Marinos Koutsomichalis wrote and other also concurred:
> > so my advice would be to stick with the d-50 or similar and use
>it as is - and if at some point in the future you decide to invest
>more in good equipment , this will be you secondary ultra-portable
>set-up,
>
>I concur; this is good advice. But what's exciting about being in
>audio nowadays, and what drives all the tech talk on this list, is
>that the cheap stuff keeps getting better. Even today, in the
>listening room it will be difficult to distinguish a recording made
>with a pro rig from one made with, say, a pair of Telinga clip-ons
>and an Olympus LS-10. Fieldcraft (putting the mics in the right
>place at the right time) is more important than tech in achieving
>"professional" results. And luck, but that really boils down to,
>like photography, making a lot of shots and picking the good ones.
>
>-Dan
>
OK, have it the easy way,... :-(
Years later, after hearing recordings made with a simple external mic
array made using the same mic capsules, Scratchpaw would definitely
regret that he had not taken the extra minute each time to use an
external array on all of the important subjects he recorded. From the
comparison tests I've done, the internal arrays on the hand-held
recorders produce lifeless stereo images for distant subjects.
Remember Matt Blaze's test of 6 pocket recorders? The stereo image of
the M-S rig he inserted for reference jumped out in comparison. To
me, these pocket recorder arrays seem to be a very poor match for
serious nature recording efforts.
Greg O'Droboniak and I were comparing a very modest MM-1 external mic
array to the internal array on his M-10 two weeks ago. The MM-1's
were simply attached to the sides of a baseball cap and facing
forward. Greg was monitoring the M10's internal mics on headphones
when I plugged the external array in and he said, "Wow, did you just
change it to your rig?" In my classes with 125 students who made DIY
mics arrays, the students were always amazed at how much difference
in impact the external stereo arrays had on their field recordings.
That's a good group of average listeners and monitoring systems.
I bet a pair of MM-1's that everyone who took a similar test blind
would choose external mics in a simple array like this every time.
Maybe someone who own's a D-50 and some MM-1s can record some
ambience in a quieter spot outdoors with the internal mics and then
with some forward facing MM-1's on small boundaries with a 1" setback
and post it for us,.. I'd do it but I don't own a Sony pocket
recorder.
Mic placement is crucial I agree, but I'm not sure, in terms of
stereo imaging, if there is a good place for the internal array to be
more than 7-10 feet from a subject. :-) Rob D.
--
|