[LAU] best mic(s) for environmenal recording?

Dragan Noveski perodog at gmx.net
Wed Apr 11 09:15:12 EDT 2007


Arnold Krille wrote:
> Am Mittwoch, 11. April 2007 schrieb Dragan Noveski:
>   
>> Mike Taht wrote:
>>     
>>> I am selling my house deep in the santa cruz mountains, and I think
>>> the things I'm going to miss most is the birdsong and other sounds of
>>> the wilderness around me. So, I keep thinking, I should pick up a good
>>> mic soon (stereo mic, or matched pair) - either buy, borrow, or rent
>>> for a few days - and record it all, so I can recreate the ambiance and
>>> memories of this place one day in the future.
>>>       
>> i am sorry for not knowing the word now in english (robin will help out).
>> for outside recording watch out at the mic-cheracteristica!
>> what you need is a 'kugel' (in german), in english it should be called
>> 'ball, or sphere'.
>> those are the only mics which will record linear, beginning at 0Hz.
>> off course it should be a condenser and you need a propper preamp!
>>     
>
> As you need to EQ/Master afterwards, this shouldn't be the big problem. But 
> you should select the characteristics of the mic with respect to what you 
> want to record:
> Doing a live-recording of a concert you don't want to use omni-directional 
> mics as you want the sound coming from stage in front of the mic, not the 
> foh-man talking to the light-crew behind the mic.
> For environmental recordings where you are in the middle of the happening you 
> could use omnis.
>   

but arnold, the original question was "which mic for outside recording 
of singng birds".
> And wether a mic records linear from 0Hz is dependent on the price and not so 
> much on the characteristics. In fact I strongly doubt that any mic will be 
> linear (which is defined to be less than 3dB around the average) below 20Hz!
>
> Arnold
>
>   
you are partly right here, a 3€ omni-mic will not do a job - it is 
always a price question, but from the wikipedia link, robin searched for us:

"Omnidirectional microphones, unlike cardioids, do not employ resonant 
cavities as delays, and so can be considered the "purest" mikes in terms 
of low coloration; they add very little to the original sound. Being 
pressure-sensitive they can also have a very flat low-frequency response 
down to 20 Hz or below."

of course, 0Hz i mentioned is strongly theoretically, but a good 
omni-mic will do better here as a good cardioid.

cheers,
doc



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