Hi Mark
The Sennheiser K6/ME66 is very highly thought of as a good short-shotgun
microphone and the K6 module allows the unit to be battery powered rather than
phantom powered. These are going to be above the $200 limit of your budget new,
but check out ebay as they often come up for sale, that's where I got my two
from! (You will need to budget for making or buying a lead which has an XLR to
3.5 mm jack-plug to connect your mic to the recorder as well.)
Take a look here:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/423592-REG/Sennheiser__ME66_K6_Super_Cardioid_Short.html
Rode make a short shotgun mic:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/367747-REG/Rode_NTG_2_NTG_2_Shotgun_Microphone.html
Not as quiet as the Sennheiser but is closer to your $200 limit.
I think the K6/ME66 would be the better option as it is quiet enough to allow
you to improve your system and still deliver the results.
There are other options out there as well such as mics by Audio Technica and
the like, which others may be able to help you with.
An alternative is a parabola microphone, these are great as they amplify the
sound using the parabola first which has no hit on the 'noise' of the system.
They can be 'bulky' to carry around and can work out very expensive so probably
not something to consider at the moment.
Phil
----- Original Message ----
From: Mark Forry <>
To:
Sent: Friday, 28 March, 2008 10:54:16 PM
Subject: [Nature Recordists] New To Field Recording - Need Microphone
Recommendation
After much internet reviewing, I chose the Marantz PMD 620 recorder. I am
looking to make
bird song recordings to help identify birds in the field that I cannot see, but
hear only. I have
Thrayer's birding software that provides excellent song recordings for
comparison.
I made my field recorder selection based on 2 sources: oryoki's recent
naturerecordist review
and the transom.org review. Considering what I was looking for it seemed to be
the best
compromise.
I am now looking for an external shotgun microphone in the $50-200 range. This
area is
more troublesome for me to sort out. I have read I should get the best
microphone I can
afford. However, I want to start out with little in it until I understand how I
am using the field
recorder better and know more about what is needed.
Your recommendations are welcome. My understanding is that this recorder does
not have
phantom power so keep this in mind when making your recommendations. My 2
primary
uses for the field recorder will be for birding in the field and doing
podcasts. I am new to
the audio field so bear with me as I get acquainted with what is required.
Plus, I am new to
naturerecordists.
Thanks in advance....
__________________________________________________________
Sent from Yahoo! Mail.
A Smarter Inbox http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
|