In two weeks I'm going to a really great place that has a whole lot of
really awesome ambient sounds that I want to capture.

Now I have all kinds of non-portable resources, but I'm going to be
travelling on planes, hiking, etc., and I just can't carry too much.

Now don't laugh at me for the equipment I have or the things I want to
record, I'm just looking for advice on what I can get away with.

I'm thinking about just packing my minidisc (an older sony R70), and a
little stereo electret. I can carry that much just in the extra room
in my camera bag.

But that means I'd be leaving behind the little tripod stand and the
MXL 603 pair. But if I want to take those, I need a portable pre with
phantom power, and the only thing I have for that is a 10-channel
Behringer that's too big to pack.

Some of the time I'll actually have 120v, though, and so I could take my
little 2-channel preamp. But then that means I'd have to carry the
Pelican case.

So maybe if I could get my hands on a slightly better electret mic, that
would be a better solution.

It's pretty important to me to get a few hours of the ambient sounds of
this place, but I have to balance that with how much crap I want to
carry, and I think I might be facing diminishing returns, since
everything I want to capture probably amounts to just white noise to
anyone else's ears but mine.


Thanks for your time. I value your opinion!

james wrote:
In two weeks I'm going to a really great place that has a whole lot of
really awesome ambient sounds that I want to capture.

Now I have all kinds of non-portable resources, but I'm going to be
travelling on planes, hiking, etc., and I just can't carry too much.

Now don't laugh at me for the equipment I have or the things I want to
record, I'm just looking for advice on what I can get away with.

I'm thinking about just packing my minidisc (an older sony R70), and a
little stereo electret. I can carry that much just in the extra room
in my camera bag.

But that means I'd be leaving behind the little tripod stand and the
MXL 603 pair. But if I want to take those, I need a portable pre with
phantom power, and the only thing I have for that is a 10-channel
Behringer that's too big to pack.

Some of the time I'll actually have 120v, though, and so I could take my
little 2-channel preamp. But then that means I'd have to carry the
Pelican case.

So maybe if I could get my hands on a slightly better electret mic, that
would be a better solution.

It's pretty important to me to get a few hours of the ambient sounds of
this place, but I have to balance that with how much crap I want to
carry, and I think I might be facing diminishing returns, since
everything I want to capture probably amounts to just white noise to
anyone else's ears but mine.


Thanks for your time. I value your opinion!
I have recorded storms and rain with my sony pro walkman (cassette) and
the electret that came with it and it sounded ok to me. Of course a very
good mic will sound better and that's the only thing I would do. Get a
good stereo mic. The minidisc will be fine...

In article ,
david morley wrote:

I have recorded storms and rain with my sony pro walkman (cassette) and
the electret that came with it and it sounded ok to me. Of course a very
good mic will sound better and that's the only thing I would do. Get a
good stereo mic. The minidisc will be fine...

Thanks David. I ordered an Edirol R-1, and I'm really hoping it gets to
me in time. I'm betting the built-in mics on that thing will be fine
for what I want. (This isn't all I'll do with it, don't worry. I can
justify it for recording my piano and flute playing :-)

So you don't think I'm nuts for wanting to record weather and birds?
That's a relief!

james wrote:
In two weeks I'm going to a really great place that has a whole lot of
really awesome ambient sounds that I want to capture.

Now I have all kinds of non-portable resources, but I'm going to be
travelling on planes, hiking, etc., and I just can't carry too much.

Now don't laugh at me for the equipment I have or the things I want to
record, I'm just looking for advice on what I can get away with.

I'm thinking about just packing my minidisc (an older sony R70), and a
little stereo electret. I can carry that much just in the extra room
in my camera bag.

But that means I'd be leaving behind the little tripod stand and the
MXL 603 pair. But if I want to take those, I need a portable pre with
phantom power, and the only thing I have for that is a 10-channel
Behringer that's too big to pack.

Some of the time I'll actually have 120v, though, and so I could take my
little 2-channel preamp. But then that means I'd have to carry the
Pelican case.

So maybe if I could get my hands on a slightly better electret mic, that
would be a better solution.

It's pretty important to me to get a few hours of the ambient sounds of
this place, but I have to balance that with how much crap I want to
carry, and I think I might be facing diminishing returns, since
everything I want to capture probably amounts to just white noise to
anyone else's ears but mine.


Thanks for your time. I value your opinion!

You could get a denecke PS2 used to provide phantom power....they go on
the used market for around $50....but you'll still have the problem of
crappy ADC and preamps in your MD (not to mentioned atrac compression).
Personally I would most definately buy an Edirol UA-5 w/ the digi mod
(or do the mod yourself, or send it somewhere to be done, OADE.com
rocks). Best bang/buck portable preamp/ADC w/ phantom you'll find.

I was going to do this until I found the Edirol R1....again, great
sounding pre's and ADC but the best part is that it does 24-bit. Would
require the dencke ps2 also....if you can find one w/ 1/8" stereo out,
that's great, otherwise you'll have to wire it up to accomodate a 1/8"
stereo jack.

Jonny Durango

james wrote:

Thanks David. I ordered an Edirol R-1, and I'm really hoping it gets to
me in time. I'm betting the built-in mics on that thing will be fine
for what I want. (This isn't all I'll do with it, don't worry. I can
justify it for recording my piano and flute playing :-)

They're now shipping the R-1?

So you don't think I'm nuts for wanting to record weather and birds?
That's a relief!

Doesn't mean yer not nuts... g.

--
ha

In article ,
hank alrich wrote:

They're now shipping the R-1?

Zzounds is claiming and April 25th ship date.
If they don't deliver, I cancel the order.
I realize it's not within the vendor's control,
but hope springs eternal.

james wrote:

hank alrich wrote:

They're now shipping the R-1?

Zzounds is claiming and April 25th ship date.
If they don't deliver, I cancel the order.
I realize it's not within the vendor's control,
but hope springs eternal.

I just checked a vendor who said yes, they're shipping, but that Edirol
is saying the backorder line is so long that current orders will ship in
August. Some of the larger box houses might've placed substantial
orders, and you may well get your R-1. Here's hoping!

--
ha

In article ,
hank alrich wrote:

I just checked a vendor who said yes, they're shipping, but that Edirol
is saying the backorder line is so long that current orders will ship in
August. Some of the larger box houses might've placed substantial
orders, and you may well get your R-1. Here's hoping!

It's not me that really needs to do the hoping, it's the seller.
I'm not really very emotional about this thing. I made an order based
on when they said I could have it. If that falls through, so does the
sale.

Something strange just happened though.
Zzounds claims to not put the charge through on your card before the
item ships. But I just saw the charge come through. The order status
is still "Backordered."

Did Zzounds just commit felony fraud against me, or am I getting an R-1?

In article ,
Tracy Wintermute wrote:

Did Zzounds just commit felony fraud against me, or am I getting an R-1?

No.

Neither? :-)

Damn, that's a trick.

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 02:49:37 GMT, (james)
wrote:

Did Zzounds just commit felony fraud against me, or am I getting an R-1?

No.



====================
Tracy Wintermute

Rushcreek Ranch
====================

james wrote:

In two weeks I'm going to a really great place that has a whole lot of
really awesome ambient sounds that I want to capture.
...
I'm thinking about just packing my minidisc (an older sony R70), and a
little stereo electret. I can carry that much just in the extra room
in my camera bag.
...
So maybe if I could get my hands on a slightly better electret mic, that
would be a better solution.

That application is our bread and butter.

Consider a set of our Low Cost Binaural mics. Each of the two mics is
about the size of a little black jelly bean. Clip one near each ear and
hit "Record." Play it back over headphones and you'll hear an
amazingly realistic re-creation of the audio event. Binaural recordings
preserve essentially all of of the location cues that your ears and
brain need to locate sounds in space.

Your MZ-R70 lacks a low sensitivity setting so if you try to record
anything even reasonably loud, its mic pre-amp will overload. If you
plan to regularly record loud sound sources, you might consider either
our Low Cost Binaural mic set with the low sensitivity option, or our
more expensive Core Sound Binaural mic set with a 20 dB attenuator
cable.

Please see our Web site for details.

--
Len Moskowitz PDAudio, Binaural Mics, Cables, DPA, M-Audio
Core Sound http://www.stealthmicrophones.com
Teaneck, New Jersey USA http://www.core-sound.com
Tel: 201-801-0812, FAX: 201-801-0912

james wrote:

Thanks David. I ordered an Edirol R-1, and I'm really hoping it gets to
me in time. I'm betting the built-in mics on that thing will be fine
for what I want. (This isn't all I'll do with it, don't worry. I can
justify it for recording my piano and flute playing :-)

You'll find a Web page that compares the Edirol R-1 to our PDAudio
system, the Fostex FR-2 and the Marantz PMD670 he

http://www.core-sound.com/comparison...-670-fr-2.html

--
Len Moskowitz PDAudio, Binaural Mics, Cables, DPA, M-Audio
Core Sound http://www.stealthmicrophones.com
Teaneck, New Jersey USA http://www.core-sound.com
Tel: 201-801-0812, FAX: 201-801-0912

On 4/20/05 3:27 PM, in article , "Len
Moskowitz" wrote:


Binaural recordings
preserve essentially all of of the location cues that your ears and
brain need to locate sounds in space. (SNIP) Clip one near each ear and
hit "Record." Play it back over headphones and you'll hear an
amazingly realistic re-creation of the audio event.

Including your breathing...

In article ,
Len Moskowitz wrote:

You'll find a Web page that compares the Edirol R-1 to our PDAudio
system, the Fostex FR-2 and the Marantz PMD670 he

I'm still interested. There's a less-tangible factor though.
I can get away with the Edirol without explaining it (It has a
form factor that will lead to a spouse-neutral effect).

The PDAudio looks expensive. It *IS* expensive. And if I'm going to
buy an IPaQ or other PDA, there are a few things I want to be able to do
with it besides Audio.

I *want* one badly, and I consider it from time to time, but the last
time, I ended up with a new camera instead (Canon EOS-20D, zero buyer's
remorse!)

On 4/21/05 3:49 PM, in article gtT9e.56000$A31.15127@fed1read03, "james"
wrote:

I *want* one badly, and I consider it from time to time, but the last
time, I ended up with a new camera instead (Canon EOS-20D, zero buyer's
remorse!)

You buy nice toyz!

SSJVCmag wrote:
On 4/21/05 3:49 PM, in article gtT9e.56000$A31.15127@fed1read03, "james"
wrote:

I *want* one badly, and I consider it from time to time, but the last
time, I ended up with a new camera instead (Canon EOS-20D, zero buyer's
remorse!)

You buy nice toyz!

I'm still sticking with the Crown Graphic.

In fact, I got a call from someone not long after the last DIY mike article
in Recording, asking me how I got the close-ups of the PC board. He was
saying he couldn't get anything like that with his digital camera. I
explained that I just used the Graflex that I bought in high school, with
the lensboard on backwards.

Hopefully there should be another one of those in a couple weeks too. This
time I rigged a gadget so I could fire the shutter from the backside of the
lensboard.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article ,
Scott Dorsey wrote:

You buy nice toyz!

I'm still sticking with the Crown Graphic.

If I had a medium format film camera, I'd use it a lot. Nobody is
seriously claiming that pro-sumer digicams are any match for medium
format film, and your Graflex is a is a proper 4x5 press camera,
n'est-ce pas? It would still be a fine choice for a studio camera.
I remember there being hella good lenses for it, and interesting
"Graflok" back options.

I have a fair collection of Nikkor lenses from back in the day, but my
F body was ruined (the house fire that took nearly all my other possessions,
including the record collection that started in 1965 and ended in 1996),
so I was just in the market for a used Nikon. Well, a colleague showed me
his EOS (20D) and another one grabbed his EOS Rebel XT, I played with
them, we compared, talked about lenses, and it was all over for me :-)

I'm still looking for an Ebay deal on a Nikon F2 body, but I gotta say
this digital camera is pretty damn good. Hey, can you even get Plus-X
and Tri-X film in 35mm anymore? I hardly ever shot a frame that wasn't
bulk-loaded Tri-X.

In fact, I got a call from someone not long after the last DIY mike article
in Recording, asking me how I got the close-ups of the PC board. He was
saying he couldn't get anything like that with his digital camera. I
explained that I just used the Graflex that I bought in high school, with
the lensboard on backwards.

You can do old school lens tricks on Canon SLR's, and there are some
quite droolworthy lenses available. Okay, nothing is quite as cool as
putting the camera together backwards, or all the stuff the macro guys
would do with their handmade bellows rigs and stuff, and I have had the
joy of doing medium format contact prints and big slides. Back when I
would have enough free time to spend hours in the darkroom. Sigh. I
loved my darkroom.

"james" wrote in message
news:3H1ae.59563$A31.53295@fed1read03...

If I had a medium format film camera, I'd use it a lot. Nobody is
seriously claiming that pro-sumer digicams are any match for medium
format film, and your Graflex is a is a proper 4x5 press camera,
n'est-ce pas?

4x5 is considered large format, not medium.

Pedantically yours,

Hal Laurent
Baltimore

Hal Laurent wrote:
"james" wrote in message

If I had a medium format film camera, I'd use it a lot. Nobody is
seriously claiming that pro-sumer digicams are any match for medium
format film, and your Graflex is a is a proper 4x5 press camera,
n'est-ce pas?

4x5 is considered large format, not medium.

My friend with the 11X14 view calls 4X5 "miniature format." He is also
a total raving loonie, though.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."