Posted by: "Alan K"
> 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.
You can look at some of my setups here:
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/mod_sass.html
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/ms_setups.html
There are samples linked from there to here:
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/samples.html
As has been noted nature recording divides somewhat into recording
individual callers and recording ambiance. Nature recording is done on
average at much greater distances than music recording. Nature
recording's studio is not soundproof and a big problem is unwanted noise.
For recording individual callers, or picking out callers out of larger
groups my primary mic is the Telinga parabolic with the Telinga stereo
mic element. While this is a nature recording specialist mic setup, it
would probably fit Cornell's pattern well.
I record almost exclusively in stereo because it's easier for a listener
to tune in on the various callers and sounds. And easier for the
listener to tune out unwanted noise that I cannot eliminate. Very
important in my effort in scientific documentation and survey. And, of
course good for just listening.
Note while music tends toward many channels to record, nature recording
is best done with a single portable mic unit. Hard to get the other
setups through the brush and our subjects keep moving.
For recording ambiance the first mic I'll grab is the modified SASS
(modified with two MKH-20's). This has a wide field of pickup that's
basically moderately deep. Perfect for ambiance. To farther enhance
the clarity of the recording I often have the mic on a 15' high tripod.
The only setup that I typically use that's not handheld.
I also have several M/S mics based on various Sennheiser MKH mics. These
fill in between the relatively narrow coverage of the parabolic and the
wide coverage of the SASS.
Note while I own several MKH medium and long shotgun mics that they are
not in my main line of mics except for the MKH-60 in a M/S. Shotgun
mics are favored by some nature recordists, including Cornell. But I
don't favor them as they depend mostly on amplification for gain at
distance, and that amplifies their self noise. They are also tougher to
come up with a reasonable stereo setup for carting through the brush in
the field. Most who use shotguns tend to use them in mono. Unless
Cornell has changed they probably are still recording a lot with
shotguns and mostly in mono.
Because of the distances involved and the sometimes low sound levels the
two mic specs of most importance are sensitivity and self noise. In
general you want to reject noisy mics. Probably a upper limit of self
noise at 16dBA, but remember even that level would be limited to louder
callers. For ambiance try for 10dBA or lower.
Walt
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