At 8:44 AM +1000 4/14/07, Paul Jacobson wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>I'm looking at buying a fairly cheap setup to get started in nature
>recording. I'm mainly interested in recording bird calls for purposes
>of making sonograms and id purposes. I know that further down the
>track I'll probably do some ambient/soundscape recording.
>
>I've read as much as I can of the list archives and various nature
>recording websites so hopefully I'm on the correct track with this
>selection.
>
>I should be able to stretch the budget to a Sony MZ-RH1, but having
>seen the various discussions about motor noise and pre-amp noise I
>wondering if this is the best choice at the price? Or should I be
>looking at some of the NH-*00 units or a PMD-650? I've also
>considered picking up a sony portable DAT unit, say a TCD-D100 or I
>could probably stretch to a PCM-M1. My concern with the DAT units is
>that they are getting old, and I'd need to source a digital cable and
>a spdif->usb convertor to allow digital transfers.
>
>Is it worth putting a mic preamp in front of any of these portables?
>I was considering building something like this INA217 based preamp
>and phantom power supply:
>
>http://www.celestial.com.au/%7Erosswood/diy/dualmicpre/dualmicpre.htm
>
>
>My budget won't stretch to the widely recommended k6/me6* mics (well
>I could but would't be able to buy a recorder!!), so I'm looking at
>something like an NTG-1, NTG-2, AT897 or MKE300, plus shock mount and
>wind protection. I have read that a parabolic dish would be better
>for what I have in mind but I need to take the setup on bushwalks, so
>I suspect a shotgun is going to be more practical. At this stage I'm
>leaning towards the NTG-2, as it seems to deliver good performance vs
>dollars but would welcome any advice.
>
>cheers
>Paul
>
Hi Paul--
Welcome to the list!
Its a good time to get into recording at the price range you are
exploring. You'll find lots of approaches and expertise on this list.
There's also a good archive you can search.
http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/cgi-bin/namazu.cgi?query=3Ddis=
h&submit=3DSearch%21&idxname=3Dnaturerecordists&max=3D20&result=3Dnormal&so=
rt=3Dscore
Many dish designs are based on two omni mics which you can also use
for ambience when removed from the dish and placed in another mic rig.
Allan Haighton has a collapsible dish he uses with two AT-3032's
($360) which he powers with a Roll Art Phantom II Portable Phantom
Power Supply ($50USD) which runs (mic level) into a RH1 Hi-MD.
Sounded very full to me even though its a smaller size dish. I'll
send you his email address off list if you want to contact him. I
believe Jerry White has some pictures in the yahoo group files of his
dish made with another pair of omni's, the Shures WL-183's. These run
about $150/pair and don't need phantom power or a pre so your price
is down to about $500 total.
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-reports/Shure-WL183s/index.htm
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-reports/HiMD/index.htm
Of course you can run an NTG-2 into a Rolls and into RH1 too if a
dish is too bulky and your number priority is close-up calls. I'm
doubtful that the pre/phantom unit you are thinking of building will
out-perform the Rolls/Hi-MD pre combination. If you went the mono
shotgun route you could take along a pair of inexpensive omni-mics to
capture some stereo presence when you are not gunning. You can make
mics like these with Panasonic WM-61A capsules.
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-reports/PanasonicWM-61A_OtherBinauralRigs/WM=
Message: 61A_Webpage_Caps_Mounts.
Subject: html
Rob D.
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