> --- On Sat, 7/31/10, Marinos Koutsomichalis <>
> wrote:
>
> From: Marinos Koutsomichalis <>
> Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] what is this creature/sound ?
> To:
> Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010, 12:33 AM
>
>
> There are some military radars within the greater area,
> but in a distance of several km, if that was the case,
> the other mic should pick that kinds of sounds I think.
>
Not necessarily. If you didn't buy them as a matched pair. Manufactured a=
s part of the same lot with the same materials. Like if you bought them us=
ed from two different sources at different times. The mics could be differ=
ent enough to respond differently. It could be things other than the mics =
as well. Are you using the same brand of cable with the same connectors, o=
f about the same age? And various other possibilities with the field recor=
der and stuff.
I've thought about building a faraday type cage for my field recorder and p=
reamps. Which would double as a rain shelter. While I'm mostly immune to =
most cell phone handshakes and stuff like that, I have picked up a radio st=
ation at least once. There was visual contact with the transmission tower,=
just a couple of blocks away. Lowering the elevation of the mics helped. =
Tucking the field recorder under the aluminum bleachers I was sitting on h=
elped. Even making sure that the 1/4" adapter on the 1/8" tip of my headph=
ones was secure helped. While it didn't remove the sound from the recordin=
gs in it's entirety, it did achieve a balance where the radio station stati=
on can only be heard when using studio monitors and at a volume that wasn't=
pleasant to listen at in the first place.
Although the monitoring environment at the time of capture made it seem muc=
h worse than it actually ended up being. The odd thing was that I almost d=
idn't bring the headphones to monitor with on that occasion. Now I always =
bring them regardless. Even if you trust your gear, you never know what yo=
u're recording at the time of capture unless you monitor what you're record=
ing. Having that immediate feedback lets you know that it's there, and oth=
erwise makes you search for the source. If you go back after the fact and =
it was a military aircraft carrier at sea, it might not be there anymore. =
And you'll never be able to replicate the problem. And always wonder what =
that was. If it is the mics you might be able to identify if it was just a=
loose connection or something else easily preventable. And otherwise corr=
ect the problem on site and get a flawless recording.
It could have also been a bird standing over your mic making noise. Or bab=
y turtles buried in the sand near by hatching. Without a visual record or =
being there to investigate, we may never know.
- James
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