> I have been wanting to record in the field and have decided to take the =
plunge. Wanting to record habitats, environments and wildlife here in the A=
ustralian Outback.
Will,
You've come to the right place for advice some of it probably contradictory=
.
:-)
> I then realised that I know little about nature and field recording - th=
ough quite a lot about studio recording and post!
I was a BBC mobile Recordist and took up wildlife late into retirement and=
should have done that sooner. I had some MKH mics left over and bought a fe=
w
more at knockdown prices as they were T powered. I bought an eBay
SQN 4S like I used in the old days, and record on a toy Tascam DR-100 which=
goes in the SQN bag using an attenuator lead, but the quality is
surprisingly good and heaps better than my former tape stereo Nagra.
You will be recording of course in stereo, and here you will get all sorts=
of opinions on mics. You will hear mic hiss even with the quietest mics and=
on a audiogram I sometimes see an HF tip-up of thermal noise which is the
fundamental limit. I use a stereo pair of MKH 416's at about 40 degrees.
Theoretically the frequency response is rubbish off-axis but it works. My
golden rule is practice over theory.
I've also got a pair of MKH 816T's (long gunmic) and there is one on
ebay.com - item 461b73b718 going for $300. These are quality mics which few=
people want nowadays because of the T powering, but if you have an SQN
mixer, powering and input noise is no problem
Some other options for stereo are M/S, ORTF, wide apaced Blumlein mics, SAS=
S
and these have their adherents here. They tend to have a wide pickup solid=
angle, but can give a sweet stereo image if there isn't too much unwanted
sound to the rear and above.
I haven't got a parabola, but I've heard a lot of parabola recordings. My
personal opinion, having used them in the past is that they are an excellen=
t
spot mic, but off axis, give sometimes very odd effects. However a parabola=
has a fetch you won't get with even a long gunmic.
> I decided I wanted to use a field mixer and get decent preamps. I would =
also like to not use a handheld, even though some are pretty good. I also w=
ant some flexibility.
As I said, I spent my money on an excellent input stage, about =A3800 for t=
he
SQN. At low background levels, handling becomes impractically noisy, and my=
rig sits on the ground on in a tent, where wind and noises are lower. The
MKH mics are very robust and have been out in my woods for months at a time=
in the damp with no ill effect. See:
http://www.stowford.org/recordings.htm#aprildawn
for pix of the setup.
David Brinicombe
"While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause.
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