Hi,
I am a keen birder & photographer & I have just recently delved into the world
of audio recording.
I purchased a Zoom H1 recorder for a project I was working on (voice recording
on location) & thought I would test it out on some nature ambiences. The
results were mixed - I was pleasantly surprised with the recording if I was up
close to the calling birds (see Bell Miner colony -
http://soundcloud.com/marcanderson/bell-miner-colony-blue ) but in most cases
the birds were not so loud & close as these and this seemed to highlight the
limitations of this $100 recorder, as it seemed to be exhibiting a lot of self
noise (see Nattai National Park
http://soundcloud.com/marcanderson/nattai-national-park )
My question is: How can I get high quality recordings without much self-noise,
even if the birds are distant or quiet? I have done a bit of searching on the
forum & I am considering a Sennheiser ME66 / K6 to start with. If I plugged
this into my Zoom H1 would the Zoom's self- noise still be evident? If so, what
would I need to spend on a recorder to get a significant improvement?
After owning and listening to many of Listening Earth's recordings (Andrew
Skeoch - http://www.listeningearth.com), I find it hard to be satisfied with
anything less! Also, when I listen to something like - http://www.awsrg.org.au/
(play the Gundabooka 2009 file at the bottom of the page) I'm thinking thats
the sort of stuff I'd love to be able to record. Minimal hissing/noise, loads
of subtle quiet sounds picked up.
How much of these wonderful recordings do you think are done in
post-processing? ie. layers of different recordings, noise reduction etc?
I know there is no simple, straightforward answer to my questions but any
advice you can offer from your experience I would really appreciate. I'm
travelling through Sabah & Sarawak in October & it would be great to get some
decent equipment for then!
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