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iPod for Recording/playback (1 Viewer)

H

Hdroadcurlew

Member
Hi Folks,

I went ahead and bought a 60 gig iPod for use in the field after I watched Alvaro Jaramillo -fabulous tour leader- doing his thing in Guatemala this spring. At several times he was able to record and then in a few moments play the bird he had just recorded back to itself and often (not always) with excellent results.

I missed the micrphone he used and the device attched to the top appeared to be a Griffin iTalk. This was developed as a tool to allow iPod to become a recorder in business meetings etc. Who'da thunk!

Alvaro used a short shotgun type mike with mini plug. Anyhow.

I am interested in learning more about playback recording in the field etc.

My other tape decks are 2 Sony D Pro 10 II's and I am about to buy a Sound design 744T. I have an old Telinga parabola and a short shotgun Sennheiser MKH-416. New mikes are a must. Stereo and others.

I have a trip scheduled for Brazil and Ecuador this fall so if you have suggestions or other comments please let me know.

I'll be in the Arctic much of the summer so I'm sure lots will happen up here while I am gone...
 
ipods and field recording

Hdroadcurlew said:
Hi Folks,

I went ahead and bought a 60 gig iPod for use in the field after I watched Alvaro Jaramillo -fabulous tour leader- doing his thing in Guatemala this spring. At several times he was able to record and then in a few moments play the bird he had just recorded back to itself and often (not always) with excellent results.

I missed the micrphone he used and the device attched to the top appeared to be a Griffin iTalk. This was developed as a tool to allow iPod to become a recorder in business meetings etc. Who'da thunk!

Alvaro used a short shotgun type mike with mini plug. Anyhow.

I am interested in learning more about playback recording in the field etc.


My other tape decks are 2 Sony D Pro 10 II's and I am about to buy a Sound design 744T. I have an old Telinga parabola and a short shotgun Sennheiser MKH-416. New mikes are a must. Stereo and others.

I have a trip scheduled for Brazil and Ecuador this fall so if you have suggestions or other comments please let me know.

I'll be in the Arctic much of the summer so I'm sure lots will happen up here while I am gone...
Click to expand...


Does anyone have any experience of using ipods to record and playback in the field? Does it work if the mike is of good quality?
 
I am reviving this thread to ask if anyone has experience of using some of the new generation accessories that allow you to attach an external microphone to an iPod - for example http://www.xtrememac.com/audio/earphones_recorders/micromemo_nano_2g/

The latest iPods will record in WAV format at a sample rate of 44.1kHz which seems encouraging for bird use, but I am trying to make sense of whether there is any form of filtering which might mean it only records voice range frequencies - or any other shortcomings. A bit of googling has shed no light.

Thanks,

Murray
 
Any news on this????? I do have the IPod and use it to play bird calls, but I haven't really found a solution to record them yet. I have the Micromemo (for business use), but it is not good enough to record birdsong, IMHO.

I am seriously thinking of moving away from the IPOD and going to a much smaller, and cheaper MP3 player.
 
I bought a micromemo and used it with the microphone that is supplied to record a few birds. I compared it with a Remembird. Unsurprisingly the Remembird produced better recordings. Also there was a lot more background noice with the micromemo. Looking at sonograms of the two calls suggested that the frequency range of the micromemo is more limited.

The main problem I have had with the micromemo is that it is unreliable, often giving you a blank recording, not datestamping recordings in the way it is supposed to, or causing the iPod to freeze. I could not recommend it.

I tried once to do a recording with a good quality microphone. That was one of the times it caused everything to freeze up so I could not produce anything meaningful. Will try again some time.
 
The Belkin Tunetalk, retailing in the USA for $60-70, fits a second generation Nano and video iPods. It has two powered microphones for stereo and an input for an external microphone. My friend has one which does not seem to work with an iPhone. I am going to borrow the Tunetalk and her Nano, soon but for use in recording an oral history. She had used the setup to record music, which seemed better than a comparably priced cassette tape recorder. The recording automatically appears in iTunes when the Nano is connected.

Is that of any help?

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood :scribe:
 
Recording equipment

Hi,

Have you tried the Marantz PMD661 SD recorder? It is fabulous for bird recording and works great with both the Telinga parabola and the Sennheiser microphones. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Kathie
 
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