Posted by: "Rob Danielson"
> 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.
My impression when I was up there was the soundfields were simpler. But
then I was not there that long.
> 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.
Yes, we do sometimes choose. Of course wherever possible we want it all.
I think one always has a idea what they are recording, what the main and
secondary subjects are. Without some simplification you sometimes have a
hard time getting started. I can have a choice of half a dozen species
of frogs, a few birds, endless insects, and that's just the foreground
callers. For survey I'd do a recording that brought up emphasis on each
species of frog at a time, usually with the Telinga. I'm more now
recording whole communities, or at least callers and the community they
live in. So the Telinga sees less use and the SASS more. And I'm looking
more at pleasing combos of performers on the outdoor "stage". I listen
as much for arrangement of the performers as for the technical setting
up of the mics.
> 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.
Lang once told me about wading out and catching the offending caller and
evicting him. (he had his mics set up out in the middle of the wetlands
and we had a gate crasher) It's very tempting when you have this nice
stage of callers you want all arranged and one gate crasher. Of course
some of these frogs are really hard to catch.
BTW, one of the advantages of the tall tripod is that the frog right in
front of the tripod is still a good ways from the mic. You have less
close in surprises, the close guys are not as big a problem. Of course
if you set the tripod so the mic is up in a tree, all bets are off.
Something will walk up to it and yell in it. Note if you decide to leave
a tall tripod unattended all night make sure it's well anchored or at
least weighted down. It's a long way for mics to fall.
> 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.
Luck plays a large part, particularly when you do as you do and leave a
recorder running unattended all night. It's easier to guess what might
turn up over shorter periods.
On the Florida swamp site if I had of set for the night at the beginning
of the evening the loud insects of the midnight (and before) recording
would have prevented setting correctly for 3 am, which would have been
even more underrecorded. (and I could have had the reverse and had a owl
that decided the nearest tree to the mic was a neat place to call) Of
course it did not hurt that night that I was all comfy in bed in the
canopy with the recorder right beside me. The tall tripod setting so
close outside I could just reach out to rotate it for a different aim if
necessary. All I have to do is wake up at appropriate times and stay
awake long enough to record. It's a hard job but somebody has to do it :-)
Walt
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