Hello folks,
I'm new to the group. I'm a birder who has done some birdsong recording as =
part of my graduate work. I'm pretty much done that work now, but would lik=
e to continue recording for fun. While recording for school, I was focused =
on one species (Hermit Thrush), and made recordings using a Marantz PMD670=
and a Sennheiser Mic (probably ME66, but I'm not sure). I was pretty happy=
with the quality of recordings we created with that setup. Certainly they =
were sufficient for spectrogram-based analysis of various individuals' repe=
rtoires, etc.
I also previously had a Zoom H4 that I used to make some recordings. I foun=
d it was not very useful for creating recordings of birds that were worth l=
istening to. The spectrograms that could be created from the Zoom were actu=
ally not bad with some alteration, but the recordings were just far too qui=
et. I have an AT ATR-6550 mic, as well, and found the same thing when using=
this with the Zoom--the recordings were just far too quiet. So, I got rid =
of the Zoom, and I'm looking for something else.
I'm more interested in making recordings of individual birds than I am of r=
ecording 'soundscapes', but don't mind if recordings of individuals are som=
ewhat noisy with the sounds of other birds.
I don't have lots of money to spend on this at the moment, so realize that =
I'll likely have to buy a sub-optimal setup and try to get as close as poss=
ible to whatever I try to record. I was thinking about buying a Sony PCM-M1=
0 and using the on-board mics or my ATR-6550 for a while until I can afford=
something better (once I finish school). Any thoughts about this? I've bee=
n reading about the various recorders on this board, the avisoft page, and =
elsewhere, and it seems the Sony I mentioned is one of the best in its pric=
e rage. I had considered the Tascam DR-100mkII, because it has better input=
s and phantom powering. However, someone posted on here a while back that t=
he Tascam created very quiet recordings (quieter than the sony), and I don'=
t want to replace my Zoom with something that will be equally useless.
Any input would be appreciated.
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