--- In Kevin Colver <> wrote:
>
> I agree, it's nice to hear a bit of a blog on Dan's recording
> adventures. When we hear stories like this we pick up little tips
> that can only be learned by experience, ours or those of someone
> else. Please all, send in your stories.
>
> Agreed; that leaving the recorder on is helpful. Bernie taught that
> to me and I've captured some great material by recording hours at a
> time. My SD722 is set to start a new file every 60 min, so in the
> studio at home I can review the recordings in manageable 60 min
> blocks. Sometimes, when something great comes out of the night, you
> want to have the preceding several minutes to frame the interesting
> sound.
60 min blocks . . that's a great tip for a start. I have to do it
afterwards using a mp3 segmenter to get 1 hr chunks. If the recording
starts at 20 to the hour I nip off the first 20 min so all subsequent
segments start on the hour, which makes logging easier.
> Sometimes, when something great comes out of the night, you
> want to have the preceding several minutes to frame the interesting
> sound.
How true, and more than frame, often to explain. In my efforts it's
finding that owls are often pushed into vocalizing by all kinds of
noises -- dogs, foxes especially, but also planes, cars and even
alarms. Context can be very useful, which is why I found a recorder
(HHB Portadisk) set to trip by noises louder than a certain level gave
results that I found both unsatisfying and fairly useless.
Listening to a long night recording in detail you almost feel you're
there. And of course you hear so much more than you would with unaided
ears. No question some of my most magical recordings are all-nighters,
ending with that wonderful transition from quiet to the pre-dawn
birds. It's why I admire John Hartog's work -- another who's been
exploring this secret world, if you like to call it that.
romilly
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