From: Dan Dugan <>
> I beg to differ, based on my eary field recording experiences with
> simple Sony mono cassette recorders in the late 60s. The microphone
> quality makes much more difference to the quality of the result than
> anything else. If you can afford it, an expensive mike with a cheap
> cassette recorder will make much better recordings than a cheap mike
> with a cheap cassette recorder.
I did my first "nature recording" in the early 50's. I could not lift
the heavy wire recorder, but I could hang the mic out a window. I've
used recorders ever since. Our extended family did all their regular
correspondence via recordings mailed back and forth ever since the first
tape recorders for consumer use became available in the early 50's.
When cassette came out I was highly disappointed to have it push reel to
reel out. The quality of consumer analog tape recordings would have a
different history if all the development lavished on cassette had of
been on reel to reel.
All through all this time, it's generally been the case that what I
could do was limited by microphones. Until recent years I could not
afford expensive mics, so I've tried all kinds of less expensive mics.
It is important to have some balance in equipment, but this is more
along my ideas of relative importance. Modern recorders, even
inexpensive consumer MD's and such like are so much better than what was
available not very long ago that the importance of the recorder is much
less. Microphones still vary from the long ago average or lower to stuff
that would have been to die for back then. Of any piece of equipment
used the microphone is the most central to sound quality.
> The pro windscreen runs the cost up a lot, but you can build your own.
If building your own, still go and investigate the pro windscreens. Look
into the how and why they work. There are critical issues in their
designs that I see frequently ignored in homemade designs, which often
results in the homemade design not working as well. It's not as exotic
as the pro windscreen companies would have you believe.
The worst to try and duplicate is the zeppelin layer.
I was going to build my own, but in the end found that watching ebay for
long periods occasionally turned up a rewarding auction for pieces of
the pro system. Over time I've put together several
suspension/windscreen systems for vastly less than the normal price of
such pro gear.
Walt
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