naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

A quick and dirty comparison of some handheld recorders

Subject: A quick and dirty comparison of some handheld recorders
From: "Matt Blaze" matthew.blaze
Date: Fri Jul 17, 2009 7:11 pm ((PDT))
I finally got around to making simultaneous recordings (of a very
boring suburban soundscape) with a sampling of current generation
handheld recorders:

   * Nagra ARES-MII
   * Sony PCM-D1
   * Sony PCM-D50
   * Olympus LS-10
   * Zoom H4n
   * Sennheiser MKH-800 Mid-Side pair on a Nagra VI (OK, not exactly
pocket size, but a useful baseline)
   * A mystery mic that I'll describe later

There is nothing interesting or remarkable about the recordings except
as comparisons with one another.  Otherwise they're the aural
equivalent of watching paint dry.

The soundscape was recorded in a suburban backyard in Berkeley, CA, on
a quiet weekday afternoon, with (mostly) distant sounds of dogs,
birds, children, doors closing, cars, airplanes, trains, and so on, in
a very mild breeze.  All the recorders were mounted on a stand and
equipped with
"tribble" style furballs.

This environment is not particularly demanding, with a level of
ambient background noise high enough to mask most of the microphone
self-noise, for example.  But it's fairly typical of the conditions
under which many of us record, so I figured it was worth sharing.

For whatever it's worth, the audio can be found at:
    http://www.crypto.com/audio/shootout/

-matt











"While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists/

<*> Your email settings:
    Digest Email  | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    
    

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU