Hi Rob, thank you for the comments. Yes, I angled the mics up 30 degrees as
well, aimed
into the canopy, and was set up on a small wooden bridge over an arroyo with
the mics
facing towards the end of the bridge in front of me so as a capture up and down
stream,.
This was a very compact portable set up using a 8.5 inch AKG (folding) stereo
bar on a 40
inch compact Hakuba mini tripod.
I've been looking at different kinds of compressible foam, both in blocks to
enable making
a headshape (in two or four pieces for portability), and in sheets to fashion
Jecklin-like or
boundary-layer circles to attach to the stereo bar. The ~ boundary layer
approach would
comprise a smaller diameter pair of discs, one per mic, attached to the inside
of each mic
holder with extra long bolts with washers. I thought I would set up three
configs (my so
called boundary layer, a foam head, and a Jecklin disc), and compare them for
stereo in my
backyard as soon as it warms up enough. Birds have just started here in eastern
MA. I've
benefited enormously from the postings on this listserv and especially from
your website
on DIY boundary mic rigs (following our communications a year or so ago). Your
class
produced some very informative experiments! I welcome suggestions on foam types
and
may also try the wood config of Curt Olson. I'm shooting for a rig that can be
(mostly)
carried in a belt pack alongside the 702 and 8020s w/ stereo bar for porting
deep into the
field (hence the idea for smaller discs than a Jecklin).
Incidentally, in addition to using standard software ( I'm on mac), I found a
bit of
shareware called Spectrograph that is a plug-in for the Apple Itunes
visualization function
(http://www.dr-lex.be/software/spectrograph.html). The code runs left and right
channels
together but colored red vs. green (and yellow for mono). It's fun to see the
stereo effect in
color, and helps students pick out different signalers in a recorded
soundscape. Nice thing
about it is one can carry this on a thumbdrive and download it to anyones (non
Leopard)
mac to show visuals of sounds. It's a bit coarse, and with no controls other
than speed,
but kind of fun to watch (my son's second grade class was as mesmerized as my
undergrads!).
Well, sorry for the long post....
B
--- In Rob Danielson <> wrote:
>
> Beautiful recording. Thanks for sharing it, Brian. I thought a baffle
> might be good to try as well. Along the Jecklin theme,
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jecklin_Disk, angled out a little less
> and separated 14" might be good to try too. Did you direct the mics
> up, a bit, to place more of the canopy in the heart of the polar
> patterns?
>
> It can be very telling and assuring to try different array variables
> and compare the results. It really helps if you can run the two
> arrays/recorders at the same time or precisely duplicate a good
> number of sound stimuli spread around the mics.
>
> There's a lot of interest in the mkh-8020's. What's your opinion of
> them so far? Rob D
>
>
> At 12:27 AM +0000 3/16/08, Brian D. Farrell wrote:
> >Thanks Suzanne, this was an interesting soundscape, with a broad
> >array of acoustic
> >signalers. Without a barrier between the mics, it was interesting to
> >see how the higher
> >frequencies had greater separation between the sides than the lower
> >ones. I wish I had
> >rigged some kind of barrier or baffle though. Next time! I will post
> >some sounds from the
> >Domnican Republic next, and then maybe from here in MA. Thanks for
> >your comments, I
> >appreciate it.
> >
> >B
> >
> >--- In
> ><naturerecordists%40yahoogroups.com>
> >"Suzanne Williams" <scw1217@> wrote:
> >>
> >> Brian,
> >>
> >> I enjoyed the recording. There are lots of interesting bird sounds
> >> in it, for sure!
> >>
> >> ----------------------
> >> Suzanne
> >> Suzanne Williams Photography
> >>
> >><http://web.tampabay.rr.com/swilli41/www>http://web.tampabay.rr.com/swilli41/
www
> >> Florida, USA
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --- In
> >><naturerecordists%40yahoogroups.com>
> >>
> >>"Brian D. Farrell"
> >> <Bfarrell@> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Dear group, I just posted a recording made a few weeks ago, and
> >> would very much
> >> > appreciate any and all comments and suggestions for improvement.
> >> It's not terribly stereo,
> >> > and was made with two MKH 8020's mounted 9 inches apart on a stereo
> >> bar, facing forward
> >> > (but angled out at 30 degrees each from parallel- 60 degrees
> >> total). Recording to a SD 702.
> >> >
> >> > Best,
> >> >
> >> > Brian
> >> >
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
> --
>
>
>
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