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DIY SASS, EM172 mics, Olympus L-14

Subject: DIY SASS, EM172 mics, Olympus L-14
From: "motoman77" motoman77
Date: Thu May 30, 2013 12:03 pm ((PDT))
Hello,

I have always wanted to record sounds of nature (birds in a forest, dawn ch=
orus, grasshoppers, frogs, bees, rain, stream, thunder, forest at night etc=
.). I wish I was recording with good quality, not spending a lot of money f=
or an equipment.

Lately, I have bought Olympus LS-14. Unfortunatelly, in my oppinion it is n=
ot so good (at least using internal mics) for recording sounds of nature in=
 many situations. It is possible to record sounds which are loud or we can =
get close to the source of. But it is hard to record ambient sounds of bird=
s in a forest - the volume is low, so I need to increase "Rec level" to max=
imum which causes high level of self-noise which cannot be accepted. I thin=
k, I need proper external mics for my LS-14 and even whole SASS for good st=
ereo.

Those are my tests recorded in a forest (since it only a test, people talki=
ng and aeroplanes are not a problem; this test just shows that volume of bi=
rds singing is too low, and noise is too high).
Olympus LS-14, inbuilt mics.
rec level 55: http://w858.wrzuta.pl/audio/6Oj8MkPxc96/reclevel55
rec level 60: http://w858.wrzuta.pl/audio/6Crn4WljN5q/reclevel60
rec level 65: http://w858.wrzuta.pl/audio/97p4s83HjwE/reclevel65
rec level 70: http://w858.wrzuta.pl/audio/9TBWBxh86VS/reclevel70


I am going to build DIY SASS. I would like to achieve good sound quality at=
 not so high price. I think, I will use EM172 mics. Also, I already have Ol=
ympus LS-14 recorder.

Will EM172s (4 mics - 2 for L and 2 for R channel) work with mic input of m=
y LS-14?
I mean, is voltage, impedance and all the parameters compatible between LS-=
14 and EM172?

Will I achieve good quality (high volume of even not loud sounds recording,=
 low self-noise) using SASS with EM172 mics and LS-14 recorder?
I mean, is LS-14's ADC and pre-amp good enough not to make annoying self-no=
ise in my recordings with SASS (based on four EM172s)?

Is it better to use EM173 instead of EM172?

My idol is Mr. Lang Elliott (http://musicofnature.com/products/pure-nature/=
birds-at-dawn/). For me, his recordings are amazing, also technically -- ve=
ry loud, and very clean (almost inaudible self-noise). He uses SASS and MKH=
20 mics. Since those mics are extremally expensive for me, I know that I ca=
nnot make so good recordings with self-made SASS and EM172. But, in other h=
and, I read (http://www.caperteebirder.com/index.php?p=3D1_17_recording-gea=
r-1) that it is possible to make good SASS with EM172 (even as good as usin=
g MKH20).
But I need an opinion, if it is possible to use Olympus LS-14 for such SASS=
 (with EM172) to achieve good quality of recordings?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,
Robert







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