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Re: Digest Number 1383

Subject: Re: Digest Number 1383
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 11:47:19 -0400
>    From: "geoffjcarey" <>
> Subject: another RFI...
> 
> I'd like to get to grips with much of the tech stuff I'm reading on 
> this excellent group, and was wondering whether anybody can suggest 
> a book or website where I can do this. I'm interested in something 
> that presents the basics as well as more advanced stuff. Also 
> something that deals with the digital side of it all, and not just 
> the recording per se.
> 
> I've done one or two searches, and see there's loads of books 
> focussing on music recording, but not much using nature recording 
> examples.

You have found what all find, there is very little on nature recording. 
Bernie Krause's "Wild Soundscapes" kind of stands alone. But it does not 
get into the highly technical.

Pretty much you have to make do with texts focused on other fields of 
recording. Recording outdoors, outdoor acoustics, and so on are not 
really known all that well. Take any discussion of studio or other 
indoor recording as only possibly relevant. The nature recordist's 
messages contain a lot of useful stuff if you wade through them.

I record virtually entirely in stereo. For a good book on stereo I'd 
recommend:
"The New Stereo Soundbook" by RON STREICHER and F. ALTON EVEREST
The book has it's own website:
http://www.stereosoundbook.com/

For digital I'd recommend:
"Principles of Digital Audio" by Ken C. Pohlmann

Telinga has some white papers worth reading:
http://www.telinga.com/

Here's a online recording textbook:
http://www.tonmeister.ca/main/textbook/index.html
though it's obviously not about nature recording.

Some other links you might (or might not) find interesting, grabbed at 
random from my bookmarks:
http://www.tape.com/Bartlett_Articles/stereo_microphone_techniques.html
http://www.tape.com/Bartlett_Articles/stereo_recording_procedures.html
http://www.turneraudio.com/tech/audio_level_primer.html
http://www.24bitfaq.org/#Q0_1_2
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~wareing/3daudio.htm
http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/WFAE/journal/index.html
http://www.brownielocks.com/ghillie.html
http://www.trubitt.com/field_1.html
http://www.crownaudio.com/pdf/mics/127089.pdf
http://www.equipmentemporium.com/selectin.htm
http://www.phys.tue.nl/people/etimmerman/RecordingFAQ.html
http://www.mp3-faq.org/
http://www.world.sony.com/Electronics/ATRAC3/
http://www.binaural.com/binlink.html
http://www.gmi.edu/~drussell/Demos/waves/wavemotion.html

Walt




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>From   Tue Mar  8 18:27:25 2005
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 12:34:48 -0400
From: Walter Knapp <>
Subject: Re: solid state technology vs minidisc and all that jazz

From: "geoffjcarey" <>
> 
> Following on from Walt's extremely useful summary, can anybody 
> recommend some good machines for transferring from MD to CD and vice-
> versa? I sometimes need to make faithful copies of the originals of 
> my recordings to share with other birders for their use in the field 
> or in research. Is this a fairly standard process that can be 
> achieved by a number of options?

Going the other way, CD to MD is very easy if you have one of Sony's 
decks for the purpose. Put a CD in, put a blank MD in, push a couple 
buttons and it makes a perfect copy. The Deck I have is the MXD-D3, one 
of the older ones. As it does 4x copy, it's fairly fast. Then, you have 
to title everything, for which I use the RM-D20P remote titling keyboard 
in conjunction with the deck. This system I use mostly for making MD's 
of music for my car and boat audio.

But, going from MD to CD is more complex, I don't know of a direct 
machine. It's a fairly routine process. It's really no different than 
going from DAT, cassette, etc. If I had a MD I wanted to hand out, I'd 
just go ahead with making archive copies at the same time, that's a 
necessary routine task. Here's what I do, summarized:

Transfer the MD tracks to 44k 16bit aiff files in my mac using the 
Portadisc's digital optical output. Realtime transfer. You will need to 
have a file for each track if you intend to preserve the original track 
organization of the MD. If you don't have a MD with digital output and a 
computer input for that, then you will have to organize a quality analog 
input. And you need at least basic sound recording/editing software.

Clean up and trim the files if necessary in Peak. If filtering I use 
SparkXL for that. Usually a minimum of trimming the dead space off each 
end. May also involve a gain adjust in the minimal version. (Or trimming 
out a long section where every truck in the world came by.) In other 
words, save the usable parts. I'll archive the minimally edited version 
at this point, any filtered versions are not what I archive, though I 
may save them separately.

Organize the files in a set in Roxio's Jam, a Redbook standard CD 
mastering software. Adjust track volumes for balanced listening. And 
burn audio CD-R's. I use either a Apple superdrive DVD/CD burner, or a 
Yamaha burner. Both are in my G4 system. I burn at modest speeds, don't 
trust the high speed burning.

I usually also design Jewel case booklets and so on for most things I'm 
handing out. The usual desktop publishing type software there, I have a 
template to start from made years ago. Nothing fancy, though I often 
include a frog photo that's appropriate. Place to put track info. For 
simple stuff I just use a sharpie to put a title on the disk, no regular 
lable there.

There are stand alone CD burners, but most take a special extra price 
CD-R (to give the RIAA a cut off your work for their creativity at 
getting laws passed). So, it's better to organize around computer based 
burners and use standard CD-R's.

Note I do most of my immediate sharing via mp3's placed on my website. 
The mp3's will be a short clip out of the original longer track encoded 
into a mp3 file. I find something I want to get to people immediately 
that's a much faster method. However, it only works for short samples.

Note that a solid state recorder would not change the steps much. I'm 
not one for sharing recordings I've not properly, critically listened 
to. Or done minimal editing. Though I know there are plenty of folks who 
send things around or put them up on the net without ever having really 
listened to them. Take the time to do it right, what you send represents 
you and creates a impression.

Note that software choice for this process is not fixed. Obviously 
windows folks use different software. In software you need a recorder, a 
minimal editor, and something to control the burning. The better the 
quality of each the more you can do in the way of precise control.

Walt




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