From: "jessehammons" <>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm coming here via the phonography email list. I decided to join
> here and re-post this question since it's more appropriate for nature
> recording.
Originally, phonography was a branch off this group. A lot of the
purpose of the two groups are in common. Some of what I'm saying below
will repeat stuff I posted over there.
> It looks like a good mic pre is critical if attempting to record
> "quiet" sounds. What mic preamps are you using and are you happy
> with them?
I mostly use the mic pre built into my HHb Portadisc. I also have the
Sound Devices MP2, and highly recommend it. If you are working with
consumer recorders, then the MP2 will provide a very complete high
quality front end for them. You will still be limited by the quality of
the A/D in your recorder, but that's generally far less of a problem
than the mic pre.
> Some of the USB equipped mic pres look interesting but I wouldn't
> want to get something that required a computer to work.
I'm like you, I've carted computers on field forays, a right royal pain.
I've not used them as recorders in the field, which would have been a
even worse problem than my use which was computer mapping and databases.
They will seriously stifle your mobility.
> Things I'm looking for in a pre are portability, durability, ease of
> use, and battery life that lasts as long as possible (at least two
> hours), and of course, self noise that is lower than any micrphone I
> might buy (which I guess is around 5dBA).
You might want to add XLR connections, and phantom power to the list.
You will need that as you get into higher end mics. And definitely don't
want to have any more extras to deal with in the field. It's bad enough
just running a pre separate from the recorder.
I hooked a mic that draws 8ma from the phantom power to my MP2 yesterday
and ran the mic for more than 4 hours while running a test recording.
Gain was set about 2/3 of the way up. The MP2 had just turned on it's
battery warning light at the end of that. It uses two AA batteries
internally or can be powered externally. It had two 2000mah NIMH AA's in
it. Note that 8ma is a lot for a phantom power mic to be drawing. My MKH
mics draw 1-2ma each.
> Has anyone had any experiences with the Core Sound Mic2496? It looks
> a good choice although I would like it to have a better level meter
> and a line output:
> http://www.core-sound.com/Mic2496.html
Never used it. It is very nice to have some form of metering on your
pre. The MP2 has a series of led's. It also has a very good limiter and
clip indication. You do want to look at the controls and functions, the
pre is going to replace all the front end controls of your recorder,
turning it into not much more than storage. That includes things like
gain, limiting, metering, low cut filtering and so on.
I should also point out that the MP2 has M/S decoding, either just to
it's headphone output (which has it's own volume control) or that plus
the output to the recorder. You can record out in the field while
monitoring the undecoded M/S but it does take some getting used to. I
usually just switch the Portadisc to sending me just the mono mid mic in
the headphones if not using the MP2.
> The sound devices mixpre 2 also looks good. Almost $1000, well spent?
This is what sound devices recommends to replace the discontinued MP2.
It does not contain M/S decoding, but otherwise seems similar. It is
physically larger. I have seen it go for as low as $600 on ebay. But you
will have to watch a lot of auctions.
Note that sound devices has a whole solid state recorder to be out
sometime this year. It may very well contain at least as good a pre's as
the stand alone. And it's going to be less cost than the mixpre. You
will have the problem of high cost solid state recording media. And
whatever teething problems it has. But you will also be carting just one
lump for a recorder.
Walt
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