Hi y'all,
This came over the wire last week from AKG in the form of an AES press rele=
ase (which is obvious in the final paragraph ). Thought I'd share it with t=
he group anyway (I am not connected with AKG, nor do endorse its products. =
Purely FYI only).
ginorobair
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TONS OF CHARM
AKG Microphones for Infrasound Recording
NASHVILLE, TN-October 10, 2003-Imagine hugging a stuffed animal with a shou=
lder height of about 4 feet and weighing about 500 pounds! Mongu, the secon=
d baby elephant born at the Sch=F6nbrunn Zoo in Vienna within three years, =
enchants visitors with its clumsy charm.
In 2001, Abu, the first baby elephant born at the Sch=F6nbrunn Zoo, had bee=
n a much-admired sensation already. Mongu was born in May, 2003. Standing a=
bout three feet tall and weighing 207 pounds, the baby was dwarfed by his m=
other weighing several tons.
While Abu had been the result of artificial insemination, Mongu owed his ex=
istence to perfectly natural mating among members of the elephant herd at S=
choenbrunn, another success of the large natural habitat the Zoo had create=
d for the elephants.
The zoologist Angela St=F6ger-Horwath is working on a study on the language=
of elephants that she will also use as the basis for her doctoral thesis. =
What vocabulary do these intelligent giants have at their command, and what=
sounds do they use to communicate and, specifically, in bringing up their =
young?
Angela spent months near the elephants recording their sounds using two AKG=
C 480 B comb-ULS + CK 69 and CK2 capsules, and K 171 Studio headphones. Th=
e sounds were then evaluated at the institute.
Professor Helmut Kratochvil, head of the research project explained, "Infra=
sound includes mechanical vibrations and waves at frequencies below 16 Hz t=
hat cannot be perceived by the human ear but are very similar to sound in t=
heir physical behavior. The fundamental frequencies of an elephant's sounds=
correlate with the animal's level of excitement. Low frequency growling an=
d similar sounds are equivalent to a low level of excitement and are used t=
o keep the group together and in normal communication. Higher frequencies i=
ndicate higher levels of excitement and usually accompany aggressive behavi=
or. These sounds include trumpeting, roaring, and shouting."
Norbert Sobol, Product Marketing Manager, Professional Products, adds, "Whe=
n designing the ULS Series we aimed at creating one of the best small-diaph=
ragm microphones in the world with ultra-linear electrical transfer charact=
eristics. While the original C 460 B preamp used an output transformer, the=
later C 480 B is a transformerless model that gives excellent results at v=
ery low frequencies when used with an omnidirectional capsule. Projects lik=
e this one, where the microphone is even used for infrasound recording, dem=
onstrate that we achieved our goal and the AKG ULS Series is on a par with =
much more expensive measurement microphones for this kind of application."
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