Advice on recording equipment (1 Viewer)

Hi All,

Given the recent Flycatcher episode on Cape - still to be sorted - it seems prudent to buy some sort of sound recording system. With a limited budget, we are a Bird Obs, after all!!, what would folk advise. It would need to be easily transportable, preferrably pocket size or, at most, able to fit into a small shoulder bag.

Any help appreciated,

Steve

Have you considered Remembird? After some research, this was my choice. It should arrive soon, so I don't have any own experience yet, but for the money spent definitely seemed to be the best options by now.

My all time favorite pocket recorder with decent built in microphones is the Olympus LS-11. The LS-11 is a bit more money than some of the less expensive recorders available, but I can say with some certainty, the LS-11 is a very rugged, reliable, shirt pocket recorder with excellent audio qualities and gets the job done. Its a dream to operate, easy to operate with one hand while using binoculars with the other hand. Most controls are reachable with the tip of you thumb as it lays across the palm of your hand.

Then, if at some point your desires for a better recording method such as using a shotgun microphone or a dish, the LS-11 has an external mic input as well as a line input for use with external preamps. However the LS-11 has very good low noise preamps built in, use of an external preamp is not necessary I have found as I often use my LS-11 with either a Sennheiser ME67/K6 microphone or a ME66/K6 microphone which is very low selfnoise. Either the ME67/K6 or the ME66/K6 is an excellent microphone to use with the LS-11...

The LS-11 does not disappoint, I've never heard a complaint from anyone using one.

Thanks guys!

Just in case your still looking!

My setup is a 'Sony Hi-MD MZ-NH 700', with a shotgun mic ie; 'ATR-55'. This can be bought for under a hundred quid (ebay), and be in a kept in a normal jacket pocket!

Check out the recordings page of my blog for the results...Not bad for a cheap setup!...

Another vote for the LS-11 or even a used LS10 if budget is tight!

I use mine with the ME67 shotgun mic and the recordings are amazing but even without the shotgun mic the on board mics do a great job. Not only am I getting superb bird and nature recordings, making the recordings has forced me to slow down and really listen to the forest.

The shotgun/ls11/MDR-7506 Headphones combo gives me the ability to hear sounds I would otherwise not hear such as the beating of a hummingbirds wings or peering deep into the forest picking up owls and large mammals such as elk and moose snapping twigs as they walk.

Highly recommend it! You'll be very impressed!

srfnson said:

... making the recordings has forced me to slow down and really listen to the forest.

Click to expand...

Whoa, as I said before, I've recently ordered my Remembird. If it manages to produce a similar effect on me and my fellows, it'll have paid back twice!:t:

I am also interested by the Olympus LS-11 or LS-10 but I would like to know if it can be used for playback in the field. For exemple, to monitor owls (I only do that as part of a rexearch project). Can I play back prerecorded mp3? Can I load a bird sound collection (mp3) on this device? Can I record and then playback the recording instantly?

Thank you.

Martinetti said:

I am also interested by the Olympus LS-11 or LS-10 but I would like to know if it can be used for playback in the field. For exemple, to monitor owls (I only do that as part of a rexearch project). Can I play back prerecorded mp3? Can I load a bird sound collection (mp3) on this device? Can I record and then playback the recording instantly?

Thank you.

Click to expand...

Yes, the LS-11 does all you are asking... The only caveat is the audio output level from the small internal speakers of the LS-11 is very low, you will need some type of amplified speaker to make the LS-11 usable for anything more than checking your recording and even for that I recommend earphones...