> I highly respect anyone who manages to get children to wear the gear
> without destroying it. I'd have a tendency to put the recorder in
> something like a padded Pelican micro case to protect it. Easy enough to
> drill a hole for mic wires, which could even be sealed if water is a chance.
that's a good idea! fortunately we work with quite small children who haven't
got the dexterity to take a backpack off once you put one on - and you can get
some quite small backpacks for children these days
>
> The Olympus type recorders I think you mean are the ones for dictation,
> recording lectures or business meetings and such like. If your needs in
> voice quality are not great they will work, though I don't know about
> mic inputs. They tend to use lower sampling rates, just good enough that
> voices are still understandable.
That is VERY helpful to know - and good ammunition for my computer tech at work
who thinks they are the answer to everything!
>
> MD would definitely be a step up from your current cassette setups. They
> are often smaller than a tape cassette alone, little larger than a MD
> disk. I've talked to a number of folks who do work like yours. The ones
> that have gone with MD have been quite happy with the results.
that is very reassuring.
> I've had pretty good results with Sony tie tac mics. Though I was using
> them with a parabolic reflector, not bare. The ECM-T140 or ECM-T145 were
> what I used. Probably a different model number now. They will self power
> from a sony MD (or most any other consumer MD). So no separate batteries
> to worry about. Pickup of the adults would have to be tested, doing that
> without the child's voice being too strong and causing clipping could be
> a problem. Digital recording you must avoid clipping, something cassette
> would tolerate some. I'd also imbed the mic in some acoustic foam or
> such like to protect it from dust and dirt. You probably cannot avoid a
> lot of noise of the rubbing clothing or handling noise type.
>
We're going to try out a couple of those mikes and see what we get. One
suggestion was to put the mike on the backpack (on the top) or on a hair clip
on the child's head, so that it was slightly closer to equidistant from the
child's and the adult's mouths.
Thanks very much for your helpful reply!
Katie
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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:
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|