Dear Nature Recordists,
First off, I am new to the group so I will introduce myself. I am Dawn Kitc=
hen and I study monkey social behavior, vocalizations and cognition. My res=
earch has focused on loud calls and male-male competition mainly- I worked =
on Belizean black howler monkeys for my PhD (w/ A. Pusey & C. Packer) and f=
or my post doc I studied chacma baboons in Botswana (w/ D. Cheney & R. Seyf=
arth). I see your group is largely amphibian and bird people, but maybe the=
re are some other primate folks out there who will know these folks and may=
be get a feeling for what I study... Anyway, I am currently at Ohio State U=
niversity (Anthropology Dept) and I am starting a new field project in Guya=
na where I will work on capuchins and red howlers. This is the first time t=
hat I have really had to buy my own equipment, so that is the basis of me j=
oining this group.
I have to apologize up front. I have some specific questions that I am SURE=
you have discussed, possibly several times, in the 5 years that this list =
has been together. I tried to do a search through your archives, but it too=
k me hours to get through only a few months of email threads...
I am all set to purchase a mic (Sennheiser ME66/K6), but I am torn on what =
to invest in for a recorder. In the past I have worked with DATs (all Sony)=
. I love the fact that they time stamp, which is super useful for quantifyi=
ng the kinds of data that I collect (analog recorders are not useful at all=
for many of my purposes). I find DAT quality to be terrific and they are f=
airly good for playback. But, DATs do have their share of problems. 1) in t=
he tropics they have a tendency to run into dust and humidity problems; 2) =
the tapes can get damaged; 3) they are pricey (around $700 I think).
The Cornell Ornithology page suggests that the new Sony Hi-MD Minidisk reco=
rders are good because they can record in an *uncompressed* format. They re=
commend MZ-NH900 and during my research I found out that the MZ-NH1 does th=
e same things, but in addition time stamps, which is great! However, neithe=
r of these models are available anymore (as far as I can tell), although I =
can find them used. The Sony salesman assures me that the newer version (MZ=
RH910) does everything the old ones did, including time stamp. Unfortunate=
ly, it is hard to trust someone trying to make a sale. Do any of you know h=
ow it compares?
Friends of mine doing similar research are buying hard drive .mp3 players (=
sorry, I don=92t have the name they are using right now). However, I heard =
that mp3 players only record in a compressed format. Also, my friends had t=
o buy a =93preamp=94 of some sort in order to have control of record levels=
during recordings. For comparison, does anyone know if the HiMD recorders =
allow you to change record level as you go?
Also, does anyone know which (mp3 vs. HiMD) does better in a rugged environ=
ment (dealing with bumps, dust, humidity)?
I will have limited electricity, so it is also nice to have the option ot u=
se batteries (instead of recharging the unit). The Sony people assured me t=
he minidisks would run off of regular AA batteries. Does anyone know. I thi=
nk mp3 players all need to be plugged in to recharge.
Finally, it is important that I can easily import the sounds tomy computer =
and then manipulate them using Raven or Cool Edit (I have used. wav and .ai=
f files in the past). Will uncompressed files from a minidisk be directly i=
mportable into these kinds of software? I know that recordings from mp3 pla=
yers are.
I guess I would love advice on which of these recorders to purchase (i.e., =
a used MZ-NH1, a new MZ RH910, or the mp3 players that my friends have road=
tested a bit) or just stick with DAT.
I am sorry for the long list of questions.
Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to give me any info.
Sorry to eat up your time!
Best wishes,
Dawn
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Dawn M. Kitchen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The Ohio State University
Department of Anthropology
244 Lord Hall, 124 West 17th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
Phone: 419-755-4027
Email:
Fax: 419-755-4367
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