naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

RE: Seeking Low-cost Commercially Available Parabolic system

Subject: RE: Seeking Low-cost Commercially Available Parabolic system
From: "Jerry Berrier" <>
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 19:07:24 -0500
Well, I'm certainly already doing that.
http://www.townisp.com/~jerry.berrier


-----Original Message-----
From: Barb Beck  
Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 6:47 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Seeking Low-cost Commercially Available
Parabolic system



Start recording with whatever you have or can afford..  Heck half of 
mine are with a small old Sony parabola and the crummy mic which came 
with it.  Still some of those are my best because of the area I was in 
and the fact that I was close to the bird under ideal conditions.  

Just go for it

Barb Beck
Edmonton

Jerry Berrier wrote:

>Walt,
>
>Thanks for your very interesting comments.
>I currently have a Sony MZR907 stereo microphone.  While I realize it 
>is at the low end of performance, here's my question.  Is there a 
>commercially available parabola that I could make work with such a 
>microphone, until I'm ready to spend more money on a high end mic? 
>Because I'm an amateur and anticipate deriving no income from my hobby 
>of "birding by ear", cost is definitely a factor for me.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Walter Knapp 
>Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 6:10 PM
>To: 
>Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Seeking Low-cost Commercially Available
>Parabolic system
>
>
>
>From: Klas Strandberg <>
>
>  
>
>>>>With the parabolic it is in focus or out. There is no smooth
>>>>transition.
>>>>        
>>>>
>>
>>Yes, there is. The size of the focus varies with frequency.
>>
>>Klas.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>>With a shotgun the center is more like the ear to find the sweet
>>>>spot.
>>>>
>>>>You can read that a shotgun has no gain but the truth is a bit more
>>>>gray.  If you have a sensitive directional mic that is has a pattern 
>>>>more close to the ear in direction ability, then it is easy to find 
>>>>the sweet spot in the blind.  It still can do a selective receive 
>>>>that a dish can do.
>>>>        
>>>>
>
>First off this grew out of the assumption that being blind means a
>person cannot hear the direction of the sound. Nothing could be farther 
>from the truth. Friends I have that are blind can point exactly where 
>some sound is and describe it far better than a person with sight, they 
>don't need to see the bird. I see no problem in their using a parabolic, 
>in fact I've handed my parabolic to a blind person, and he had no 
>problem using mine. No instruction necessary he already had what he 
>wanted to point at nailed. And he could scan up new things too.
>
>It's not just that the size of the focus varies with frequency, I
>certainly agree with Klas on this. The focus is also variable depending 
>on target distance. The bottom line is that a parabolic is hardly a 
>straight line only as to it's pickup. While the angle of acceptance of a 
>parabolic is narrower than a shotgun, it's still very wide and does have 
>a transition zone that's easy to use as a guide for centering the 
>direction of the mic. It's easy to zero in by ear with good headphones. 
>I submit it's even easier if you use a stereo parabolic, like the 
>telinga stereo. In frog survey recordings I'll usually survey a site 
>entirely with my headphones on, zeroing in on each little calling group 
>by ear. Bird folks need to try this more, with frogs your chances of 
>seeing the calling frogs are very low, so you always do it by ear. Try 
>recording with your eyes closed, listen to the sound.
>
>The problem with shotgun mics in addition to having no extra gain that
>won't increase the self noise as well, is that they tend toward the high 
>priced end, hard to cheaply hand make a quality shotgun mic, though I 
>have a few ideas. You will get more bang for the buck with a parabolic, 
>particularly at the less expensive end. Even once you get the shotgun 
>pointed at the bird, it's still hampered by less gain and a wider pickup 
>zone. Shotguns tend to have polar patterns that have a fairly even 
>pickup for the center 60 degrees or so, much harder to get exact aim by 
>ear. If anything they have greater need of visual sighting.
>
>Try both a parabolic and a shotgun blindfolded, I think the parabolic
>will win as far as aiming.
>
>As far as the ear's angle of acceptance, it's more like the SASS than
>either of these. It's our brain that then filters out all that came in 
>to make it appear like we were only listening in one limited direction 
>to a single caller.
>
>Walt
>
>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
>  
>



"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg 
Yahoo! Groups Links



 







________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU