20 feet! What fun! $500 for a ME66/K6 should get you fine mono
recordings for sure. I agree that stereo imaging can be useful in
figuring out who is talking to whom about what. There are often more
owls involved in the discussion than I first detect, both in the
field and when listening to recordings.
If stereo imaging interests you and the background sound levels are
low, I'd consider binaural Shure 183's ($200 pair). Huge improvement
over radio shack mics. You could mount them in a dummy head, a wood
block like Curt Olson's designs or buy a SASS fixture sans mics from
Crown. M-S is another, more expensive option. The students here fight
over our two NT1A/CAD 179 M-S rigs that use MP2 preamps. I'm trying
to get a PIP compatible phantom power supply which would open more
possibilties.
Isn't it likely that your presence is a pretty significant topic in
their discussions? Maybe there's a lot of road and other noise so
there's plenty of agitation anyway. I'm sure you've thought about
this. If you want to leave the scene, an NH-1 or NH 910 can be set to
record in HiSP mode for ~5 hours. Requires a PC for digital transfers.
To focus on calls coming from two areas, a pair of unidirectional
Rode NT-3's for about $300 are maybe worth considering. Perhaps mount
them on separate tripods with nice, swivel mounts, in good
shock-mounts with zeps? Anyway, I'd definitely think a bit more about
stereo before taking a $500 mono plunge. Rob D.
= = = = = =
At 11:05 PM -0700 6/24/05, Martyn Stewart wrote:
>The mini disk should fit the bill alright and you would certainly be able to
>upload your recordings to your computer and software.
>If your budget is tight, consider the K6/ME66 combination made by
>Sennheiser.
>The ME66 would be a better mic for the long distant calls but you will not
>be able to record them in stereo unless you use two mics. A stereo recording
>will help you separate the calls much better in an analyzing program. To
>start off with though, your choice would be a fair combination of mic and
>minidisk. At least with the K6 power supply that you need with the ME66, you
>can buy the cardioid version (ME64) and this too will run with the K6.
>
>
>
>Martyn
>
>Martyn Stewart
>Bird and Animal Sounds Digitally Recorded at:
>http://www.naturesound.org
>
>N47.65543 W121.98428
>Redmond. Washington. USA
>Make every Garden a wildlife Habitat!
>
>425-898-0462
>-----Original Message-----
>From:
> On Behalf Of wahpenayo
>Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 10:43 PM
>To:
>Subject: [Nature Recordists] recording owl vocalizations
>
>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
>
>
>
>
>"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
>
>
>
>
--
Rob Danielson
Film Department
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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