Noob interested in Field Recordings

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Hello friend, welcome to the world of location recording!

I don't have any experience with smartphone mics myself, but there are at least a couple good brands out there that make them (thinking Rode specifially) so it's worth looking into. For your price range I would suggest starting with a handheld stereo recorder. Although you might not have the option to expand if you want to use it with mics someday (either a shotgun mic for collecting single sounds or a pair of mics for collecting stereo ambience).

For around $100 you should be able to get a Zoom H1 or a Tascam DR-05 or similar. Or you could get an XY stereo mic pair for your phone if you think that'll be worthwhile (I wouldn't though - for nature recordings it's best to use something you can leave alone for awhile). You'll also want to get a little tripor or something as well so you can place the recorder and walk away.

What types of recordings do you want to do? Ambience? Birds? Collecting Sound FX?

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Silly me I should have posted some recordings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ot-qyC0O8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc0qIUGHVG4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTH-Owl-Exw

>>1035822
>>1035824
Thanks for the reply! I've looked into the Tascam DR-05 before and seems within my budget. Do you have any experience with it?

I'm mostly interested in longish recordings of the natural environment in places like fields or forests and streams in the Sierra Nevadas that I hope to visit this Summer. So yeah, bird calls, other animals, insects, running water etc. I want to do some field recordings so I can listen to and remember those places for the rest of the year when I'm stuck in an urban concrete hellhole.

And nice recordings, are those yours? What kind of setup do you have?

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>>1035832
Awesome, sounds good! I don't have experience with the DR-05 but I started with the DR-40, which seems to have the same mics. The DR-40 allows you to swing the mics from an XY orientation to n ORTF orientation, which in practice is actually quite a significant feature to have, which the DR-05 or H1 do not have. In any case, the Tascam mics are good, very sensitive, pretty low noise. They're not absolutely transparent though (they color the sound a noticeable amount, as is typical with any directional mic). Either way, fantastic value!

My current rig is a Tascam DR-70D 4ch recorder that I usually use with a pair of AT4022 omni mics spaced with a Jecklin disk. (as seen in my first post). I started with just the DR-40 and slowly upgraded. The DR-40 (same features as the Zoom H2N btw) allows you to use external mics so eventually I bought a pair of cheapish external mics and built a Jecklin disk... and just kept upgrading over time - got better preamps to use with it, external phantom power, etc. Now the DR-40 is in storage and I have a much better recorder in the DR-70D and better mics with the Audio-Technicas as well. I still use the cheaper mics sometimes when they might get damaged (rain, etc). Also the cheaper mics, being less sensitive, tolerate cold and humidity better as well. It's nice to have some choices to suit the situation. And yes, those are my recordings!

This reording I made with just the DR-40 built-in pair (pretty much the same thing you'd get with a DR-05):
https://youtu.be/Y2BbFab2l5I

This is the DR-40 with the cheapish external mics:
https://youtu.be/e_BCWL-Ow_U

Here's the DR-70D with the nice external mics:
https://youtu.be/FxoxzbYdOjw

And here's a fun recording I made with my "Binaural Ball" (pictured):
https://youtu.be/C7iZ23-cVNE

>>1035837
Thanks for posting info; all the the audiophile websites I've found while googling for info are literally incomprehensible.

I have a DR-05 and I suspect it's got a lot more bells and whistles than I think. If I want to record, say, crickets, do I just hit record or is there something more fancy I can do?
Also, it defaults to a low recording volume, which means I have to crank up the decibels in Audacity. Do you think it's better to record with a high recording volume, wind permitting?

Tangentially related...
...I've been thinking about moving more into video.

I've got DSLRs that'll do video, good glass, etc.
But the on-board mics suck ass. One of my DSLRs has a mic input, none of my other cameras do.

I'm fairly well established in the still-photo world, my work's been published online, in magazines, and in promo material for a number of companies and organizations. Been asked a few times if I have any video... "No, that's not my thing."

I think if I force myself to shoot more video, I'll get more comfortable with the time aspect of photography vs. just a good still shot.

But then there's the other half of the equation - audio.

Should I buy an external mic for the one camera I have that can take it, or should I step up to a dedicated recorder and sync in post from any of my cameras?

Any recommendations for getting started in the video realm?
Or should I just stick with what I'm good at and have the equipment for?

I should also dedicate some more time to /out/ timelapses. That's a skill I want to improve.

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>>1035813
With regard to nature recording "budget" is not a subject for polite conversation. My recorder wasn't cheap but still I've spent even more on raw chicken, batteries, coyote-bitch-in-heat urine, bird seed, SD cards, tripods, gas money, and (pic related) editing software. I bought my Sony in August 2014. Amortized cost comes out to less than $1 a day and still dropping. Compared to wasting money on the vending machines at work or Taco Bell drive through, a dollar is nothing. Apparently field recording isn't an easy way to make a living but recording nature is the greatest of hobbies. A sample of my 2017 captures: https://soundcloud.com/digrpat

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>>1035907
Well make sure you're recording to .wav and make sure it's 24-bit first of all. Other than that I would say adjust the mic gain accordingly. Generally you want your recording level meters to hover around 2/3 (or maybe even 3/4) of the way up for ambience. But, remember, that doesn't leave much headroom if a loud sound occurs. If you can't adjust the gain enough to get the meters that high then yeah you'll have to fix it in post, which is no big deal as long as you recorded to 24-bit. DON'T use any of the auto-level adjust or limiter features while recording ambience! Or music for that matter. Those are useful for interviews, newsgathering, etc. and will ruin ambience or music performances. It's all about getting the location right and the levels and then just leaving it be!

>>1036464
Well, first find-out if the mic-in on your DSLR will do stereo or mono. From that point it gets complicated. Generically you could get yourself a shotgun mic (Rode videomic, etc) that mounts on the hot shoe and there you go... the problem is that's a mono source and it points straight ahead. So it depends on the kind of videos you want to do - if you want to record full lush ambience you're gonna need more stuff. If the DSLR can take a stereo source then you can get a stereo shotgun mic, which is a little more natural but is still very directional. Those types of mics take batteries and power themselves so it's ok, but if you want to use more professional mics then yeah, you'll need an external recorder. I would honestly just start with a shotgun mic (preferably stereo shotgun if you can do that) and see how you go. It gets bulky and expensive quick so I guess it depends what you need.

>>1036536
Ooooh nice, digger got himself a copy of RX! :D

>>1036536
Good shit, I can't justify spending $800 on a piece of equipment though.

>>1036550
Yeah but people spend $800 on fishing rods, kyaks, cars, fuel, christmas trees year after year, ciggy butts and beer, etc. It's all about how you want to spend your time friend.

>>1036566
True, I just don't have a solid lump of 800 hondos to drop on any hobby, so I'd rather pay 1/10 that to get started than to not do anything at all.

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>>1036586
This is a good philosophy to have.

One thing about the DR-05 or H1 (or any handheld recorder like this) - you WILL need a windmuff for it. 100% asbolutely must have, it will be useless like 95% of the time without one. Sensitive cardioid mics like this are so prone to the slightest wind, movement, or handling noise that you can't even wave your pinky finger near it. Windmuff and tripod/stand are essential. So you gotta budget for that.

>>1036589
Are you the AudioAnon that's always starting threads about field recordings? Do you sell your work? I'd like some clippettes.
[email protected]

Just to cents from a guy who works in video production.

If you're just starting out and want something decent enough to record good ambient/foley, I'd highly recommend the Zoom H4n, basically a souped up version of the DR-05 that's already been posted. Not only does it have decent onboard sound, but crucially has XLR inputs so you can plug in any pro-grade external mic (shotgun, omnidirectional or otherwise) you like. As for the DSLR question, unless you're working with one of the few film cameras out there with decent XLR inputs and preamps (unlikely, and all DSLRs have shit sound bar none), you'll want to record onto an external recorder then sync. If you really hate that idea, you can go with something like a hot shoe XLR adapter (the GH5 + XLR Hub is probably the best run-n-gun AV rig on the market) but expect to pay a bit extra for slightly inferior sound.

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Does any one here have an opinion on the Sound Devices MixPre-3 or MixPre-6? And what would be a good choice of mics for around 1K.

>inb4 stern lecture from bankruptcy trustee

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>>1037179
Anon shoot me a message through my youtube channel if you really want some stuff so we can have a chat and whatnot. A-also I've hardly ever started these threads!

>>1037778
Hey digs, anything Sound Devices is going to be good. The MixPre-3 is probably the way to go as generally speaking you'll probably never use the additional channels/preamps and it adds a lot of cost. But if you do think you'll be using 3- or 4-channel mic techniques then be sure to get the right thing. As far as mics goes, it all comes down to what technique you want to use. Coincident/near coincident pairs, MS, binaural/baffled, spaced omni, decca/modified decca tree, multichannel arrays (IRT cross, polyhymnia pentagon, fukada tree, etc).

The other thing is if you're going to leave it out for days alone you're going to have power supply issues to solve, as that recorder and external mics will be a lot more power hungry than the Sony with onboard electret mics, and also the mics will probably be more susceptible to moisture, condensation, and temperature.

Now for naitcher recordings the most popular methods are MS, binaural, and baffled stereo (like the legendary Crown SASS ambient mic - pic related).

For you I might suggest MS because:
1. It's different than the XY/ORTF technique you've been using with the Sony mics
2. It's an compact and easy setup which is good for packing long distances, seting up, and leaving out for long periods.
3. It gives you a great clear coincident pickup except with a much more natural low frequency response than you get with cardioid mics (XY, etc).

For MS you'll need either a pre-setup MS pair (Schoeps and some others sell them) or any figure-8 mic and cardioid mic to setup together. But it depends what you want to do. Also the cost of wind shields/muffs, blimps, stands, etc. can add up a lot. Maybe in the hundreds :S

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ßump

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EnCouraging all would-be recordists to take up this awesome /out/ activity.

Also the solstice is Wednesday (June 21, 2017 04:24 UTC). It would be a cool collaboration to record whatever environment we happen to be on this astronomically significant but otherwise arbitrary date. And naturally, shill links to this thread.

>>1040779
That's a cool idea anon.

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>>1040779
That's cool but I won't be able to this time brah, I'm embroiled in finals right now and it's utterly live-destroying on every level of my being.

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>>1041187
>9-circles-of-hell
Reminds me of recording my workplace.
Got home put on headphones and thought:
"Yep, that's what Hell sounds like"

For North-hemisphere-anons June solstice
is a wake-up call. Soon the reign of songbirds
will end. My rig is packed and ready to go.

>>1041872
noice

>>1036589
I just hold mine under my shirt ._.

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100 minutes till sunrise. I wonder how the night went.

>>1042289
That's not a very good way to record m8. You should bite the bullet and just get a windmuff. Probably $20!

>>1042559
Noice! The dawnm chorus outght to be nice as well.

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>>1042569
>dawn chorus
sucker was still rolling when I retrieved it. Over 22 hours continuous take. exhausted, scratched up and bruised from brutal hikes back to back after day job.

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>>1043255
Ooof sounds brutal! Hope it's good stuff though.

It kinda sucks living innacity now, I can't just walk out into the woods whenever I want, I have to make complicated plans with travel and expenses and overnight accommodations and whatnot. I have a few weeks off now so I'm going to try and get a camping trip in, even though it's winter. There are lots of great urban locations I can record but it's a little tricky because people love to interfere, either curiously or, sometimes, maliciously. Pic related, this pedestrian tunnel has like 4 rail lines that go over it and it sounds unbelievable in there when 2 or more trains are passing over.

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>>1043812
worse part was tripping with my full pack onto a big rock
which hit right on my sternum.
>he died doing what he loved
I lay there motionless for a good while before taking a breath.

The sunrise was nice except for 5 jets passing over.
I loaded the audio into iZotope RX for editing practice.
i'm not real happy with the results but it's good enough
for youtube
https://youtu.be/e0QbCpJ1zBE

>>1043886
It sounds great to me, thanks for sharing!

>>1043886
Sounds great! What sort of editing did you do?

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>>1044196
>>1045277
Thanks, although nature gets the credit.
My editing goal is removing aircraft noise
from long tracks. Normally I just chop out
the 4 minutes from the timeline. With
iZotopeRX I tried to cut and paste clean
ambiance over just the offending part of
the spectrogram, as demonstrated in
Paul Virostek's blog. I also did some heavy
EQing to quiet the low frequencies some.
That's the part that I'm not very skilled at.

Spent the night at pic related so now there's
another 15 hours of audio review. I prefer staying
innawoods when recording but during the week
that's often not possible.

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God-tier conditions. Anyone else recording?

>>1045840
Have anything ready to share from this?

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>>1048615
https://archive.org/details/TerrilPond
I'm innawods right now
Uploaded an hour cut after trying declip module. frogs allways get closer and loader than I expect

>>1048781
Is that food that you placed in front of your recorder?

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>>1048781
>food?
Yes, Ol' Roy dog food. I think of it as tithing Nature
but it's more like trapping without the trap.

>>1050525
Do you get any good animals sounds from doing that? Aren't you worried they might fuck with the recorded since its so close?

Thanks to all the recordanons who've posted their advice and setups. I've had this on the backburner but I want to get started before the end of summer. I've never been great at any art really, but I know when I'm outside I really connect with how a place sounds. Like just making recordings on my phone is a great way to remember an experience or the feeling of being somewhere. So, thanks for the primer. I'm gonna check out a lot of your soundclouds and other tracks tonight after work.

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>>1052802
Sure but I usually have to record a couple days
in a row to see any real action in a baited area.
In this recording a coyote climbs up a steep
incline, sniffs the mic (1:20) , salivary glands
squirt, grabs a raw chicken drumstick and runs
back down. later crows move in close enough
to hear wings flap.
https://youtu.be/VYMNdtma-ag
you don't get that sortof activity without food lying around.

>>1052871
There are plenty of recorders suitable for the
novice. No matter which you choose the main
goals are the same:
1) Finding an interesting subject
2) excluding unwanted noise.
there's about 3 months left this season

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>>1052802
>fuck with the recorder?
forgot to mention, there are 3 aluminum stakes
next to the tripod with bungees woven between
them. The worse offenders are small critters.
A fly, ant or slug can get on the recorder and
totally wreck 30 minutes of audio. I use a
general purpose insect repellent around the
tripod.

>>1055706
Cute dog

>>1037925
Why are you stammering online

>>1057914
Wat

>>1035813
welcome back samefagging recorder. youd probably get better reception without the pretense

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>>1057908
I got a cat too

>>1058099
aww good kitty

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>>1058082
I was scrolling the board
and then I halted,
Because this post
was so damn salted

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>>1058926
>NaCl
What's worse the charge of samefagging is totally unfounded. Right now on numerous internet forums there are countless noobs asking about smart phone accessories for recording concerts etc. Nothing too unusual about that.

OP here, still haven't bought a recorder yet but still thinking about getting a DR-05. I'm glad this thread is still up!

>>1061906
go with it dude seems like a great deal, more features than the h1 for the same price

>>1061906
Yeah man it's pretty decent and really convenient. Just toss it in your pocket or bag and you're ready to point and shoot at a minute's notice

>>1061906
>>1061920
>>1061927
Okay just pulled the trigger and bought one right before a sale ended.

I still need to buy a windscreen, what's a reasonable price for one of those?

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>>1061943
They are a little pricey for what they are which is shitty but it's asbolutely essential to have one, especially with these mics. You might also want a little tripod or something, because handling noise is an issue with these as well. Not critical to buy right away.

These are the 3 dead kittens I could find that fit the DR-05. I have a Windtech one and it works great, and it's the cheaper option.

>>1061943
nice you bought it dude theres a windscreen in the tascam DR accesory pack

>>1061945
>>1061947
I went ahead and got a Movo windscreen for about $15, hopefully that does the job.

On a related note, do you guys have any recommendations for cheap /out/ camcorders or do you just stick to audio for the most part?

hiii
i have zoom h1 with a windmuff.
pretty good sound!!

>>1061943
here, just got my recorder in the mail. What are the ideal settings for outdoor recording that you would recommend?

I mean in terms of format, tone volume (and secs), level, auto tone, low cut etc. Is there one standard for this or does it vary based on different conditions? Thanks for entertaining my stupid questions.

>>1064021
shut tone off, that puts a "beeeeep" at the beginning of recordings and you don't need that. that's for syncing to video or if you're doing news gathering and collecting a bunch of soundbytes that you have to sort through later.

use wav, 24 bit, 44.1kHz is fine

don't use any auto level, don't use any limiting or compression, i personally wouldn't recommend using low cut either.

when you get to your location, record arm and adjust the level so it's about 2/3 of the way up. It's better to record a little too low than it is to allow an incidental loud sound to clip (bird tweeting close to the recorder suddenly, for example).

if it's really windy (which even with the windmuff on can cause some rumble) then I would recommend using one of the low cut settings (40 or 80Hz or so).

and that's really about it. do you have a program or app/DAW for editing your recordings?

>>1064032
Thanks for the help. I don't currently have a recording editor, can you recommend a good one, preferably free?

>>1064048
Well, for free there's Audacity. All you want/need is to be able to normalize levels (boost the audio so people don't have to turn up the volume too much but not so much that the peak clips), edit out stuff you don't want (like sounds of yourself starting and stopping the recording) and doing nice fades and such. You can do all this in something like Garage Band as well but you have to make sure all the processing and effects are shut off, you don't want to be adding compression or reverb or even EQ really.

As far as EQ goes, high pass filters are good and maybe a touch of a boost or cut in the high end is typical if you need to balance the sound a bit.

>>1035824
>>1035837
these are superb for tinnitus, drowns the shit right out
10/10

>>1064233
Thanks for the kind words friend, that makes me happy.

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anybody been recording lately?

https://youtu.be/2VXVtUROziY

>>1067721
Nice.

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it's been a great weekend for recording
and my recorder is still going out there
https://soundcloud.com/digrpat/170729a

>>1071506
That's a big bird.

Going out soon hoping to do some recording. I have some old marantz pmd660's, or a tascam dr-40. What do you recommend? Tempted by the marantz looks more rugged, and I have a case for it. Don't want to break this kit.

I also have access to some mics, Shure sm58s and sm57's, a hyper cardiod shotgun rode ntg2, some audio technica Omni (could be good) and a bunch of other crap. Would the shures be better than the default mic on the tascam? Would also need to procure a wind sock/dead cat for sure will probably make my own one.

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>>1073794
>do some recording
what are you hoping to record?
do you have a location picked out yet?

>>1073794
If you're just doig ambient recordings I suspect the Marantz might be better than the Tascam, but it's really subjective. The Marantz has two close internal omni mics whereas the Tascam has 2 cardioid mics that do XY or ORTF. If you want to do "point and shoot" direct sound FX recording the Tascam's the key, or the shotgun mic + Marantz.

You'll absolutely need a windmuff at least for the Tascam, the Marantz would be more tolerant to light/normal wind conditions, but would always benefit from a windmuff if you could get on on there.

The Shure mics are all cardioid dynamic mics and won't be of any use for field recording.

>>1074258
How do trail cams work, by the way? Can you just set one up somewhere, leave it, then pick it up and find a bunch of wildlife stills?

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>>1076876
my trail cam has been in the woods for 2 months.
swapped out the memory card 3 times mainly
out of curiosity. got it on sale for $99 so it's not
the greatest. I hate the user interface which
resembles a kitchen appliance more than a
digital camera. I've got 100s of vulture and coyote
pictures this summer. also so far in 2017 I've recorded 700 hours on my Sony, some of which
haven't been reviewed yet.