> I am getting more and more interested in bird photography and this has le=
d into an interest in bird songs and field recording in general. Hence I wo=
uld appreciate some comments/suggestions from the community regarding what =
field recorder to buy.
Paulo,
I was a professional mobile recordist and am now a keen amateur
photographer, but there are parallels between the two trades. I've got up t=
o
a Canon D5 body but could still do well with a simpler camera, but keeping=
my good lenses. My analogy would be not to worry too much about the
recorder, as you can get good results from moderately priced recorders, but=
the art is in the front end, the mics, which can make or break a recording.=
There is a wide range of mics and mic techniques which is where they differ=
from the lens analogy. I would take the plunge into stereo and try differen=
t
techniques, guided by recordings from this list and affectionados of
various, very different, rigs.
Most stereo rigs are "wide angle", many virtually fisheye, which gives good=
ambience, down to the principally mono highly directional long gunmics and=
parabolic reflectors, which can have stereo "added", but personally I regar=
d
that as a compromise. (Ducks incoming brickbats)
The weak point of field sound recording is the mic input stage of the
recorder which tends to add hiss, but you can always add a good pre-amp
later to improve this. This leaves the choice of mics.
My own personal advice would be to get a pair of affordable cardiod mics
with good large windshields and get out recording asap. Buy second hand
especially while you are learning. As with lenses, you get diminishing
returns from bigger money, so until you know what you want, get out
recording with what you can afford easily. BTW I find built-in mics on
recorders very disappointing despite the blurb.
I would start with XLR mic plugs and inputs if you intend to get serious.
They are a future-proof option and are much more trouble free out of doors.=
The important thing I believe is to get a recording outfit up and running
and train your ears, offering recordings for criticism and hints for
improvement. You have a good eye for phoography, but you now also need good=
ears for recording, which I would suggest can be a trickier learning curve.=
> In addition to recording bird call and some ambient soundscapes I may us=
e the recorder to record some family =E2=80=9Cbiography=E2=80=9D. i.e. get =
the older generation of my family and my wife=E2=80=99s family to tell stor=
ies of their childhood and upbring and other events.
I wish I had done that. Two cardioids as above will give you a good chance=
to get conversations and interchanges - in two-track rather than stereo. Yo=
u
could go for a multi-track recorder, but this makes editing more difficult.=
I've got my wife to use small cheap clip-on lapel mics for video interviews=
and they have been very successful. The gunmic mounted on the pro Sony HDV=
camera is next to useless.
One last tip. With digital recording, keep the recording level well clear o=
f
the maximum. You can easily pull the level up afterwards, but you can't
reverse overloads and after hitting the automatic record limiter.
David Brinicombe
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