On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 7:15 AM, mfhiatt <> wrote:
> recording. While the mics on the Zoom sound pretty good I can't walk
> the dog, hold the Zoom and get a clean recording. Would you recommend
> binaural mics for this type of situation or would something else be a
> better first purchase (I don't own any mics yet.)
>
There's a practice popular in the acoustic ecology community called the
'sound walk' for which binaural mics are indeed the most popular choice, the
convenience of being 'hands free' is significant. IMO the movement of the
mic and implicit expression of your own interests/movement is very well
complemented by a recording technique that puts the listener 'in your
shoes.' Search 'sound walk' or 'sound walking' for ideas... :)
There are other techniques that would offer the same benefits; I'm thinking
in particular of Dan Dugan's shoulder-worn omnis, which is a 'baffled omni'
technique ultimately similar to binaural style recording -- minus the
headgear. :) Eyeglass mounting, hat-mounting, etc. are all variations on the
same theme, usually but not necessarily only done with small omni lav mics.
You can get such mics on the same order of quality as the Zoom's built in
mics sold as binaural pairs from numerous vendors; it's worth noting that an
oft-repeated rule of thumb is that you should invest more in your mics than
your recorder... in the domain on binaural-style mics (of which I have owned
many types myself), it is definitely true that there are audible benefits
from stepping up from starter sets, to $200 sets, to $600 or more sets.
There are several mics that have been quite in fashion among list members;
Dan's shoulder mics for example were made with Shure WL183 lavs adapted for
use with 1/8" stereo miniplug. As I recall the H4 has phantom power (and
even XLR connectors?), so you might look at the sibling MX183s... this
family is relatively low noise for such things, and a definite step up from
the sub-$100 binaural pairs.
b e st
aaron
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