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Re: Fw: [Nature Recordists] diy mic outdoor enclosure

Subject: Re: Fw: [Nature Recordists] diy mic outdoor enclosure
From: "Randy Perretta" first_avatar
Date: Sun Nov 29, 2009 11:45 am ((PST))
Thanks to all for the good advice and the points that made me think.

Good point about 24 bit. Bit resolution is much better at low levels.

To answer your questions...

For pres, I use Otari mic/line pres pulled from spare boards for my console=
.  Either Lynx PCI or Lexicon Lambda interfaces depending on how much I wan=
t to lug around that day. A Neumann summer on the back end.

I use a Telefunken W690ST in front of the phones so between that and the se=
lectable gain in the Nuemann, there's plenty of monitoring volume to answer=
  your question.  Ribbons do eat a lot of that...

All mic cables are Mogami double center conductors.  Like John said, Good R=
F Isolation is important. No super-quiet high end mics though.  I don't wan=
t anything to go over a cliff or into a river that I couldn't replace in a =
week. I do post at the studio in Logic.

Makes me wonder, how the rest of the folk here pull that one signal of inte=
rest out of the mud...

Randy


--- On Sun, 11/29/09, Rob Danielson <> wrote:

> From: Rob Danielson <>
> Subject: Re: Fw: [Nature Recordists] diy mic outdoor enclosure
> To: 
> Date: Sunday, November 29, 2009, 7:38 AM
>
> At 11:57 PM +0000 11/28/09, John Lundsten wrote:
> >>"Rob Danielson" wrote
> >
> >>>RODE D-PowerPlug seems like a good option ....
> >>>As a phantom-powered, 20dB gain preamp,the
> D-PowerPlug isn't
> >>>overly quiet (-116 dBu A weighted), but
> perhapsquiet enough for
> >>>your ribbon mics.
> >
> >>This maybe a good option but I have my doubts. I
> would be
> >>interested in a comparison between a 24bit
> recording of the ribbon
> >>mics one with the Rode D & the other without
> but raised 20dB in
> >>post. My suspicion is that so long as there is good
> low level info
> >>as you get with 24bit, just raising the may be very
> low lever
> >>recording may well give lower noise & otherwise
> give as
> >>good if not better results.
> >>The thing is ribbon mics don't really have a noise
> figure, the
> >>noise you endup with will be down to the basic
> thermal noise of the
> >>source Z and how "well balanced" the system is. IE
> there will be
> >>signals at the micro-volt level you wish to drag up
> in level, so
> >>RF, hum etc picked up on the cable needs to be
> exceptionally low,
> >>compared to a more robust signal level.
> >>
> >>
> >>John Lundsten
> >
>
> Hi John-
> I think you're right. Adding lower quality pres up-stream
> from his
> recorder would likely introduce more noise than
> necessary.=A0 What
> external mic pre or recorder are you using Randy?
>
> With mic sensitivity of only -56 dB +/- 2 dB (0 dB=3D1V/Pa)
> ~1.6mV/Pa?
> and recording ambience in quiet natural locations, don't
> you think
> most of the noise will stem from the mic pre? This seemed
> to be the
> case in a couple of experiments Curt and Mike shared with
> me, but I
> had no way to know for sure.
>
> Are you getting sufficient monitoring levels in the field,
> Randy?=A0 If
> not, it might be better to add some amplification to the
> headphone
> output. If you don't have a great quality pre to continue
> your
> experiment with, maybe you could borrow one and crank the
> line-input
> gain on the recorder too for more sound file saturation to
> see if
> this helps.=A0=A0=A0Rob D.
>
> =A0 =3D =3D =3D
> --
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> "While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
> sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via
> Bernie Krause
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
> =A0 =A0 
>
>
>









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