>At best the specs and so on might be a little help in choosing which
>mics to take out in the field with you. Then you really get to find out
>about the mics.
>Walt
"Then you really get to find out about the mics." How is a newbie
supposed to choose his first mic? He doesn't have one yet, so field work
is out. Buy mics until he has enough experience to tell which are better
than others? Those living near one of the free field workshops are
indeed fortunate, because there is a lot of good experience there to
draw from, but the poor guy who doesn't know any recordists is left to
his own. And when newbies ask here about what mic to get the
recommendation from this forum is either a $1000+ do-it-all mic (MKH),
or a hodge-podge of inexpensive mics ("well, my first mic was a ....").
I think newbies especially worry over specs because that's about all
they have to go with. The push to not create a recommended mics list
have left the neophyte with no other way of comparing mics other than
price and specs.
We're smart guys, and there is a lot of experience here. Shouldn't it be
possible to organize our thoughts into recommended mics for different
applications, divided into cost classes? I propose we make the dang
list. It's not like we'll put crappy mics in the list that will stick
someone with a mic they can't use.
Applications like:
Ambient soundscapes (wide-angle, low volume)
Individual animals (narrow-angle, low volume)
Cityscapes (mid to high volume)
Underwater (hydrophones)
Direct contact
Anything else?
Price class, per stereo system:
Inexpensive $0-$300
Midrange $300-$600
Expensive $600+
If not a recommendation list, then a list of people on the list willing
to be a mentor (or Elmer, as we call them in ham radio) either online or
for newbies in your area.
Other recommends I'd like to see here: how to make blimps and what cover
material to use, stereo techniques and which work well for some example
situations (including mic mounts/stands), how to not record yourself,
how to not scare the animals, maybe even the habits of various
noise-making creatures (like why eagles call and the best times to
record them), man-made sounds and how to avoid them, audio processing
for more realistic recordings, and other more esoteric stuff like where
to put your mics in a canyon or near a cliff to get the best echoes.
These topics have (mostly) all been discussed here, but they are
difficult to find in a search through past messages.
Bruce Wilson KF7K
http://science.uvsc.edu/wilson
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