What set up?

[martinf]

I'm looking to do some recording of calls etc. I have absolutely no idea about anything! Was thinking of MP3 set up. I know the drawbacks but would like some info on what people are using etc.
Only two musts are lightweight and (relatively) cheap?
All help gratefully received!

[g8ina]

My setup is relatively new. Consists of a iRiver H-120 20GB HDD MP3 and WAV recorder (use WAV as MP3 limits at 16kHz top end), a parabolic dish (you'll have to decide on that or a shotgun mic - I chose parabolic as it was cheaper), good mics - I use good but relatively cheap electret capsules located in the focus of the dish, produces a sound stereo image and fairly low noise when used with external PSU (althogh the iRiver will provide 3volts or so).

Once you've got the recordings, you'll need some editing software - my pref is for Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition). I usually filter out sub 300 Hz then normalise, maybe some notch filtering too if the telly 15625Hz signal has been picked up (and it has !!).

Take a look at my recording pages in my sig for pics.

hth

[Malcolm Stewart]

I'm looking to do some recording of calls etc. I have absolutely no idea about anything! Was thinking of MP3 set up. I know the drawbacks but would like some info on what people are using etc.
Only two musts are lightweight and (relatively) cheap?
All help gratefully received!

I've had success using the latest HiMD Minidisc recorders. (NH900, RH10 & RH1) These can record in CD quality PCM mode, or in a variety of compressed modes. Sony's recent versions of their SonicStage (3.4 and later) allow unlimited uploads from the recorder to one's computer (earlier versions allowed just one upload). SonicStage now produces wav files from the uploads.

For microphones I use Yoga electrets from Maplins, and I either record in stereo or in mono if I'm using a parabolic reflector. The latest recorder, the RH1, can go straight into record mode (with pre-set settings) without the fiddly, and potentially time consuming, menu navigation necessary on the other two. My small parabolic reflector was made from a radiant heater (£4 from Maplins in an out-of-season sale) from which I removed the heater element etc. and other extraneous material. For monitoring in the field, I use ear-canal-sealed phones and a Headbanger Amplifier from Soundprofessionals in the USA.

Malcolm Stewart
Milton Keynes, UK

[ermine]

I'm looking to do some recording of calls etc. I have absolutely no idea about anything! Was thinking of MP3 set up. I know the drawbacks but would like some info on what people are using etc.
Only two musts are lightweight and (relatively) cheap?
All help gratefully received!

The quality of your microphone determines the quality and range you can record at. Placing the mic in a parabolic dish gives you the furthest range, but can be unwieldy.

As an extremely rough guide a typical cheapie electret will only give you satisfactory results from backyard birds up to 2m away. A good basic shotgun mic like the Sennheiser MKE300D of Rode videomic will give you results with something like a chaffinch at about half range of 8x bins. A more ambitious shotgun mic like the Sennheiser ME67/K6 http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/icm_eng.nsf/root/03285 will give you the range of more than that of your 8xbins on a chaffy, but it will be a bugger to wind protect. A DIY parabolic dish, like this (http://www.suffolkbirds.co.uk/article/42/poor-mans-telinga) will give you a bit more range and a lot more wind noise resistance. A Telinga parabolic dish will give you a range of about 150m on a chaffinch. Nothing that I know of will give you the range of your telescope.


For the recorder HiMD works very well and is probably the cheapest. If you record in MP3 you are limiting your capability to analyse you recordings using sonagrams, which may or may not be important to you. You may wish to make sure you have the capability to record uncompressed. The Iriver gives you far more recording time than the hour and a half of a HiMD, at a greater cost and the need to dump to PC after about 40 hours of recording, which is probably only an issue uf you go on recording expeditions. With HiMD you can just change the disk and carry on.

Avoid the cheaper CF recorders aimed at musicians - they are noisy with mics of the quality of the ME66 or better. That applies particularly to the M-Audio microtrack and its ilk.

[g8ina]

Martin, my kit is now for sale in Classifieds if it is of any interest.

Disability has stumped me yet again :(

[bkrownd]

Is it possible to get a decent range directional shotgun microphone and recorder for $150? $200?

[ermine]

Is it possible to get a decent range directional shotgun microphone and recorder for $150? $200?

Try an ATR55, probably $100 new, and a used HiMD recorder from Ebay. To reduce costs more, get a used normal MD recorder, but make sure first that it has a microphone input- not all of them do. If you use a regular MD recorder, you'll have to transfer your recordings by playing them out into the line in of your PC instead of USB, but that's not such a big deal.

[bkrownd]

Try an ATR55,

Does anyone have a handle on what kind of real-world range it has? I'm seldom closer than 100 feet from the critters I'm interested in recording. (I wouldn't be recording anything I couldn't already hear with my own ears, of course.)

[ermine]

100 feet is pushing it a bit. Bit like asking what is the range of a particular model of bins - you can see a vulture at a further range than a sparrow.

If you haven't got too much surrounding noise, and your bird isn't too quiet, you might make it. If you listen through the recorder you will hear most of what you hear unaided. However, if you can hear the bird in the soundfield but have to concentrate, then your recording will be hissy and unclear.

If you want to pick up stuff clearly that you can only just hear then you're going to need a parabolic dish. I 've located crossbills at the top of pine trees by locating the sound with a dish, and then getting a scope onto the tree. But a parabolic dish isn't compact nor is it particularly light.