Hi--
>"Neuman - Ruether"
>news3af92879.9693242@newsstand.cit.cornell.edu...
>> On Tue, 1 May 2001 131735 +0200, "Wolfgang Neun"
>>
>> >I want to separately record surrounding sounds ('atmo' - at least in
>> >German) for a wildlife docu. As I am on a budget I would rather avoid
>> >buying a DAT now. So I am considering to record the audio only on my
>> >camcorder (XL1) with the iris closed completely.
>> Why not use an inexpensive Mini-Disk recorder for this...?
>Please keep in mind that I'm trying to shoot wildlife docus. So the
>ambient sounds are birds singing, frogs croaking, grasshoppers chirping
>and the like. I've found an article on recording these vocalizations on
>the web at
>http//www.birds.cornell.edu/LNS/Equipment/techs4recrdgtropbirds.htm
>Let me just quote one sentence from this long article "How the
>Mini-Disc will record a bird's signal with background noise ... is
>unpredictable." Looking at fig. 1 at the end of the article you will see
>what a Sony MD recorder had done to a test signal.
>Well, I am aware that the article was written back in 1997 and the MD
>recorder used must have been one of the first models on the market.
>Surely ATRAC has been improved a lot since then but I'll rather be
>cautious.
Yes. (Note my return address...;-)
But there can be a difference between "technically perfect", and
"acceptable for the purpose" the Cornell bird Lab folks do make
an effort to record bird (and other sounds) accurately, but the
rest of us may find considerable distortion of the original
acceptable at the moderate playback levels ambient-sounds may
have in a video...
>> [...] (why close the iris? ;-).
>Ok, let's say, the aperture. Right?
I meant nothing is hurt by recording visuals that
may be thrown out...;-)
>> >And what about the quality? Can I expect DAT-like quality recording
>with
>> >16bit/48kHz or is the audio compressed together with the video?
[...]
>> You mentioned dual shotguns later. I use this often without
>> problems, and it gets me somewhat more "isolated" sound
>> than a stereo wide-coverage "MS" mic would (essentially
>> what is built into most camcorders...) - though a good
>> MS mic for wide-area ambience recording would be fine.
>> Depending on the level of quality you want, and the level
>> of skill you have in optimizing sound, you may (or may
>> not) be able to use mini-plug mics for what you want to
>> do. With some sound editing and adjusting on your part,
>> the results from using inexpensive and simple gear can
>> be quite good...
>The problem is that my ambient sound should not consist of all the sound
>that can be heard on location. Only the sound produced by the birds and
>all the other creatures but not by the plane in the sky or the traffic
>on the nearby road. That's the reason why I must use shotguns for my
>ambience.
This will not work. (Magic may! ;-)
Unfortunately, shotguns are generally not sensitive over
one narrow angle only, but are just somewhat more sensitive
over a narrow angle, with reduced sensitivity elsewhere. It
is likely you will still hear the planes and traffic, but just
less prominently than with an omni mic... (BTW, you should hear
the Cornell Bird Lab folks talk about the difficulty of finding
locations ANYWHERE that are free enough from man-made sound
to record animal noises easily! ;-) We are lucky here - I have
been able to find a few locations where it is possible (with
patience) to make some recordings (but not at the Bird Lab
and Sapsucker Woods - they are near an airport! ;-). Sometimes
just getting close to the source of the animal noises helps
a lot - and sometimes they are so loud that they drown out the
airplanes (i.e., the "peepers" in Sapsucker on a good day...;-).
Best to search out good locations and times, and stop recording
when unwanted sounds intrude...