Jez, Peter and all,
I've played around with silicone ears, they do give a huge boost to
the signal but at only some (higher) frequencies. Thus when I went
off to record the twittering of small birds with a DIY binaural head,
there was one particular species (the Weebill) whose high-pitched
call was amplified to the point where it either distorted or just
plain sounded weird.
You can tune ears by dampening the high frequency boost using bits of
tissue or polyester wadding in the ear canals, and that did help to
tame the Weebills.
As for Jez seeking the ultimate in low-noise rigs, I can understand
that. I sometimes try to record 'the air' when nothing is calling
much, but I can never get that sense of space and airiness that I
hear with my ears. When you have definite subject matter such as
birdsong, then recording is relatively easy, you just get as close as
possible. I found the MKH20 mics awful in their high-pitch noise
levels (which apparently most people cannot hear!) The MKH 8020s are
much better and the AT4022s very nice too. I've never tried studio
mics.
I can't add anything about pre-amps as I have not tried any, but I
imagine you should be able to get extra noise-free gain using them.
Vicki
On 20/04/2012, at 7:55 AM, Peter Shute wrote:
> I hadn't thought about reverberation, just changing the frequency
> response. I wonder how bad it would be compared to mic noise. Not
> good, perhaps, or everyone would be doing it.
>
> Peter Shute
>
>
> From:
> On Behalf Of Jez
> Sent: Friday, 20 April 2012 7:31 AM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] SD 7 series recorders with /
> without an additional pre-amp
>
> Hi Peter,
>
> yes - using contact mics & small mics to get very, very close to
> certain sounds is just another part of field recording. I don't see
> a divide & I don't see one as reality & the other as not. Its all
> real.
>
> mics in big ears: ha ! indeed, but then you'd have the effect
> imposed by the shape of the ears (just as with our own actual
> ears). What you'd get is the sound of the sound as it reverberates
> around the big ears !
>
> --- In <naturerecordists%
> 40yahoogroups.com>, Peter Shute <> wrote:
>>
>> Isn't amplifying the sound of a very quiet environment similar to
>> devising methods of recording things like the sound of a snail
>> moving, etc? Its never going to sound like anything you could hear
>> with just your ears, but it might still be very interesting,
>> pleasing, artistic, etc.
>>
>> Getting back to the topic of increasing gain without increasing
>> mic noise, could anything be achieved by putting the mics in a set
>> of oversized ears? Or would this do undesirable things to the sound?
>
>
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