Laura,
I've now had a listen to the recordings and all that is wrong is that
the level is too high as I diagnosed in my last email.
Have a good play with your setup. The Telinga is not only directional
but also concentrates the sound making it much louder. In terms of
"clock positions" on the volune control, turn it down 3 or 4 "hours".
Listen on headphones with the headphone output level set high. Set
full bass cut. Then adjust the mic input level until you can't hear
much and look for sound sources with the dish - cars, wind in trees,
people, anything. Hear how the sounds change as you move the dish.
You will find that a lot of bass sounds come through wherever you
point it, but listen for high pitched sounds and try to focus on them.
You are using some advanced gear and you need to hear what it does and
what it doesn't do.
If you can't hear much in the headphones with the recorder _outputs_
set high, you may need more sensitive headphones or ones with closed
cups to exclude direct sounds. Don't wind the input up untill you see
your recordings back.
Record some of this and when you play it back, hopefully it will be
all at quite a low level. You should see the peaks on the sound editor
and these peaks should read about 10 dB below maximum level. If not,
each "hour" position on a volume control is about 5 dB so you can then
settle on a "normal" volume control setting.
I'm saying to put the maximum levels 10 dbs below peak so that
unexpected sounds don't get near the limiter/compressor level. Try not
to go anywhere over 5dB below peak.
When you get to your birds, you can aim the Telinga towards one and
move it slowly left and right, up and down till you hear the bird
clearly in the headphones, but still at low levels. You will soon get
the hang go aiming the dish.
Let us hear how you get on.
David
David Brinicombe
North Devon, UK
Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - Ambrose Bierce
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