Thank you, nature recordists, for all the welcoming words of support,
suggestions, and links. Martyn, you and your wife have my sincere sympathy.
I'm blessed with wonderful family and friends and a great doctor here in the
Lakes, so moving to a warmer, drier place is currently a more painful
prospect!
I live on the side of a hill with lush green fields stretching up from my
garden fence to the horizon, so the idea of a microphone outside in an
all-weather housing is very attractive. My garden is terraced and no more
than 20feet from the house wall to the boundary fence. Roughly 50 feet from
the house wall are several thorn bushes, currently laden with berries which
attract many bird species. As well as the common Blackbirds, Crows,
Sparrows, Robin, Chaffinch, Blue tits and Great tits, a stone chat visits
these bushes, usually in the early morning, but I have yet to record it. A
mic outside would massively increase my chances of recording its surreal
calls. Bats also swoop around the back of my house all night but recording
them will have to wait until I have enough experience and appropriate
equipment! All this activity comes from within an angle of approximately
90-120 degrees, depending how close or distant the listening position is to
the rear wall of the house. By far the most abundant source of berries and
birdsong is a single, centrally positioned bush, again roughly 50 feet from
the rear wall of the house and 30feet from the garden fence. Unfortunately
the bathroom, kitchen, and heating system are all located at the rear of the
house. I can still safely use carpentry tools (on good days!) so an
all-weather microphone housing will be my next project. If anyone has
experience of building such a unit I would greatly appreciate advice on
design and materials. There are 4 of us in my household so noise pollution
will be a major issue. Suggestions on minimizing this noise-pollution would
also be great
When the weather is dry my Rode NT3 and NT4 microphones are great. However,
this being the Lake District, most days the atmosphere is damp enough to
cause sputtering (often more than once a minute) which far exceeds the
clipping level of my Edirol R-09 recorder. That's why the Rode NTG3 with its
advertised high-humidity capability looks so appealing, 5dBA less self-noise
would be an added bonus.
Before taking either the NT3 or NT4 outside and connecting to my computer's
soundcard (PreSonus Firebox) does anyone know whether the sputtering and
associated clipping would harm either my soundcard or PC - or whether the
humidity would damage mic's?
Thanks again,
Col
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