Posted by: "Raimund Specht"
> I believe that we should leave it to the researchers themselves
> whether they should use stereo or not. They probably do not need our
> instructions.
I'm a researcher/biologist who does use Stereo, the fact I'm retired
does not change what I am. And yes, you are right, this group has become
near useless for me. Never was much use for the science part.
For those reading all this discussion and thinking that they must do as
Raimund it might be worth explaining a few things.
There is a field of science called Bioacoustics. It consists primarily
of audio experts, not biologists. Their interests are really much more
in the physics of sound than the biology. They are the ones doing tiny
measurements and analysis on sound.
They live by the "publish or Perish" rules. And if they want to get
something published they must get it through peer review. If they use
"approved" equipment that will be much much easier. So the field is very
slow to advance in the equipment used. And if you don't use approved
equipment by their methods then expect a big fight to publish.
Farther, for the same reasons, they must precisely calibrate every piece
of equipment they use throughout the recording chain for their
measurements to pass muster. Even the calibration equipment must be
certified frequently. Otherwise those tiny differences Raimund is
talking about are meaningless.
If you, as a nature recordist, think you are making recordings to
contribute to this type of science, think again. Your equipment is not
on the list of equipment that bioacoustics recognizes, and the only one
in here who seems to regularly calibrate at least his mics is Bernie.
Offer your recordings to bioacoustics for their precise measurements and
you will get sneered at. It's useless to them.
So, what part of science is interested in your recordings? It's the
biologists and ecologists either doing population surveys or studying
community ecology and organization that will most love for you to help.
That is what I use scientific sound recording to do. I document the
occurrence of species, the mix of species, what's calling when, what
else is there, and so on. The bird guys go through all my frog
documentation recordings to pick out the night calling birds, a area
that's very sparse with distribution info. I am not only the person of
record on first finding species of frogs in many counties, (thousands of
records there) but my name is on a whole bunch of firsts for birds too.
And I was not even aiming at them at all, they just turn up in the
stereo field, often so faint they would be drowned out in mono by the
frogs I'm aiming at.
My recordings are, of course properly documented. GPS coordinates,
written descriptions, time and date and all the rest. The same type of
documentation you need to place a voucher specimen in a natural history
museum collection. If you are going to "record for science" make sure
you do this documentation.
All of that benefits greatly from my use of Stereo. And is the most
needed research right now, simply documenting what's where. Establishing
a baseline to examine things like loss of environment and loss of
species. Documenting species interactions, both within species and
between different species.
Please note when I say Stereo I mean that specifically. A recording
with a single ambiance field with everything in it's natural
relationships. I do not mean a mixture of mono mics each with it's own
separate ambiance field that does not relate to the others.
On other things:
You can use shotguns in M/S, and the setup can be as solid mechanically
as the mono setups. With the shotgun aimed right at the animal if you
must. A M/S made with a shotgun mid is much more directional than a M/S
setup made with omni or cardioid mics. Just take a look at my M/S page
for one way to make field sturdy M/S:
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/ms_setups.html
And yes, it would be nice to see Sennheiser update and improve their
figure-8 mic. But there are lots of things we live with and do the best
we can with what we have. BTW, Sennheiser's all in one M/S shotgun is
not a very good mic for nature recording and certainly no example of
what's possible. It's got poor polar patterns, and is too noisy. It's
based on the older MKH used in the movie industry. It's already been
discussed in this group and pretty much rejected.
Walt
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