Folks,
You can make lots of naturesound recordings, especially with a
parabol, and never sacrifice from a mic noise level around 20 dB(A)
or a noisy preamp.
But once in a while you come into the ideal situation, with no wind,
no traffic, a wonderful ambience and a master-singer 30 meters away.
Back home, - all you notice is the self noise, unless you have very
poor loudspeakers.
Once you have tuned your ears to this noise, you can't let go of it.
It's everywhere, on all recordings and you feel like a fool: "How
could I ever feel proud of my old recordings?"
People doing research on noise in general and stress reactions,
summarize that there is low correlation between the level of the
noise and the way you suffer from it. It is whether it is UNWANTED or
not that causes your reaction.
There is a story about a man who came to a hotel, late at night. The
hotel manager asked him to try to be be quiet, as there was a very
sensitive person staying in the room below. So he silently went up
the stairs to his room and closed the door in a gentle way. But when
he took off his shoes, sitting on the bed, he by mistake let one of
them fall onto the floor.
One hour later a person knocked loudly at the door, shouting "When
are you going to take off the next shoe, you idiot!?"
And if you have a neighbor playing music when you need to sleep, it
mustn't be loud. Perhaps you can't sleep anyway. The sound is an
intrusion to your privacy. And if you ask him a number of times to
stop this playing, and he doesn't, you will also start feeling angry
and helpless.
And this is about the same as a distant airplane when you use your
best MS rig in northern Finland, recording the only wolf-howling you
have had for two weeks. Or phantom power noise, which always before
has been masked by wind, ambience and traffic.
.
If you have mic's with a self-noise around 10 dB(A), or lower, I
don't think you should ever allow yourself to suffer from self noise.
There is self noise, it's audible, but enough masked by atmospheric
noise. If you do get disturbed, I would say that you are too
sensitive, like laying sleepless, waiting for the next shoe.
But then there is a technical debate. Please people, forgive us
tech-talkers, when we cross the line.
Klas.
Telinga Microphones, Botarbo,
S-748 96 Tobo, Sweden.
Phone & fax int + 295 310 01
email:
website: www.telinga.com
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