Jon.Bryant
Well-known member
Now for the really tiny - The Instamic Pro 32 Bit Recorder (Instamic Pro Plus).
I read on Xeno Canto that some people use lavalier (lapel) mics to get the best recordings of birds up close, where teh bird is singing from a known song post. When I saw this 32bit-float wearable recorder which is waterproof, it seemed the ideal device for such recordings - basically a lavalier and 32-bit float recorder built into one. To be honest my success of using the recorder has so far been limited, but then again my main objective in Texas probably didn't really suit the device - taping Lucifer's Hummingbird display at Christmas Mountain Oasis. The Oasis is a lovely place, but can get quite busy at times, so avoiding background human noises is difficult (especially with an omni mic). The display involves birds darting amount in front of the female, and this large movement relative to the mics is not really ideal for a mic which would be best 'up close and personal' to the bird. Then there is the problem that hummingbird calls are quite compared to their exceedingly loud wing noise - they wind beats sound like jet planes up close!. I also didn't use the furry wind cover sold separately, which was a mistake as I got some wind rumble.
Th mic comes with various fixing attachments. The magnetic fixing one seems good as you can literally sandwich a leaf or small twig between the magnet and the metal pad to fix into place in the field.
32 bit float only applies to mono recordings. For stereo the highest sample rate is 24 bit. Battery life is reasonable at a published 3.5 hours and in fact I recorded for longer than this at the Oasis, and still had battery left. Operation is best through the mobile ap, as otherwise I find it a bit uncertain with the single buttom as to whether recording has been successfully started.
Anyway I still think the recorder has legs and will try again with a more suitable subject this spring in the UK. For the time being here is a unintentional recording, which involves three species. None of the species were particularly close to the device, which I think accounts for the reasonable level of background noise - i.e poor signal to noise levels. Looking forward to hopefully making a better recording soon and will update this post when I do.
Just a shame that the devices are only available directly from the supplier and often seem to sell out.
Regards
Jon Bryant
Part 5 will be the Zoom F3, which arrived while I was away.
I read on Xeno Canto that some people use lavalier (lapel) mics to get the best recordings of birds up close, where teh bird is singing from a known song post. When I saw this 32bit-float wearable recorder which is waterproof, it seemed the ideal device for such recordings - basically a lavalier and 32-bit float recorder built into one. To be honest my success of using the recorder has so far been limited, but then again my main objective in Texas probably didn't really suit the device - taping Lucifer's Hummingbird display at Christmas Mountain Oasis. The Oasis is a lovely place, but can get quite busy at times, so avoiding background human noises is difficult (especially with an omni mic). The display involves birds darting amount in front of the female, and this large movement relative to the mics is not really ideal for a mic which would be best 'up close and personal' to the bird. Then there is the problem that hummingbird calls are quite compared to their exceedingly loud wing noise - they wind beats sound like jet planes up close!. I also didn't use the furry wind cover sold separately, which was a mistake as I got some wind rumble.
Th mic comes with various fixing attachments. The magnetic fixing one seems good as you can literally sandwich a leaf or small twig between the magnet and the metal pad to fix into place in the field.
32 bit float only applies to mono recordings. For stereo the highest sample rate is 24 bit. Battery life is reasonable at a published 3.5 hours and in fact I recorded for longer than this at the Oasis, and still had battery left. Operation is best through the mobile ap, as otherwise I find it a bit uncertain with the single buttom as to whether recording has been successfully started.
Anyway I still think the recorder has legs and will try again with a more suitable subject this spring in the UK. For the time being here is a unintentional recording, which involves three species. None of the species were particularly close to the device, which I think accounts for the reasonable level of background noise - i.e poor signal to noise levels. Looking forward to hopefully making a better recording soon and will update this post when I do.
Just a shame that the devices are only available directly from the supplier and often seem to sell out.
Regards
Jon Bryant
Part 5 will be the Zoom F3, which arrived while I was away.