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Re: Advice for a beginner

Subject: Re: Advice for a beginner
From: "mrmarcanderson" mrmarcanderson
Date: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:20 am ((PDT))
Thanks a lot for your advice and help Vicki and Raimund. I'll have a look into 
the options you suggested & take it from there.

I was impressed with your audi samples Vicki & especially loved the Coco Creek 
file. So that was taken using those cheaper electret microphones? Do you use 
two or four mics?

Do you think a pair of Sennheiser ME62 or Audio Technica 3032/4022's would 
improve this setup even further?



--- In  vickipowys <> wrote:
>
> Hi Marc,
> 
> I have not used the Zoom H1 but your recording of the Bell Miners was  
> lovely, complete with dripping water, and any self noise was  
> minimal.  Mind you the Bell Miners do have loud calls so that would  
> have helped.  The Nattai track had more noise but lovely Brown  
> Thornbills.
> 
> You will have to decide if you want to record in mono or stereo.  If  
> you want recordings like Paul Jacobson and Andrew Skeoch you will  
> need to go with stereo.  The recording by Paul on the AWSRG page  
> probably does not have any filtering at all and definitely has no  
> mixing of sounds, i.e. this is a true audio picture of the location.   
> Paul uses low noise mics Audio Technica 3032, a pair of them, and in  
> this case they were mounted in a home made rig similar to one of Curt  
> Olson's, see  http://www.trackseventeen.com/mic_rigs.html
> 
> You will see from Andrew's web site that he now uses Sennheiser MKH20  
> mics in a Knapp-modified SASS head.  Paul's rig and Andrew's rig give  
> similar results in sound quality.  Andrew uses a Sound Devices 722  
> recorder, Paul was using a Tascam HDP2 Oade modified, for the  
> Gundabooka track.
> 
> I made a thunderstorm comparison of a SASS rig same as Andrew's  
> running to a Sound Devices 702, compared with my home made Powys SASS  
> Lite rig to an Olympus LS10, you can hear the results at the bottom  
> of my recording gear page   http://www.caperteebirder.com/index.php? 
> p=1_17_recording-gear   .  The Lite rig compares very well!  This is  
> just to show you that you do not necessarily need to spend a huge  
> amount of money to get good results.
> 
> More examples from my SASS Lite rig here:    http:// 
> www.caperteebirder.com/index.php?p=1_19_sounds    I have not used any  
> filtering or mixing, these are raw recordings.
> 
> The AWSRG (Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group) website is  
> currently not fully operational as we are changing over web masters.   
> Should anyone wish to join it is around $50 a year for 2 journals and  
> 2 CDs.  Please contact me and I will forward your details to our  
> secretary.  Our next workshop will be in Western Australia 18-23  
> September!
> 
> Vicki Powys
> Sound Editor
> Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group
> 
> 
> 
> On 11/08/2011, at 7:09 PM, mrmarcanderson wrote:
> 
> > 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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