TritonTr196 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 I have questions for anyone who records. I've got my Sony device record level volume set to 2 and high mic sensitivity. When I started out, it was at 3, but the results seemed louder than real time sound would be, so I dropped it down to get closer to "real sounds". Some of the great recordings you folks get sound louder and clearer to me than mine. So, do you amplify afterward or set your rec level higher? When I post, I'm always reminding to use high volume for full effect, so just curious. Here are a couple from last night. I hope SY gets around to this, the first one I believe is two coughs and a sniff. Pretty sure it wasn't a human. The second is similar to many I record, a rock clack or mouth pop. They're usually quieter though. There were many obvious taps and knocks, etc. for a few hours. 160529_01cough.wav 160529_01loudpop.wav What type of sony recorder do you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKH Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 PCM-M10. It was what I got after doing research on recommended gear a few years ago, and I agree with the recs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernyahoo Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Some of our recordings were done with homemade parabolic microphone set ups, while others were captured with small Olympus voice recorders using mini external microphones. The voice recorders have two settings, dictation and conference. We use conference because it is the higher sensitivity setting and better for distant sounds. They also have a feature that will attenuate sensitivity automatically when a close loud sound occurs to avoid distortion in the recording. This seems to work well for most situations. JKH, I would probably use a higher sensitivity setting and experiment to see if your recorder will also attenuate on close loud sounds. If the volume was still low then I'd probably raise the volume of your clips with a sound editor when posting them. That cough might be from a hominid, not sure. If I heard the foot steps associated with the subject I probably could be. Sometimes audio captures can seem muffled because of distance and some of the frequencies just don't make it to the microphone, like the higher frequencies of a wheezy cough. The pop could be similar to what some researchers refer to as a tongue tock. You just need more associated sounds to make a determination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKH Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Thanks, guys. The pops or tocks as I've mentioned before are recorded very often, I may have hundreds by now, so not surprising. I tried to recreate the coughing sound, it was similar but not as low pitched and my sniff didn't even register on the spec. I detected no footsteps around it. Will keep on with the experiments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TritonTr196 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 (edited) We do our recordings using a sony px333. $60 at staples or office max and those type of stores and cheaper if you order online. Can get them on sale. We just buy the external sony stereo mics for them. I get three full nights out of regular alkalines and with lithiums we can get five or more full nights of audio without having to retrieve the recorder as it will run day and night.. Turn on and go and field tested with thousands of hours of recordings... I'll give those sounds a listen tomorrow. Edited May 30, 2016 by TritonTr196 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lake County Bigfooot Posted May 30, 2016 Author Share Posted May 30, 2016 Finding some sanity in my life was a huge priority, which I have, so now I might be able to record more often. The surroundings are shaping up, the cattail marsh is coming in, about chest high to head high, my activity has always been around the time the marsh fills in and into the fall. This last winter the dead marsh was knocked down by wind, ice, and snow. It was flattened, so it made it an unusual year for winter cover. Less deer activity noticed, but that is returning. The heron rookery is well along, but will continue into June, then it gets quiet enough to record locally, I have a few spots I would like to test on my way home from work, bottom lands with river forests and marsh, softwoods, adjacent to power line easements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TritonTr196 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 (edited) Thanks, guys. The pops or tocks as I've mentioned before are recorded very often, I may have hundreds by now, so not surprising. I tried to recreate the coughing sound, it was similar but not as low pitched and my sniff didn't even register on the spec. I detected no footsteps around it. Will keep on with the experiments. There is no way to tell what these sounds are. The little "ping" sound is very common in nighttime audio. It could even be a chipmunk making that pop sound. The "coughing" sound I have no clue. But unless you got heavy breathing, footsteps if possible, there is nothing to say it's a Bigfoot. You have a really bad phasing problem with this audio recorder. Unless you can fix that your audio recordings will be hard to hear and understand. This problem is usually caused on these type of recorders due to the stereo mics. Try to see if they can be positioned differently. Also here is one tip, whenever you cut out audio segments, leave at least ten seconds on the beginning and end, before the sound in question starts. Edited May 30, 2016 by TritonTr196 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKH Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) Thank you kindly, Triton. Not sure how you could detect a bad problem with my small clips. I have some musician friends and will try to troubleshoot if necessary. The mics are built-in and omnidirectional, here's one review: The built-in mics work surprisingly well. In theory, one can’t get much of a stereo image from omnidirectional mics placed closely together, like they are on this recorder. But the proof is in the listening, and in practice, the M10 makes very nice stereo recordings, with good stereo separation, and imaging. Many other small recorders, including the M10’s big brother the Sony D50, make a big deal about adjustable position mics, which allow the user to select narrow or wide stereo pick-up patterns. Those are convenient options to have when you have time to be very precise in your placement of the recorder, but in the real world, it’s more common to just point the recorder at something and move it around until it sounds good. The M10 mics can’t be repositioned, but what’s more important is that they sound good, and can create a vivid you-are-there stereo image. Anyway, I might try your setup for a change, since it's really fun for me. Good luck LCB and all in your travels. Edited May 31, 2016 by JKH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TritonTr196 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Thank you kindly, Triton. Not sure how you could detect a bad problem with my small clips. I have some musician friends and will try to troubleshoot if necessary. The mics are built-in and omnidirectional, here's one review: The built-in mics work surprisingly well. In theory, one can’t get much of a stereo image from omnidirectional mics placed closely together, like they are on this recorder. But the proof is in the listening, and in practice, the M10 makes very nice stereo recordings, with good stereo separation, and imaging. Many other small recorders, including the M10’s big brother the Sony D50, make a big deal about adjustable position mics, which allow the user to select narrow or wide stereo pick-up patterns. Those are convenient options to have when you have time to be very precise in your placement of the recorder, but in the real world, it’s more common to just point the recorder at something and move it around until it sounds good. The M10 mics can’t be repositioned, but what’s more important is that they sound good, and can create a vivid you-are-there stereo image. Anyway, I might try your setup for a change, since it's really fun for me. Good luck LCB and all in your travels. I can tell very easily if there is problems with audio. While people like to use the "There are no experts on Bigfoot" there are those of us that are experts in audio and video. I used to use two zoom h5's but quickly learned they aren't very good for this. There are just too many things to go wrong with these types. They are great if you're doing an on location recording for a video or tv show, public speech, band, ect. The cheaper sony I mentioned is perfect. I will post an audio of mine and you can see the difference in clarity and sound. Not saying these higher dollar recorders aren't good, but to be honest as I said in an earlier post, they are way more "tender" if you will. I screwed up one of my h5's due to moisture that got in it. $500 down the drain in only four days. But mine are way out in the wilderness and from what I can gather yours is just outside your house? Be careful if you put this out in the woods and make sure to cover it really good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TritonTr196 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) Here is a Bigfoot howl we got this past September. There were three single howls, almost exactly 12 minutes apart from each other. This is the first howl. It was windy so there is little wind noise. These howls were really far off but it captured them really good. howls1.mp3 Edited May 31, 2016 by TritonTr196 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKH Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 Good one! I'll attach an older suspected howl clip that I had in another thread, from a southern city with an area of reported activity approximately three miles away, IIRC. Too bad about my Sony, it's been a workhorse. A few months ago it went through a windstorm and was under something in a plastic bag, yet sat in a couple tablespoons of water that got forced in, probably for ~ 12 hours. Worked fine, though. I record all over, anywhere that's convenient with cover near water. Wilderness is a couple of hours away, but will get there this summer. What kind of stereo mic do you prefer? That will make it a bit harder to conceal/shelter, so any tips are welcome. City1.mp3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernyahoo Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 I don't know which mic Triton is using but it sounds like this one. I have a couple of these as well. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=225510&gclid=CNC6m8vrh80CFQ2QaQod4DwNIQ&is=REG&ap=y&m=Y&c3api=1876%2C92051677682%2C&Q=&A=details Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TritonTr196 Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 I don't know which mic Triton is using but it sounds like this one. I have a couple of these as well. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=225510&gclid=CNC6m8vrh80CFQ2QaQod4DwNIQ&is=REG&ap=y&m=Y&c3api=1876%2C92051677682%2C&Q=&A=details That's exactly it. Can get used ones cheap on ebay and also get the Chinese knock off ones really cheap also and I don't really see a difference as I use both and for the lower cost I would recommend the knock off. I'll post some pictures of mine when get on the laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernyahoo Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Mine are the knock offs also, and I haven't had many issues with them. They can handle getting wet also, and not much lost if they ruin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKH Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Thanks for all the feedback, guys. I'm placing my order today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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