I'm working on a study of barred owls in SW Washington and have begun
to record their vocalizations. I want to upgrade my equipment (not
hard to do) to get quality recordings, eventually to do comparison
analysis of their calls. I am looking at the Sony MZNH1 Hi Minidisc
Recorder, which fits my budget.
I am unsure what kind of microphone would work best. Right now I have
a ~$40 Radio Shack cardioid mic. There are all kinds of recording
situations that I will have to deal with. Sometimes the owls are very
close (20 feet) sometimes 1/4 mile or more away. I want to be able to
record a pair doing a duet, even when they are on both sides of me.
I have been thinking that another cardioid mic of better quality
would be the best overall mic, and at sometime in the future get a
shotgun mic for distant calls.
So right now I am looking at the Sony NH1 and a Sennheiser ME64
cardioid mic. Can anyone tell me if this is the right choice to begin
with, and will the recordings be good enough to run through digital
analysis software?
Thanks for any help.
Bob Pearson
Packwood, Washington
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