Thanks for elaborating on your recording techniques George. I didn't
get a chance to listen to the recordings until last night. I must say
you got the flowing water sounds perfectly (the frogs too), and
excellent presentation with photos on your webpage.
-John Hartog
--- In "geopaul7" <> wrote:
>
> --- In "Greg Weddig" <gweddig@> wrote:
> >
> > Bravo!
> > I really enjoyed listening to the recordings George, they had a nice
> > stereo spread over headphones. I'm glad you posted the 2003
> > comparison, was it recorded in the same area, MS, was the water higher
> > that year or were the mics closer to the water (if you can remember).
> >
> > I think posting these kinds of comparisons are very important in
> > documenting changes in the natural soundscape.
> >
> >
> Thanks Greg and Suzanne and David:
>
> The 2003 recording was recorded on the same stream, but much closer
to the Colorado
> River -- about 1.5 miles downstream in diffent kind of rock
(polished gneiss as compared
> to higher up crumbly shale). Thus, the reverberations of the
environment are different.
>
> The population of these amphibians varies from year to year. One
year, after a trip to the
> Grand Canyon in May, I heard no frogs. I called the local herp
specialist, and he said it had
> been so dry in the Southwest that not a single Canyon Treefrog had
been heard anywhere
> in the state all year.
>
> Accordingly, each year you find different populations in different
parts of the streams ,and
> the biophony of that mini-ecosystem varies yearly.
>
> In 2003, recorded raw S signal. I decoded the MS in the studio with
phase inversion--
> manually with 3 tracks on a mixer just like it says on the Internet,
with the help of local
> musician Ron Hoyos. No plug in.
>
> In 2007 I got lazy and decoded onto tape with my MP-2. I can still
vary the M to S ratio
> with the Direction Plug in from Logic Pro 7.2, but as Greg Simmons
indicates, this is not
> preferrable because it adds more processing. Always record raw S
singal and decode in
> the studio. I have learned that. Does it make a difference? Is
the decoding in my Mac G5
> better or different than the decoding in my MP2?
>
> The other differences are all microphone placement and gain
differences. There is a huge
> difference in microphone place with MS. Cut 4 from 2007 had the mic
pointed directly at
> 3 singing frogs, with the mic about 5 feet from the singers. Gain
was not as high as it
> should be. But this added "on axis" signal for the middling quality
M mic. Cut 1 had
> higher gain than Cut 4, but was taken with the singers 6 feet from
the mic but slightly to
> the side, for more off axis reception of sound by the mic.
>
> Cut 2 is about 10 yards up the stream from Cuts 1 and 4, with
different singers, but much
> closer to a small water fall that was comparitively louder.
>
> Cut 3 was in the same place as Cuts 1 and 4, but with mic pointed
down stream.
>
> Finally, the ratio of toads to frogs changes everywhere along the
stream. I have a
> recording from 2003, that I did not post, that is mainly toads,
with slight frogs, and it is
> delightful. I posted a new photo of the toads on the website, which
I am holding, taken
> with my friend's point and shoot. Technology of light and sound is
delivering incredible
> quality in small and light weight packages these days.
>
> It is fun discussing the recordings and debriefing. I think the
popping is some electrical
> thing, or some digital artifact. I am having no success editing
them out. I will continue to
> trouble shoot.
>
> George Paul
>
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