Rob Danielson wrote:
>> I agree that there may be adverse affects of noise on performance
>> with some gear at the lowest frequencies that are masked in my urban,
>> attic early am test setting. This may have been the case with the H4
>> even, though problems above 1K are obviously evident and significant.
>> I'd prefer a location with very low, very consistent ambient
>> background levels both for noise and other performance tests. Any
>> person who lives in such a place is, indeed, very lucky. Even those
>> who live in remote areas might find a concrete or other high mass
>> surround preferable to open air testing for noise if low low Hz
>> penetration from air and other traffic from miles away is a concern.
>> Its also a huge chore to track down/abate the Hi Hz junk in city and
>> in some rural settings. I cannot seem to eliminate local pollution in
>> this part of the spectrum either. Rob D.
Walt Knapp replied:
> Don't forget, this is naturerecordists. We record in such places. I
> think too much is made of trying to find a single test environment
> that will test all aspects of a piece of equipment. Some recording
> sessions recording what we normally record in a variety of sites are
> going to be most telling. If the equipment does well in that what more
> are we asking for? It's no point to agonize over something you will
> never record, if it takes a site you don't have to test it, it's not
> important what it might do there. It's important at sites you can get
> to. And good sites are not that rare.
>
> In any case, getting outside where naturerecording naturally belongs
> and gaining experience in actual recording situations is going to do a
> whole lot to improve your recordings. You learn how to work around
> whatever is going on out there that you don't want to record while
> maximizing recording what you want. No amount of equipment specs will
> substitute for that field experience.
>
> Grab your mic and recorder and get out there! time's a wasting!
>
> Walt
Points well taken, Walt. I'm sure nearly all 1138 readers of this
e-mail group would pretty much agree. However, I find these tests to be
useful (not definitive, of course -- nobody claims that they are -- but
tremendously informative nonetheless). Rob probably gets "out there"
more than most of us. The fact that many of these comparison tests are
done at 3AM in his urban attic tells me that he's a practical guy with
a passion for the subject. And the fact that he shares them here in
this forum is a gift that I think we should appreciate and not
disparage.
Curt Olson
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