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Sound recording and sonograms – an absolute beginner (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Capercaillie71
- Start date
markgrubb
Leading a life of quiet desperation
Capercaillie71
Well-known member
I change them every time as the quality of the recordings can be so variable, but I'm just a beginner, so I might be doing it wrong!
Capercaillie71
Well-known member
You know it makes sense!
The reason I went down the cheap and cheerful route was that I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time to devote to sound recording (you can see from this thread how little I have actually achieved in the past year!), but I wanted to see if I could get a set-up that was effective for casual use, which might encourage others to give it a go. So far it seems to be working!
Birdspotter
Well-known member
You know it makes sense!
The reason I went down the cheap and cheerful route was that I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time to devote to sound recording (you can see from this thread how little I have actually achieved in the past year!), but I wanted to see if I could get a set-up that was effective for casual use, which might encourage others to give it a go. So far it seems to be working!
Yep youv'e snared two deranged hibby's so far.
Keep up the good work.
Birdspotter
Well-known member
Hi Again guys,
One last question regarding the Sennheiser MKE300 mic.
I have searched the web and the best price I can get/see for this mic is 93GBP for the MKE300 Video version and 129GBP for the standard MKE300 version.
Now what if any difference in sound quality are there between these two similar mics.
Obviously no point in buying the MKE300 version if the much cheaper MKE300Video version does as just a good job.
Thoughts please and thanks again.
One last question regarding the Sennheiser MKE300 mic.
I have searched the web and the best price I can get/see for this mic is 93GBP for the MKE300 Video version and 129GBP for the standard MKE300 version.
Now what if any difference in sound quality are there between these two similar mics.
Obviously no point in buying the MKE300 version if the much cheaper MKE300Video version does as just a good job.
Thoughts please and thanks again.
ermine
Well-known member
Don't sweat this one - take the cheapest.
The MKE300 video version has a small piece of copper foil soldered to shield the mic amp near the mic capsule and termination. See attached pic. There is no difference in sound quality, other than the absence of the sawing noise if you stick this atop a video camera.
I guess reading between the lines Sennheiser screwed up by testing this as a pure audio product and then taking flak when people found it picked up hash from their camcorders when placed so close, hence the addition of the foil.
You have the additional advantage that if you do want to use it for video you're all set
The MKE300 video version has a small piece of copper foil soldered to shield the mic amp near the mic capsule and termination. See attached pic. There is no difference in sound quality, other than the absence of the sawing noise if you stick this atop a video camera.
I guess reading between the lines Sennheiser screwed up by testing this as a pure audio product and then taking flak when people found it picked up hash from their camcorders when placed so close, hence the addition of the foil.
You have the additional advantage that if you do want to use it for video you're all set
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Birdspotter
Well-known member
Birdspotter
Well-known member
Hi Guys,
Just a quick word to say my Seinheisser MKE300 mic arrived in the post today as well as bump this excellent thread up.
Sadly still waiting for my recorder, as I had hoped that it would have arrived before Friday as I am off to Madeira, were I was hoping to have Zino's Petrel as my first recording.
Ah well will just have to do the next best thing, a Hibs game on the radio when I get back8-P
cheers and thanks for the gen on the mic
Just a quick word to say my Seinheisser MKE300 mic arrived in the post today as well as bump this excellent thread up.
Sadly still waiting for my recorder, as I had hoped that it would have arrived before Friday as I am off to Madeira, were I was hoping to have Zino's Petrel as my first recording.
Ah well will just have to do the next best thing, a Hibs game on the radio when I get back8-P
cheers and thanks for the gen on the mic
Capercaillie71
Well-known member
I haven't added anything to this thread for a while, but today I went for a walk in the woods where I had made my first crossbill recordings (way back in post #35, last December). There were quite a few crossbills about today, and I experienced both the positives and the negatives of the sony minidisc as a recording medium.
Firstly, I got caught out by the crossbills in the carpark scenario again. I was just setting up the minidisc player to record when I heard a small flock cheeping away in some trees not far away. As I frantically tried to press the right combination of buttons and navigate through the menus to maximise the microphone gain, the cheeping got louder and louder as the crossbills flew towards me, right overhead and then disappeared into the distance just as I had finished setting up the recorder. Very frustrating.
Fortunately I encountered a couple of flyover groups later on. However these were a bit further away (50-100 metres) and I wasn't sure that I would get a decent sonogram. As it turned out I got at least as good a sonogram with the minidisc at 50-100 metres (two sonograms on the left below) as I had got with my old voice recorder last year at 15-20 metres (sonogram on the right below), using the same microphone.
The crossbills this year seem to be the same call-type as last year (1B / Parakeet)
Firstly, I got caught out by the crossbills in the carpark scenario again. I was just setting up the minidisc player to record when I heard a small flock cheeping away in some trees not far away. As I frantically tried to press the right combination of buttons and navigate through the menus to maximise the microphone gain, the cheeping got louder and louder as the crossbills flew towards me, right overhead and then disappeared into the distance just as I had finished setting up the recorder. Very frustrating.
Fortunately I encountered a couple of flyover groups later on. However these were a bit further away (50-100 metres) and I wasn't sure that I would get a decent sonogram. As it turned out I got at least as good a sonogram with the minidisc at 50-100 metres (two sonograms on the left below) as I had got with my old voice recorder last year at 15-20 metres (sonogram on the right below), using the same microphone.
The crossbills this year seem to be the same call-type as last year (1B / Parakeet)
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Capercaillie71
Well-known member
In case anyone's interested, here are mp3s of today's crossbills
Birdspotter
Well-known member
Hi all
A while since I posted on this thread, but I now have some xbill calls with my new gear.
I have transfered these using Sony's Sonic Wear to the computer, however I now need to get some sonagrams done, whats the best way of doing this?
I am a bit confused, do I need two different aplications,one to edit the softwear and another to create the sonagram, or can you do it all in one with say Raven or Cornell.
cheers
A while since I posted on this thread, but I now have some xbill calls with my new gear.
I have transfered these using Sony's Sonic Wear to the computer, however I now need to get some sonagrams done, whats the best way of doing this?
I am a bit confused, do I need two different aplications,one to edit the softwear and another to create the sonagram, or can you do it all in one with say Raven or Cornell.
cheers
The ones I've done, I've edited the sound with Audacity and then made a sonogram with Syrinx, although Raven Lite does the job too. With Syrinx, you just open a WAV file and the sonogram is automatically generated. You can then fiddle with how it's presented.
Capercaillie71
Well-known member
I use a similar process. I use audacity to edit the recordings if the calls only occupy a small part of the total recording (as is often the case). When you open the recording in audacity, you can highlight the section containing the calls and then save that selection as a new wav file.
To get a sonogram you then have to use a program like Raven or Syrinx. I haven't used Syrinx, but in Raven, you simply open the wav file and the sonogram will appear automatically as one of two windows. You can alter the horizontal and vertical axes of the sonogram chart (and the contrast and brightness) until you get a reasonable image.
It would be interesting to see any sonograms you get.
Birdspotter
Well-known member
Hi All,
As I stated earlier I have managed some recordings, as well as downloaded the Audacity programme for editing them.
Now the nightmare begins!!
I have been at it all evening trying to work Audacity out, I sent some files over from Sony's Sonic stage but all I get is what can only be best described as a scream when I hit the play button, have I sent the files correctly and if not how do you do this?
cheers
please feel free to PM this useless fud
As I stated earlier I have managed some recordings, as well as downloaded the Audacity programme for editing them.
Now the nightmare begins!!
I have been at it all evening trying to work Audacity out, I sent some files over from Sony's Sonic stage but all I get is what can only be best described as a scream when I hit the play button, have I sent the files correctly and if not how do you do this?
cheers
please feel free to PM this useless fud
Birdspotter
Well-known member
I think I have worked out what exactly is the problem here.
In Audacity, once you have transfered your sounds over the file is shown on the screen in what I take to be WAV or some other type of format.
However my file is totally distorted, so a look in Audacity Help points me to the problem in that it says that the file has whats called a Vertical Rule between 1 and -1 and anything over will be distorted, my file is clearly well over this.
How can I sort that ?
To see what I mean go into
Audacity Help
Tracks> Audiotrack
and read the section entitled Vertical Slide
thanks for any help, particuarly Capercaillie71 whom PM'd me with some suggestions.
Capercaillie71
Well-known member
I don't know if you've made any progress with this, but it sounds like something has gone wrong with the file before it reaches Audacity (ie. during the Sonic Stage Transfer), particularly as you said the recording sounded OK on Sonic Stage.
I'll describe the process I use to transfer the files using Sonic Stage in the following post and you can see if you are doing anything different.
I am using Sonic Stage version 4.3
Capercaillie71
Well-known member
Using Sonic Stage 4.3 to transfer files from HiMD
1) Connect HiMD recorder to PC with USB cable
2) Open Sonic Stage 4.3
3) Click on 'Transfer' (See picture 1 below)
4) Select tracks on HiMD window on right hand side (See picture 1 below)
5) Click on Transfer to 'My Library' arrow (See picture 1 below)
6) After the files have finished transferring, I close down Sonic Stage and open Audacity, click on File>Open, and browse to wherever the transferred files have been saved*
*To determine where the transferred files are saved by Sonic Stage, follow the procedure descibed in Picture 2 below:
1) Tools>Options>Transfer
2)Select device (HiMD) and click on 'Transfer Settings'
3) Under 'Transfer Settings' click on 'Advanced'
4) Under 'Advanced Transfer Settings' look at 'Import settings' and make sure 'Save in WAV format' is ticked and check/change the Import Location
Of course, this may be no use of you are using another version of Sonic Stage.
1) Connect HiMD recorder to PC with USB cable
2) Open Sonic Stage 4.3
3) Click on 'Transfer' (See picture 1 below)
4) Select tracks on HiMD window on right hand side (See picture 1 below)
5) Click on Transfer to 'My Library' arrow (See picture 1 below)
6) After the files have finished transferring, I close down Sonic Stage and open Audacity, click on File>Open, and browse to wherever the transferred files have been saved*
*To determine where the transferred files are saved by Sonic Stage, follow the procedure descibed in Picture 2 below:
1) Tools>Options>Transfer
2)Select device (HiMD) and click on 'Transfer Settings'
3) Under 'Transfer Settings' click on 'Advanced'
4) Under 'Advanced Transfer Settings' look at 'Import settings' and make sure 'Save in WAV format' is ticked and check/change the Import Location
Of course, this may be no use of you are using another version of Sonic Stage.
Attachments
Birdspotter
Well-known member
Hi Capercaillie,
I have not had the chance to do anything more with it so far, however I did do a bit of reading up on it and I suspect that I did not save the files as WAV!
Thanks for the above, I will have a go after xmas again
cheers
I have not had the chance to do anything more with it so far, however I did do a bit of reading up on it and I suspect that I did not save the files as WAV!
Thanks for the above, I will have a go after xmas again
cheers
Birdspotter
Well-known member
Hi Caper 71,
Thanks for the info, I went back to my original Crossbill recordings to see what format I had saved then in, only to find I had somehow deleted all of them:C
So today I set off in less than ideal conditions for another try at recording Crossbill's, I immediately found a feeding flock of twenty birds,rising to forty two later on.
I managed to get quite a lot of calls, mainly singing males but also some quite good excitement calls.
I have successfully downloaded these in wav format to Audacity, however the wind in the trees was at times a problem, but hopefully I can get some good sonagrams when I get some editing done.
Whilst recording I punched up the gain on the mike, however I found this to be quite awkward as I was holding both the mike and recorder at the same time and some thumb-ling can thus be heard, would it be better to put the mike on a small tripod say,thus keeing the hands free to use the controls more effectively and silently.
What do others do or use?
Will try for more calls tomorrow if the weather is better
Cheers
Thanks for the info, I went back to my original Crossbill recordings to see what format I had saved then in, only to find I had somehow deleted all of them:C
So today I set off in less than ideal conditions for another try at recording Crossbill's, I immediately found a feeding flock of twenty birds,rising to forty two later on.
I managed to get quite a lot of calls, mainly singing males but also some quite good excitement calls.
I have successfully downloaded these in wav format to Audacity, however the wind in the trees was at times a problem, but hopefully I can get some good sonagrams when I get some editing done.
Whilst recording I punched up the gain on the mike, however I found this to be quite awkward as I was holding both the mike and recorder at the same time and some thumb-ling can thus be heard, would it be better to put the mike on a small tripod say,thus keeing the hands free to use the controls more effectively and silently.
What do others do or use?
Will try for more calls tomorrow if the weather is better
Cheers
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