naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

RE: DAT, MD or similar recording equipment

Subject: RE: DAT, MD or similar recording equipment
From: "Martyn Stewart" <>
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2003 17:01:19 -0800
I could not have put it better Walt, Long live Portadisk :-)

 

Martyn

http://www.naturesound.org <http://www.naturesound.org/> 

 

 

  _____  

From: Walter Knapp  
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2003 3:51 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] DAT, MD or similar recording equipment

 

From: "branchlinesplus" <>
> 
> I want to branch out into specialist recording of nature to use in 
> conjunction with video editing. I use Final Cut pro for this and want 
> to buy a good quality sound recording device and a reasonable 
> microphone. I did a fair bit of this many years ago, but am out of 
> touch with the technology (although I am still in touch with 
> computing technology.) The HHB Portadisc sounds quite good, but I 
> have read a review that background noise on low level recordings is 
> not too good. Is this the best thing to buy or is there better? 
> Should I go DAT or solid state. Don't want to spend more than about 
> 1000 GBP. Also what type of microphone?

I've heard occasional references like this about the Portadisc. But, I 
use one extensively. And my mics are the Telinga Pro 5 with DAT Stereo 
Element, or various stereo setups using Sennheiser MKH mics. All top 
end, very low noise mics, which will expose any noise from your pre. The 
Portadisc matches them well as far as self noise, I generally will hear 
the self noise of these quiet mics before any from the Portadisc. Which 
makes me wonder if the reports are from people who don't understand that 
all components have self noise and are using noisy mics. Or trying to 
push mics outside their design parameters. This is common with shotgun 
mics where folks will apply excessive gain trying to pick up sound from 
farther away than the mics can do well. That combo almost always results 
in lots of unwanted background noise. A lot of it simply sounds that are 
in the environment. If you crank the Portadisc's gain to the top peg 
doing this sort of thing you can find some self noise from it. But it 
will be mixed with the mic self noise and all kinds of environmental noises.

Note that the Portadisc is a portable field recorder, it can be beaten 
by studio equipment easily. But if you limit yourself to what's 
available in field recorders, it's stands up very well indeed. A real 
recordist's recorder, in my opinion the best MD field recorder. A lot of 
studio types seem to never get the distinction that the demands on a 
field recorder are different.

I don't think the currently available portable DATs are near as good as 
the Portadisc. You are much more likely to need a add on pre with them. 
DAT is going away fairly quickly. They have the disadvantage for nature 
recording of being very sensitive to environmental conditions, 
especially heat or humidity. The recording is not archival, must be 
backed up right away to be safe, while MD is a MO optical disk, and very 
safe and durable.

Solid state is new, and when you look at media costs can be considerably 
more expensive. Many people get starry eyed about it, but the test of a 
recorder is not in how fast you can transfer the recording when you get 
back. I've not seen a lot of serious testing of the front ends of these 
recorders. I have seen reports that the newer models are plastic and 
look lightly built. I'd like to see a lot more actual field use reports 
on them. Taking the same look, things like how's the pre doing, how 
reliable they are under field conditions.

The Portadisc would do a really good job for you, but with your money 
limitations it's not going to leave a lot for mics. It's a little hard 
to advise about mics without knowing what you plan to record. The 
primary division in nature recording is between call recording and 
ambiance recording, and those two ways result in quite different mic 
demands. And if you are worrying about the self noise of a Portadisc you 
are into going with the quietest mics, which are not cheap. I happen to 
like the Sennheiser MKH series used either with a modified SASS housing 
or in M/S configurations. Or, for distance and call recording, the 
Telinga stereo parabolic. I only record in stereo. But MKH are very 
expensive mics, even if you get them used off ebay as I do.

You can get some idea of the Portadisc's and my mic's capabilities and 
what they look like from some samples I have up:
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/mic_samples.html
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/my_mod_sass.html
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/my_ms_setups.html
Those are mostly samples done just after I started using the SASS & M/S 
mics. Probably don't represent the ultimate best from them.

Walt







Yahoo! Groups Sponsor



ADVERTISEMENT
 
<http://rd.yahoo.com/SIG=12cp1250h/M=266841.4316200.5507732.1261774/D=egroup
web/S=1705083663:HM/EXP=1072741838/A=1911859/R=0/*http:/www.lifescapeinc.com
/picasa/landing.php?capid=222&caId=1988> click here


 
<http://us.adserver.yahoo.com/l?M=266841.4316200.5507732.1261774/D=egroupmai
l/S=:HM/A=1911859/rand=992240855> 

 

  _____  

Yahoo! Groups Links

*       To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists/
  
*       To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:

<=Unsubscribe> 
  
*       Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo!
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>  Terms of Service. 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU