Hi folks:
I'm fairly new to this list, and have been reading the digest on and
off.
I am an adult student in a Recording Arts program at Los Medanos
Community College, an advanced amateur flutist (with alto flute and
piccolo, too) who enjoys playing chamber music, and since I recorded
some of my dress rehearsals for flute and piano concerts as a kid on
my reel-to-reel "portable" recorder have been fascinated with
recording.
I now own several mics: a pair of AKG C414B-XLS, a pair of AKG C480B
with Omni and cardioids capsules, a vintage Equate E-100
hypercardioid, an AT822 stereo mic, and a number of lavaliere mics,
including a pair of AT853 with a set of capsules (O/C/H/W) and a pair
of MM-HLSC-1 based on the Sennheiser MKE-40 capsules. For recorders,
I have an SD 744T, an Edirol R-09, a rockboxed iRiver H120, and a
digi-modded Edirol UA-5 to use as a portable field preamp.
My first entry into recording over the last few years was during
chamber music workshops in which I participated, recording up to 100
ensembles over a week with a simple, small stereo mic and pre into a
Sony minidisc recorder. Given the great acoustics of the performance
theatre, those recorders came out splendidly.
I have done a number of live concert recordings with the later
acquired rigs, mostly rock and roll, some in indoor venues, and some
outdoors. A couple of samples of those can be found here.
http://www.archive.org/bookmarks.php?screenname=3Dacousticvibes . I
recently had an opportunity to record a live performance of Coro
Hispano de San Francisco (http://corohispano.org/)
My introductory class in the Recording Arts program was with a
recordist and instructor who has produced and engineered in recording
studios and won a couple of Grammies. He has written a book about
Field Recording (I believe that is the title), and I now realize that
his interest is in recording just about any thing that makes sound.
While my major interest continues in recording music, more live than
studio, I am also interested in expanding my limited field recording
experience.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is sponsoring a recording workshop
this coming summer that has attracted my interest and I may be able
to leverage it into an elective to satisfy my college program.
I have studied up somewhat on the various mics and techniques, both
in books, on the net and through this forum. However, I would
greatly appreciate all counsel about what set-up (and I assume that
would mean what mic to add to my collection) you would recommend for
the Cornell field recording workshop. Sennheiser short and long
shotguns seem to get a lot of airtime. Would you pursue one of
those? I don't want to spend a fortune, as I will probably spend
most of my energy in the music field, but I nonetheless want to work
on some nature recording as well. I am thinking that the mics I now
have would be sufficient for some ambient outdoor recordings, but for
bird or other animals I would think that a longer range and even more
directional mic would be in order.
All counsel is welcome and will be appreciated.
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