At 6:00 PM -0800 2/21/05, Ken Durling wrote:
>Hello all -
>
>I've been lurking here a week or two and this is my first post. I'm
>impressed with the level of knowledge, commitment, enthusiasm and
>experience here.
>
>Briefly, my background for coming to nature recording is in music and
>photography. My training and career is in music, I'm a
>composer/instrumentalist who has also some experience in recording studios=
,
>and with doing my own recording, but mostly of music. I have done some
>sampling of natural sounds for use in certain compositions.
>
>I've also been an avid bird person (although not really a "birder") all my
>life. I grew up in Ithaca NY, so Cornell had its definite influence on
>me. I now live in California and one of the things that has motivated me
>in the direction that led me to this group is the annual experience of fal=
l
>and spring migration through the Central Valley and the Lower Klamath,
>particularly the Snow Geese. I've been going and photographing 4 or 5 time=
s
>a season for a number of years now.
>
>Which leads me to one of a number of questions, addressable in any order.
>Ever since my first trips to the CV I'm interested in attempting to
>capture to some small extent the aural impact of large flocks of Snow
>Geese, which as you must know is an awe-inspiring sound and sight. Of
>course also many other species - Sandhills and RW Blackbirds come to mind =
-
>but the Snow Geese (or "snuggies" as my nephew likes to say) serve as a
>good starting point. I think probably to get any simulation of the
>dizzying nature of that sound (in the Lower Klamath I was once in the mids=
t
>of four flocks probably totaling around 60,000 birds) one would have to us=
e
>techniques and equipment currently beyond my budget and expertise, but I a=
m
>going to start with some simple experiments in stereo. One of the aspects
>of that sound - beyond its pure primal quality - which interfaces with my
>musical interests is the spatial - the large numbers of sounds moving
>through space in multiple directions.
Welcome Ken--
Understanding the impressions of movement you can create with your 4
channel system with your music compositions shoud provide some
valuable clues. Acoustic settings are often less dramatic and harder
to image with mics than what's possible with artifical panning of
mono elements.
Here's one example. I made a stereo recording with 21" spaced omnis
of a large flock of seagulls circling above me about 10-75' feet for
about 3 minutes. Listening at home, I noticed that my ability to
track the bird motions in stereo was limited to 2, at most 3 birds at
a time even though 10 or more were calling in flight at any given
moment. My attention seemed geared to pick out only the closer moving
birds with the rest of the birds becoming a stationary background
plane in my mind. I would guess that the further away the birds, the
more difficult it would be to articulate their motion.
> Eventually I'd like to try multiple
>mics spaced a 1/4 mile apart or so, and at least 4-channel playback.
Welcome to the ----wide----- omni club. Must be very healthy snuggies
to pick up on both mics.
>
>So I guess that's the first query - I'd love to hear some experiences of
>recording large flocks.
>
>Secondly, I realize I'll need more specialized equipment sooner or later,
>but currently I'm going make my first recordings with Nakamichi CM-300
>mics,
I've read of them being popular at one time with tapers.
Signal to Noise Ratio: "better than 50 dB"
Sensitivity: -76dB+/- 2.5 dB
These are unbalanced mics unless they were modified. They run on
internal round 9 volts right? There could be some issues going on
here with the US-122's mic pre inputs. Comments anyone?
naki CM-300 spec sheet
http://www.computorney.com/nak/nak-cm300.htm
>going through a Tascam US-122 audio interface onto my laptop, using
>Samplitude recording SW. I have cardioid and omni capsules for the mics,
>I'll experiment with both, and have considered getting a pair of their CP-=
4
>capsules - super shotgun - from their not entirely infrequent appearances
>on eBay. In fact there's a pair up now. I wonder if anyone here has
>experience or comments on these mics. They're excellent music recording
>mics, I realize that probably means next to nothing for wildlife
>applications. They are 70's technology. I don't know much about the pres
>in the US-122, that may be another limiting factor, but they've been prett=
y
>good so far.
I've read good reports about its a-d quality and driver stability.
With 54dB gain, you should be set for laptop recording except perhaps
for very quiet settings. Rob D.
>
>I've been doing a fair bot of googling other sites, and following along
>here, so I do have some idea of what equipment I'll eventually need, so yo=
u
>don't need to repeat a lot of that info unless it pertains to my particula=
r
>questions. Of which I have plenty more, but I'll leave it at that for
>now. Thanks for hearing me out.
>
>Ken Durling
>Berkeley, CA
>
--
Rob Danielson
Film Department
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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