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Re: New File Uplaoded

Subject: Re: New File Uplaoded
From: "Rich Peet" <>
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 15:25:34 -0000
I will continue to run a no barrier parabolic with omni pair.
Reasons are simple.  A Parabolic is a bad ambient mic so why would you
want the stereo background when you can use the pair as a noise cancel
pair and get considerable more reach and lower background noise than a
separated pair with barrier.  Also, as soon as you use a barrier in a
parabolic the mic is no longer seeing the whole dish, just half. 
Using the telinga dish as the starting point you are really already
over the edge on how big a parabolic should be for bird song.

Rich

--- In  "John Hartog"
<> wrote:
> > > So in summary a parabolic, split mic, no barrier arrangement 
> can 
> > >out reach a parabolic using a stereo barrier with near spaced 
> mics.
> >         Reach is one of my goals but I also want a more natural 
> > recording. 
> 
> I too have been experimenting with stereo 183s in a dish.
> First I mounted them spaced about 1" without a barrier, and It 
> actually seemed to produce ok stereo for the subjects (frogs).  I 
> posted a clip, and Walt suggested the effect might be more 
> panned mono than stereo, and I think Dan Dugan suggested the 
> background sounds were essentially mono.  I listened to it again 
> and noticed the stereo field for the subjects seemed wider than 
> for the background - kind of inside out.  
> Another thing that makes me suspicious about that method is:  I 
> was playing with a Telinga dish by reflecting light onto a piece of 
> paper ( a not very scientific experiment,) and I noticed that the 
> focus (at least for the light from that lamp) was not very 
> symmetrical - rather twisted and distorted.
> 
> I switched to a very simple barrier of mounting the 183s on a 
> tube - again spaced about one inch.  This method seems to 
> work ok, the subjects sound nice and the background sounds 
> wider.  The only thing is the background sounds get flip-flopped.  
> I think this is because a sound from one side, let's say the right, 
> reflects off the opposite side of the dish and into microphone on 
> the left.  
> Here's a of example using this method (Northern Shovelers - I've 
> posted this once before - 940k):
> 
> http://www.rockscallop.org/JH_Shovelers.mp3
> 
> I wanted a system that kept the entire stereo image intact without 
> a flip-flop so I decided to use a barrier large enough to block the 
> sounds from one side from reflecting off the opposite side.  I 
> decide on using an old LP, because it is thin, fairly dense, and 
> rigid and about the size I was thinking of.  It seems to work well,
> preserving a wide background image while highlighting the 
> subject, as in this recording (Western Meadowlark - I've posted 
> this once before - 940k):
> 
> http://www.rockscallop.org/JH_050226_WMeadowlark.mp3
> 
> This method is also useful for isolating multiple subjects as in 
> this recording of two frogs (Pacific Chorus Frogs - New - 163k) 
> 
> http://www.rockscallop.org/jh-183pblp-050430-pcfrogs.mp3
> 
> All that being said, I mostly use my 183s without a dish using a 
> tree as a barrier.  I got the "tree binaural" idea from someone at a 
> Nature Sounds Society workshop.
> -John Hartog





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