Recording sounds: What is a good recording device?

Vaportrail

New member
Need help with choosing a good portable recording device that can travel the wilderness and keep on working! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

Thanks
VAPORTRAIL!
 
How big, or little? How much sensitivity do you need? Do you wish to use a parabolic antenna? Or, will you control it remotely?

Personally, I have a Rio 800 MP3 player that has built in recording capability, and with a NADY 351 set up one can use it to record remote sounds.

Bill
 
luv2hunt,

The size that could fit in a backpack, and setup cost around 2-3 hundred dollars with good sensitivity. Sensitivity would have to of course stay within budget.
I want to play around collecting and recording my own sounds

Not to familiar with this kind of equipment need schooling please.

Thanks

vaportrail
 
Vaportrail,

I am far from having being an expert at anything. I do have a good working knowledge of electronics though, as I made a career out of it. Plus, it has been one of my hobbies for many years as well.

From what you are saying, I would think that you could make use of a Silver Creek Bionic Ear device. I am enclosing the link below, and you can read all about them. I know several people that have them and really like the quality. There are several suppliers that make parabolic antenna types of listening devices. Be careful of what you buy. I've heard very good things about the Silver Creek, and some very bad things about some of the others.

What you are trying to accomplish should be fairly easy to do with the Bionic Ear version of their products. I think it sells for about $125.00, and its good out to about 100 yards. They have a Detect Ear unit thst is supposedly good out to 300 yards, but its in the $495.00 price range.

All you would need to do is run a patch cord from the "ear" to a digital recorder you could carry in your pocket, and record away. They have a toll free number, and I'm sure they could answer any of your questions, and make suggestions.

Good luck with the project,

Bill
Link:
http://www.silvercreekindustries.com/Product%20pages/Bionic%20Ear.html
 
Another other question that comes to mind is whether you're going to record bird sounds, prey sounds, etc. If you're trying to get deep throated prey, leave the parabolic mic at home as it won't capture really low sounds (unless that is, you want to carry a dish that's 6 or more feet in diameter).

You can do a lot to clean up the signal on the PC these days, but always better to record it well. I have used my PoGo! Ripflash Plus with my Nady 151VR-LT to field-record in a relatively high quality .mp3 format. Most non-pro handholdable units, PoGo included, are somewhat compromised with the upper end of what they'll capture; ie my PoGo has an internal codec (set of instructions that compresses and decompresses audio) that records at a high-quality 256kbps but unfortunately clips frequencies above about 17 kHz. Which is equal to or better than what consumer-grade cassette tape recorders are capable of, so it does a very good job of transferring tapes to digital. This 17 kHz limitation not going to be any big deal for recording most mouth calls, or your typical bunny in distress.
But it's less-than-ideal for recording some things, notably mice and similar high-pitched squeaky stuff that can be useful as coaxer noises for predator calling.

My old laptop works adequately well for these, though I don't tend to take it out in the field.

There were a couple of later interesting handheld devices that if I recall record in .wav format all the way from 20Hz to 20kHz. The Neuros II is one I've been eyeing for awhile. Kind of bulky compared to some; they had a 256 MB unit that is about the size of a pack of smokes, dunno if they're still in production.

One feature I'd insist upon for any field-recording device is USB file uploads. That way you don't have to make an extra Analog to Digital conversion (potentially degading the sound) in order to import what you record into the computer to clean up in a sound editor like GoldWave.

If you also go the Nady route, the wireless microphone acts as a preamp for units with only a line-in jack, incidentally. There are far fewer units to choose from with a mic-in jack.

My last suggestion would be to search for whatever latest devices CD bootleggers favor for sneaking in to and recording concerts with these days... Keep us posted with what you find.

LionHo
 
LionHo,

I was hoping you would join in, as I knew this was your balleywick, and you could lend some real expertise. Thanks for adding your suggestions. Good ones to be considered.

The Silver Creek basic Bionic Ear unit comes with a "Shotgun" type of mike that isn't all that big, but gives fairly good preformance I'm told. Don't own one myself, but have friends that do, and they love them. Most have the Booster as well, which is the 12" parabolic dish mounted on a grip, and it works well too. Didn't look up the specs on it as to what frequency spectrum it covers, but I'm sure that Vaportrail will do so before he plunks down his bucks. I would.

Anyway, we are giving him some good avenues to check out, and that is what he needed.

Regards,

Bill /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
 
Luv2Hunt,

Thank you for your help. I am checking out the site you told me about and I now have a better idea of what I want to do. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

LionHo, Thank you as well I have enough to digest here for a day or soooooo! I will let you know how it goes!

Luv2Hunt!......Thanks for the Email and the additional info

Thanks again and Good Hunting!

Vaportrail
 
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Vaportrail,

Glad to help, and I wish you well with the project. Be sure and let us know how you make out. I'd be interested in hearing the results myself.

Bill
 
Vaportrail:

You're welcome.

Digging deeper into my bookmarks, it occurs to me that if you can find one, the MP-400 from Jens of Sweden looks interesting:
http://www.jensofsweden.com/MP400.asp?base=2

Might also want to consider how many models of iPods and their microdrive clones (iRiver H120, newer model is the H320) have either accessories or line-in jacks for recording these days. These are, of course, HDD units; we tend to regard flash-memory devices as better for predator calling purposes, since they're skip-free and perhaps less prone to cold-weather-related issues (you're from Maine, eh?). But since most any battery-dependent device is going to be better served being kept warm inside a mitten or a pocket when the mercury plummets, that potential disadvantage may be less significant. Bigger downside is they're more expensive...

LionHo
 
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LionHo,

How does an Azden WLX Pro stack-up for conveying recorded sounds?

I had never thought about remote recording ....... this whole thread just blew my socks off!

I had always just thought about the sound going out!

Thanks in advance

Three 44s
 
Three 44s,

Remember that little lapel mic that came with your Azden transmitter/receiver set? (The one you stuck in a drawer and forgot about when you made your wireless .mp3 ecaller?) Dig it back out, find yourself a recording .mp3 or .wav device, and have fun!

The Azden won't work as well on mice and CritR Calls and other high-pitched squeaky stuff as it cuts off at 15 kilohertz on the high side. But it still should work okay for most things. Besides, if you use a powerhorn on your caller instead of a car-stereo cone-type speaker, you can't reproduce sounds in this range, anyway.

There should still be a bunch of old threads in the archives on this topic. (haven't tried the search function in awhile, is it back up yet?)

LionHo
 


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