#62

This is an old thread,I know, but I’m wondering how your experiments with stereo came out. Did you capture anything you really enjoyed? Also, have you found the Mixpre to be acceptable in terms of RFI? I was thinking of recording to my phone with shielded cable via a splitter with headphone out but wonder how much interference I’ll get. Maybe airplane mode will help. I’ve got a Mixpre 6ii so I’ll also be messing with that but sometimes I like to travel light.

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#63

I tried making some recordings with multiple devices, and never got any results that justified carrying an unwieldy rig. My mantra for any kind of field recording is–use the simplest/lightest rig that does the job. The MixPre emits RFI, but isn’t an issue unless the rf detector is super close. An iphone emits more RFI, but will probably be ok with a decent length cable. I also have a ULF/VLF receiver, and I have to completely shut down the phone to avoid interference, but that’s with a big whip antenna, not an inductor. It’s always worth experimenting with different rigs to see what works best.

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#64

Awesome, thanks for sharing! I suppose it’s all trial and error with this kind of weird stuff anyway. I’m excited to experiment with building different antennae to clip onto the loops with Pomona test clips. It’s just a whole new world of sounds and cheap ways to try and collect them. And VLF is no joke, I was looking at a couple of schematics for receivers and it seems like if it’s not shielded well enough, the receiver itself will provide weird interference. I work in avionics and we do some pretty heavy nav/com installs with HF boxes and the like. I’m excited to record the insanity that happens in a cockpit when the avionics power bus gets switched on! We have a project that’s rolling out at the end of January, I’ll try it out and post the results up here if I get anything worth a damn.

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#65

That sounds cool–you’d think an avionics package would make some interesting sounds. I’d guess an aircraft would have all sorts of rf sounds coming from the different systems.

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#66

For sure, i know we shield things pretty well but maybe I’ll just connect one or both antennae to a ground lug. Lots of RF runoff to be had that way!

I noticed people earlier talking about the upper knob doing nothing and since messing with mine a bit (it just came today!) i can definitely recommend being easy on the volume knob. I think it’s just easy to overload the headphone amp if you have it cranked. With the volume low, rolling slowly through the upper knob revealed a huge array of sounds. I think maybe it crossfades between the inductor on the board and the HF antennae.

We’ve got a scrap wire bin full of 3-foot lengths of wire from the laser marker at work and I’m thinking about splicing several of them together and making a kind of lattice patterned "antenna” to slide into my camera bag. We’ll see How that works. I’ve made a couple adapters so i can try clipping it to various wires and antenna. I’m excited to start figuring out what works best!

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