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Re: Sound quality and editing

Subject: Re: Sound quality and editing
From: "Rich Peet" <>
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 19:09:56 -0000
I think I will take exception to this in natural sound.

I would rather see species documentation work done by an amateur 
recordist on a cheap laptop soundcard rather than a music trained pro 
on a sound stage. There just is a very small chance that a music 
trained engineer can know the important elements of a critter sound 
from noise (ie pre-vocalizations, whispers, booms, post-
vocalizations, etc).  You also see errors like on the Peterson's 
field guide series (one of the best sellers) where the persons who 
mastered the CD brought the levels on high pitched warblers up 
(normalized) so that they distort when played on the low end cd 
players.  There just are not many 10,000 cycle human vocalists.


For ambience work where you are diving for the full 24 bit depth and 
need editing you are better off with amateur help with a good sound 
system and experience than expecting a sound stage to know how to 
correct how sound travels over a mile in distance.  There are just a 
few places where one could get the education in this field right 
now.  Maybe Rob (who is one of the few) knows how many schools have 
competence in teaching this.  

Natural sound stands on its own apart from the pro market right now.  
If someone needs help it is likely that a fellow amateur recordist 
can contribute more than a sound studio.  

Not to put you on the spot and I don't expect an answer, but.  As an 
example does the sound after the song belong to this bird or another? 
Is it representative to the bird? What is wrong with the song itself? 
Should the bass be left or cut? PS. this was a compressed digital to 
analog to digital to compressed digital recording so is seriously 
flawed. :)
86kb download
http://home.comcast.net/~richpeet/494BOBO.mp3

Rich Peet



--- In  Kent Shaw 
<> wrote:
> 
> Hello there, 
> 
> I'm a professional audio engineer and composer very interested in 
nature sounds and thought I would pass this information on to you. If 
a person who does their own editing doesn't have a high enough 
quality soundcard to convert the recording from disc recorder to the 
computer, this seriously degrades the sound. So really, if you are 
using high quality microphones and equipment and are concerned about 
quality I would highly recommend purchasing a good pro audio 
soundcard. (ex. brand name M audio $150 and up) 
> Of course knowing how to use the editing software properly is very 
important and there is a big difference in results between a novice 
and pro user. There are filtering and equalizing techniques I 
routinely employ to remove hiss, rumble or other unwanted noise. For 
those interested in commercial releases or just very serious about 
the sound quality, they might consider hiring the services of a 
professional. I apologize in advance if this subject has already been 
discussed.
> 
> Sincerly, 
> 
> Kent Shaw 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
>               
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Friends.  Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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