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Re: recording owl vocalizations

Subject: Re: recording owl vocalizations
From: "M, J, & V Phinney" <>
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 09:30:52 -0700
The Audio Technica series (AT815b, AT835b) are adequate shotgun mics that
will do the job, require only a AA battery for power. Self noise is probabl=
y
not in the Sennheiser league, but neither is the price tag!

You could eventually add a second mic for stereo

Mark Phinney


on 6/25/05 5:00 PM, wahpenayo at  wrote:

> Thanks for the information - very much appreciated. It's difficult to
> take the financial plunge with so little experience.
>
> I forgot that the ME series needed a power supply, so that takes it
> out of my range for now. I could probably stretch to $200 for a mic.
> Here's some more background on what I'm doing.
>
> I am calling the owls in by imitating their calls. They are reacting
> to me as an intruder in their territory, or as a nearby territorial
> owl. It's part of an experiment I'm conducting to compare barred owl
> responsiveness to barred owl calls vs. spotted owl calls. It's a
> small slice of the huge research effort ongoing for spotted owls.
>
> I'm keeping track of how long it takes them to respond, what calls
> they use, the duration of their response, etc. If I record it, I
> don't have to madly try to write everything down.
>
> But I also want to get quality recordings for digital analysis, and
> be flexible enough to handle the different recording situations that
> arise. I want to develop a library of vocalizations, complete with
> variations of standard calls. As such, I want these to be as good as
> I can get. Maybe there is no single solution.
>
> It would be fantastic to have a 2-mic set-up for stereo recording of
> duets (which can be amazing, sounding sometimes like 3 or 4 owls
> rather than 2), and I would love to do this, but then do I lose out
> on distant calls? But a crisp, clean stereo recording of a duet would
> be something to hear. In addition to distance differences, there are
> also varying levels of background noise, from dead quiet to echo
> situations to interference from nearby streams or passing vehicles.
>
> Is there less expensive option for a mic, or choice of mics, that
> would allow me to handle most situations? Is a powered mic necessary
> to get good recordings? I'm probably stuck between needing very good
> equipment to do what I want to do and not being able to afford it. At
> some point in the future, I do want to go for highest-quality
> recordings.
>
> Thanks again for your help, Bob
>
>
> --- In  Rob Danielson <>
> wrote:
>> 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.
>>
>> =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D
>>
>> 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
>
>
>
>
> "Microphones are not ears,
> Loudspeakers are not birds,
> A listening room is not nature."
> Klas Strandberg
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>



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