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Date: Mon Jul 27, 2009 2:37 am ((PDT))
Hi Matt,
and thanks a lot for your detailed answer! :-)
Yes, actually the canble is very long, 5 meters! I had it here at home, I u=
se it for headphones.
And for sure is not a good cable.
Mmm... actually I don't know if it's the right cable. My microphone (shippe=
d with the recorder) is a small stereo Sony ECM-DS70P.
>From the link to the TRS wikipedia page that picnet2 sent to me, I see that=
both plugs (that one from the cable, and that one on the microphone) are s=
tereo TRS (two black bands on the plug).
Yes, the recoder has the auto gain control as default. Okay, so I guess I h=
ave to try to disable it and test it.
Okay, so I guess I have to try:
1) disable the AGC
2) buy a shorter better cable
Thanks again for your help :-) and I'll let you know about the improvements=
!
Have a nice day,
Ric.
Da: Matt Blaze <>
How long is your cable? Inbalanced cables (the kind with a miniplug)
aren't designed for long runs - they effectively act as antennas, and
will pick up any electrical or radio noise in the area. But it
doesn't sound like that's your problem here, since you're getting
mechanical noise, rather than electrical noise.
The problem could be be with the connector. Most headphone cables are
stereo, with three wires and a three conductor mini-plug ("tip, ring,
shield"). Your mic might use the TWO conductor version of that
connector, which is (very) slightly larger. The three conductor
connector will fit, but not securely, and so what you might be hearing
is noise from the connector as it moves. Are you sure you're using
the a cable with the correct connector?
The most likely problem is handling noise Mechanical sounds from the
cable can travel to the microphone and be picked up there. Handling
noise is the bane of handheld recording, and it's why commercial audio
production uses elaborate (and expensive) shock mounts to isolate
microphones from the environment. But it shouldn't be as loud as
tapping the microphone element. Again, I'm not familiar with your
recorder, but is the automatic gain control (sometimes called
automatic level control) engaged? That's designed to set the
recording level automatically to even out the level of the
recording. If it's very quiet and you introduce a small handling
sound (like from moving the mic cable), the AGC circuit will amplify
it to be very loud.. Basically, you never want to engage the AGC
control for a serious recording. (It's useful for recording, say, a
lecture, where you can't adjust the controls, but that's about it).
-matt
On Jul 26, 2009, at 10:14, Riccardo Bianchi wrote:
>
>
> Good morning,
>
> my name is Riccardo and I'm new on the list.
> ...and I'm new in this field, as well ;-)
>
> Last year during a trip at Indiana Dunes national park, near
> Chicago, at I bought the "Wild Soundscape" book at the Park
> bookstore.
>
> And now I just bought an Hi-MD recorder on ebay ;-) a NH900.
>
> I'm trying to get my first recordings, thus I have a question....very
> stupid question, I guess ;-)
>
> - I noticed that using the little mic drectly plugged on the recoder
> case, I record the noise from the MD machinery...
>
> - ...so I thought that I could have bought a long "hearphone" cable
> to use the microphone at a certain distance from the recoder itself...
>
> - ...I bought it, but I noticed that this cable introduces a lot of
> strong noise in the recording!! I mean, each time that the cable is
> touched or moved, a loud sound (like that one we get when tapping on
> the microphone) jumps in the recording, as like as the cable itself
> would be a microphone!
>
> So I guess that that cable (that one we buy in order to get a longer
> cable for the earphones) is not the right cable ;-)
>
> Thus my question is: which cable should I buy?
>
> Thank you very much for your help and for your patience with a so
> basic and stupid question! :-P
>
> Have a nice Sunday,
>
> Ric.
>
>
>
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