
than adequate sound quality for both listening and sonograms. I used a
MZ-R30 and a homemade parabolic for the first two years of work on the
Georgia Herp Atlas, documenting frog locations. And transferred via
analog for the first three years. Only near the end when I got a HHb
Portadisc was I able to transfer digitally. The only problems of note
have to do with how loud a frog chorus can be. I had a lot of problem
with this setup overloading or clipping when the chorus was close. Even
with clipping in some samples all were good for documentation. The
preamp in the MZ-R30, even with the attenuation on was the usual cause
of clipping. A pro level preamp that could handle this any better would
be a chunk of change. Probably better to look for funds for a entire pro
level recorder.
Note that this was a problem with recording close. Having a 2nd mic with
less gain could take care of this. Survey recording takes the frogs
where they are. All too often they seemed to choose a site right next to
some freeway or industrial plant. You record anyway, and just have to
live with the noise. A parabolic's directionality is a good asset for
minimizing unwanted noise from other sources.
With the money you have to spend, don't bother changing recorders. The
MZ-R30 is a very good recorder. I wore out two of them in the course of
the survey, the tiny switches under the buttons are their weakness. But
it took considerable use to do so. Toward the end of the survey I bought
the just out HHb Portadisc. This did improve the quality of the sound,
being a pro recorder and being able to transfer digitally. But that did
not change how many frogs I could get or any such thing. The work was
unchanged, just with a different recorder. Field recorders of the
quality of the Portadisc, MD or Hard disk are above your stated budget.
> My present plan is to acquire Sennheiser K6/ME66 or ME67 shotgun and
> homemade parabola (based on Telinga dish and Sony ECM-T150). The choice of
> equipment is narrowed because there is only two or three import company
> (for pro-audio stuff)here. Questions:
> 1.Can I use a K6 capsule in a parabola? According to article From Hardware
> Product Review - Low Cost Shotgun Microphone Comparison: Audio-Technica
> AT835b, Azden SGM-2X, Sennheiser K-6/ME-66/ME-67- Review by Dan Brockett)
> "The K6 power module can also be converted to lavaliere mic unit as well as
> well as a PZM, omni-cardioid and a super cardioid"???
The K6 is the power supply for a whole set of different capsules. There
is a tie tac mic in the series I believe. The biggest problem of using
the shotgun mic in the Telinga might be focus. The focal length is 5.5",
and you would need the diaphragm at that location. The secondary problem
would be that in order for the directional mic to work with the dish it
would have to point at it, leaving a lot of mic weight way out front of
the dish, which would make hand holding hard. And trying to work frogs
with a tripod is very annoying.
> 2.Can I use Sennheiser ME series with Sony MZ-R30 (or with Creative Nomad
> Jukebox 3 later).
Yes, it will work. Some have found that the impedance match is not ideal
and use a matching transformer. The K6 module can be battery powered
internally if it's the right one, taking care of powering the mic. A
number of members use ME mics quite successfully with walkman MD's.
I would not consider the Nomad worthwhile as a field recorder. Or at
least no increase in record quality over the MD. Some new recorders
specifically designed as field recorders are available that would rate
much higher. Recording at night you want to keep your equipment clutter
as simple as possible. The less dangling wires the better. The nomad
requires extra equipment to be a field recorder.
> 3.Some recommendations about another mic.
I'd recommend a parabolic for frog survey as your primary mic. It gives
you both near and far pickup, and can help to separate out different
species in the mixed choruses. The next step up would be to go to a
stereo parabolic. A stereo field makes it even easier to sort out the
callers. It's fairly easy to make a homemade parabolic, a bit more
tricky to get good stereo from one. The telinga dish works well for all
the frogs here, with calls in the frequency ranges from 200hz to 8000hz.
I have several shotgun mics, they will work for recording frogs, but you
cannot record from near as far away and they are less directional than
a parabolic. I don't know how your access is there, here most frogs are
on private land and I have to record from the nearest public road. And
even if you have full access, the frogs may be way across a swamp, which
is real serious work to get across. In the survey work I was doing there
was a premium on documenting a site rapidly, so as to cover as much of
the state in the 5 years of the survey as possible. Using a parabolic
was part of moving rapidly.
Walt
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