#1217

Side note: when there’s a lot of fog or otherwise nasty weather, the planes actually fly quite low above our house, as there’s a airport nearby and they need to temporarily change their landing course due to adverse weather conditions. Now THAT does sound very cool and I should record it some day when the weather is right.

I think that’s the crux of the matter for me though - speaking again purely as a matter of taste, the boring person I am, and not in a philosophical manner. When the planes fly over high enough and add their sound to the picture, at least with recorders and mics I’ve used it’s very hard to shift focus to them or make them prominent in an interesting way - they’re still something that’s far away and passing relatively quickly, and it sounds like that as well.

1 Like
#1218

I’ll play devil’s advocate to the plane discussion here. The Palo Alto Baylands in Silicon Valley, CA, is right by the Palo Alto airport. Last month I got some lovely field recordings of water on the baylands, bird calls, and planes flying overhead. Yes, the planes are louder — they punctuate the recording — but they’re really part of the environment there. And small propeller plans landing have all kinds of interesting sounds as the pilots throttle back, adjust whatever it is they adjust, and all of that stuff.

Good fun.

That said, yes, I struggle as much with jet aircraft overhead as the next person when recording in my back yard!

6 Likes
#1219

Reminder:

The new Field Recording Meetup group starts tonight at 7:30pm EST. If you’d like the link, please message me. The group will meet monthly to discuss field recording techniques, equipment, and share recordings.

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#1220

I don’t know if this was already posted, but it’s a wonderful short film, featuring R. Murray Schafer.

“…There were no recordings. Every sound committed suicide, you might say and would never be heard again, not exactly the same way. That made people more perceptive and more considerate of the soundscape that they were living with. They were more moved by it, because it was living all the time around them.”

9 Likes
#1221

I just received a MixPre 6ii. So far it’s an amazingly satisfying piece of gear.

I’m excited to record in 32bit float, so as to not have to worry about clipping, but the thought occurred to me: are there times where I’d prefer the sound of hitting the hardware limiters on the way in (in 24bit) vs trying to do that later with the 32bit files in post? Curious for thoughts from people that have taken the dive into 32bit field recording.

3 Likes
#1222

My understanding is that even with 32bit converters, you can still hit the mic pres hard and they will saturate…

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#1223

Interesting. I know that the limiters are turned off in 32bit mode so I’m guessing it would sound quite different even if that was the case, no? I’ll do some tests at some point…

#1224

that’s probably because the limiter is digital, so it’s after the mic pres? i’m just speculating here … but the mic pres should have an analog headroom, as do the mics, which will still do something when pushed hard…

#1225

Huh… I took this from the Sounddevices site:

What are my limiter options?

In 16- or 24-bit operation, the MixPre II offers analog/digital limiters similar to the original MixPre recorders. These limiters have been improved to give control over ratio, release, and threshold. In 32-bit float mode, the multi-stage A-to-D converters are active to capture the full dynamic range of the incoming signal; no limiters are needed.

I wonder what “analog/digital” means?!

#1226

there are three limiters, one at each gain stage - the 1st limiter is analog, the others are digital.

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EDIT: that’s for the v1 of the mixpre series (i don’t have a v2), and the XLR input max input level is +14dBu. should be at least the same for the v2.

3 Likes
#1227

It looks like the input and limiter setup is the same in v2. Thanks for this!

#1228

Happened to stumble on this wonderful list today (and it reminded me that some of my best field recording has been in the kitchen):

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#1229

I got a lovely recording of our gas stove running.

Unfortunately, I remembered to put away the field recorder, but left the burner running until my wife saw it! She was not impressed.

2 Likes
#1230

I still regret not capturing an absolutely amazing bass drum sound my old gas range made in an apartment I had a few years back.

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#1231

Talks about the Mixpre limiter/ compressor, I first bought the device because of this, but little by little I realized that it’s more tailored for dialogue, not ambient sounds (i.e. sudden car bark/ siren), so now I turn it off all the time.

1 Like
#1232

anyone have the official Sony AC adapter for the PCM-D100 and can tell me what the specs are on it? All I could find in the user manual was 6V. no mention of amperage or polarity. thanks.

#1234

I don’t have the adaptor but on the side of the D-100 itself it says DC 6V centre positive

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#1235

According to the official manual:

Output Voltage: DC6V
Output Current: 800mA
Polarity of the plug: Center-positive

1 Like
#1236

Field Recording Meetup: Thursday Dec 10 @ 7:30 pm EST

The new field recording meetup group will have its 2nd meeting at 7:30pm EST this Thursday. If you’d like the link, please message me. The group meets monthly (2nd Thursday) to discuss field recording techniques, equipment, and share recordings.

HWcamel_hi-res
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#1237

won’t be able to make the meeting, but sure do love that picture!

2 Likes