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Equipment advice for bird recording

Subject: Equipment advice for bird recording
From: "Ralph Paonessa" <>
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 05:21:29 -0000
I've never done any serious audio recording, but would like to try. 
I've been lurking on this group for over a year, when someone 
suggested I "go digital" to record bird sounds, rather than repair my 
Marantz PMD-221. At the time, Mini-Disks sounded promising 
with "affordable high quality," but I was scared off by restrictions 
on uploading to a PC. It appears now that Sony offers software that 
allows two uploads of recorded files, but that once on your PC you
can 
convert those to .WAV with no limits on transferring those files.

I should interject that I've never done any digital sound editing,
but 
I envision being able to "cut and paste" portions of different tracks 
together, delete "dead air," merge in sound files from other sources, 
etc. I know I'll have to get software for this, and have read here 
about Audacity (free) and Adobe Audition (pricey but powerful). 

I'd like to record birdsongs in the field; portability is important. 
>From advice others have given, I can see that spending more on 
equipment will allow me to record weaker calls from farther away and 
with greater directionality. I was hoping to spend no more than a few 
hundred bucks; but I can see that it won't be hard to spend close to 
$1000. It's hard to quantify how much quality I need: "I'll know it 
when I hear it." But I have many questions and hope I can get some 
guidance here:

1. It appears that a good Hi-MD recorder is the Sony MZ-RH10. Another 
possibility is the Marantz PMD-660 ($500). Do these differ 
significantly in recording quality? Would you recommend one of these, 
and how do they differ?

2. I can't afford a Telinga parabola setup. I currently own an Audio-
Technica AT815b shotgun mike that I suspect is not very good quality. 
Is a Sennheiser ME66 or ME67 with K-6 or K-6P reasonably good for my 
purposes -- that's about the limit of what I can spend now.

3. What is "Phantom Power?" (e.g. K-6 vs. K-6P).

4. Do I need some sort of preamp? Will the Sennheisers work well with 
the above recorders (or others you'd recommend)?

5. I take it that there aren't any recording options for devices like 
the iPod that will work here and approach the quality of Hi-MD. (I 
worry that Mini-Disks are are sort of temporary technology as we 
transition to portable digital players, but so far the latter seem 
geared for playing and not at all for recording.)

My usual modus operandi with a new venture like this is to be 
attracted to it because it seems very affordable; then discover that 
to "really do it right" will cost a lot more; and I usually end up 
spending more -- but there are limits!

Thanks for any guidance you can offer.

Ralph Paonessa




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