Hello all,
Please pardon for the long post.
Two weekends ago I attended the naturesound recording workshop in
Seattle. We took the opportunity to try the new Telinga Clip-Ons with a
few different recorders and also to do an interesting simultaneous
recording with three different rigs including the new Telingas+LS-10. A
number of folks jumped in to help with gear and execution of the tests.
It was a great workshop this year with a wonderful bunch of enthusiastic
participants.
Experimenting with a few different PIP recorders and the Telinga Clip-On
mics:
The Telingas were strapped to a tree at about 5' off the ground.
They were not moved between these takes. We recorded a reference sound
using Martyn's iPhone. I then used those reference recordings to
normalize the recordings as well as I could. That worked fairly well
given the lack of precision we were dealing with. Several lessons
learned should I attempt this sort of test again in the future.
These recordings were all done at 44.1 kHz/24-bit. We had the Olympus
LS10 and LS11 and a Sony PCM-D50 on hand. They are encoded to 192 kbps
MP3 using Sound Forge 8. PIP was provided by the recorders. We had awful
jet and prop plane noise the entire time. In particular, the LS11
recording has a lot of jet rumble throughout most of the sample. No
filtering (other than the intrinsic response of the mics/recorders) was
applied whatsoever for this comparison. The recordings are cropped to
remove some fidgeting but contain some noise from us rustling around.
I also made a recording with the Telingas powered by a DIY PIP circuit
(which may not be providing enough current) and have included that as
well. There is no reference level for that recording but I attempted to
get the gain close to match the other recordings.
Here is the Olympus LS10:
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/LS100129_edit_LS10_comp1_gai\
nmatched.mp3
<http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/LS100129_edit_LS10_comp1_ga\
inmatched.mp3>
Olympus LS11:
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/LS110052_edit_LS11_comp1_gai\
nmatched.mp3
<http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/LS110052_edit_LS11_comp1_ga\
inmatched.mp3>
Sony PCM-D50:
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/100411_02_edit_D50_comp1_gai\
nmatched.mp3
<http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/100411_02_edit_D50_comp1_ga\
inmatched.mp3>
We did a second recording with the D50 as well. I think the gain was
unchanged:
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/100411_04_edit_D50_comp2_gai\
nmatched.mp3
<http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/100411_04_edit_D50_comp2_ga\
inmatched.mp3>
Finally, here is a quick recording with the Telingas powered by a
battery box and connected to an SD 722 (again =96 this was not made at
the same reference level but I attempted to get things in the ballpark):
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/T217_edit+20dB.mp3
<http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/T217_edit+20dB.mp3>
Observations:
LS10: Despite my attempts at gain matching I think that the gain is
higher relative to the LS11 and D50 recordings so it is tough to make a
fair comparison. Significant audible "hiss."
LS11: Some audible "hiss."
Sony PCM-D50: Both clips sound really good to me. Still some audible
"hiss" but more quiet than the LS11.
SD 722 with DIY PIP circuit: Sounds quite different to me. I'm
hearing quite deep into the soundscape. The hiss is much lower but it is
really important to remember that this recording is not normalized like
the other. I made my best attempt to get the overall gain close to the
other recordings.
Simultaneous recording with 3 different rigs:
We recorded simultaneously on three rigs at Cougar Mountain. I have
attempted to level match these clips by ear. These recordings were all
done at 44.1 kHz/24-bit. They are encoded to 192 kbps MP3 using Sound
Forge 8. The files are long. No filtering (other than the intrinsic
response of the mics/recorders) was applied whatsoever for this
comparison.
SASS mic w/MKH20's -> SD 722:
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/SASS_edit1.mp3
<http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/SASS_edit1.mp3>
M-S mic w/MKH 30/40 -> SD 722:
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/MKH_M-S_edit1.mp3
<http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/MKH_M-S_edit1.mp3>
Telinga Clip-Ons attached to a tree about 5' off the ground ->
Olympus LS 10:
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/Telinga+LS10_edit1.mp3
<http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/Telinga+LS10_edit1.mp3>
Rob Danielson was kind enough to create the following blind test using
excerpts from these simultaneous recordings. I find it fascinating:
http://tinyurl.com/y4zhvyn <http://tinyurl.com/y4zhvyn> download (19mb
QuickTime movie)
I should mention that I am not an expert on PIP issues and powering
these types of mics. There is some question about the appropriateness of
my DIY circuit the PIP capability of the Sony PCM-D50 with these mics
(headroom may be limited, etc). For what it's worth the mics sound
great to me in both of those cases (really all of the cases above) and
given the recording environment.
I apologize in advance for slow and intermittent replies! I'm in
school right now and am heads-down.
Thanks,
Mike
"While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause
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