Paul,
Thanks for the link, I'm suitably impressed. I don't think I've ever heard
any bird with as unique a call or song... I also listened to the other
bird recordings on that page, they are all great!
First, My thanks to Steve for your welcome greeting, I can see this group
has a lot of talent and for me as a neophyte at nature sounds recording, I
can see I've come to the right place to learn...
Today I ordered a slightly used, in new condition, Sennheiser MKE 300
shotgun microphone which should be plug and play with the LS-11 PCM
recorder. Unfortunately we have a three day holiday weekend ahead of us so
at the moment I'm not sure when I'll be getting it. This MKE 300 gets me
up and running and the learning process can begin without putting much of a
dent in the finances.
In the meanwhile, I've been looking long and hard at the Sennheiser ME 66
/K6 microphone package. Finding a clean used MKE 300 saved me enough money
to open the door to purchasing either a MK 66 or ME 67 before long and I
can see this is ultimately where I'm headed. However this opens two more
questions for me:
First, is there any advantage/disadvantage to the ME 67 over the ME 66?
Second is a bit more complex, the ME 66 - ME 67 / K6 microphones are
balanced output with three wires. Common sense says to me that a balanced
to unbalanced transformer should be used when plugging a balanced device
into a recorder with an unbalanced input... I've spent a fair amount of my
working career chasing the gremlins of such a hookup in weak signal
acoustic work, enough to know that sometimes you get away with tying the
minus signal (return) lead and the case ground lead together and sometimes
you don't... I also see some of the microphone cable makers make a short
XLR cable with a balanced to unbalanced transformer built into it.
As you can see, my experience with audible audio and conventional
microphones is very
lacking but I'm a fast learner...
So, Friends, your comments and input please, all will be dually apreceated...
Thanks,
Mitch...
At 12:34 PM 5/27/2010 +1000, Paul wrote:
>Hi Mitch,
>
>The LS-10's lack of XLR input and phantom power limits your choices
>unless you add a phantom power supply to your kit. I feel this defeats
>the point of having a small handheld recorder, and you are best to stick
>to PIP or a shotgun that will run from an internal AA cell. Within these
>constraints the K6/ME66 is your best choice, as it has a winning
>combination of low noise and high sensitivity. Alternatives like the
>AT897 or NTG-1are ok but suffer in comparison with the ME66 due to
>relatively high self-noise and low sensitivity. When I first started
>recording I used an AT897 with a Sony minidisc recorder - you can hear one
>of the better recording I made with this setup at
>http://www.urbanbirder.com.au/eastern-melbourne/bell-miners-yellingbo
>- but if you have the available funds the K6/Me66 is a better choice.
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