At 2:49 PM -0400 9/10/06, Walter Knapp wrote:
>
>I'm surprised you can get away with setting the background ambiance that
>high. I've measured the difference between callers and background at as
>much as 60dB with a sound meter, occasionally more. I set 15dB of
>headroom basically on the callers most of the time.<snip> If you can just
>cut out a occasional over, then it get's easier.<snip> However, that
>owl, coyote or whatever can suddenly start calling right next to
>you, and you might want to record them well.
Me too, but -15dB has proven to be a good setting especially when I'm
pressing the limits with ATAC and 16 bits. There's less bio-density
up here perhaps; extremely closer callers are not a huge risk and I
try to set up knowing one could be detrimental.
Maybe I'm over-simplifying it but I try to make my self choose
between two, different kinds of optimized recording: spatial ambience
or close-up callers-- not unlike exposing for highlight or shadow
detail.
In June, by chance, one of about 3 green frogs singing on a pond
took-up post 7' right under my rig. He wiped out about 2 solid hours
of the all-night recording. Had he been 20 feet away, there would
have been no over-mod. Had I set level anticipating the close
visitor, the other 10 hours would have been compromised for ambience.
On the same weekend a coyote called ~200' from -15dB ambient set rig
and his peaks hit .4-dB. (very lucky, I admit). I happened to be 1/4
mile away and from that position and heard a response call in another
hollow. Because my pre gain was so high, I was able to pull out that
distant call. Had my pre gain been 15 dB lower, a role for the
response call in the mix would be much more "iffy." Rob D.
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