Field / Nature Recordings

[Proboscis]

All I know is from my own attempts to record rain storms whence a thunder clap came and clipped my input.

at what sample rate ?

[EdGrip]

If only there were some way to tell when there's about to be a thunderclap so you could ride the gain.

[Dabbler]

All I know is from my own attempts to record rain storms whence a thunder clap came and clipped my input.

at what sample rate ?

44.1 kHz using a Tascam 2488 with two Neumann TLM-103 mics.

[joeyluck]

If only there were some way to tell when there's about to be a thunderclap so you could ride the gain.

I've been able to avoid clipping even with lightning striking very close (see my example earlier in the thread). And I'm just using a Zoom F1 in that recording. Other times I'm using the H5. I keep the gain around the mid setting or lower. I currently record in 24-bit/48 kHz.

But on the note of unexpected loudness and avoiding clipping, this is why 32-bit float recorders like the Zoom F6 and Sound Devices MixPre II are really great. A 32-bit float recorder is on my list as one of the next things to get.

[littlejam]

hello,

doesn't lightning always precede thunder?
light travels faster than sound
if you see lightning, turn down the gain maybe

if you're in the middle of the storm
better have quick fingers

you can tell how close the lightning is by the time it takes you to hear the thunder

interesting thread

@joeyluck: very nice rain storm sound cloud track

i also like falling asleep to rain storm sounds

cheers,

j

[selig]

All I know is from my own attempts to record rain storms whence a thunder clap came and clipped my input.

Ideally, that should only happen to you once…

[Proboscis]

Today I thought I would venture out again to get to know the field rig a bit better, and work towards good results in video & audio capture. Headed to a waterbird refuge and set up in a semi-enclosed hideaway.

It's been incredibly windy the last couple of days, but instead of seeing that as a negative, I thought it might be a good opportunity to do some testing with the H6 on wind reduction.

Set up the camera to my tripod, and the H6 to the hot shoe, and found a great 'window' to raise the gear to, which happened to be 7ft high, so the recorder is out of my field of vision (but the camera has a vertically articulating screen, so I could see what I was capturing to video.

Spend about an hour there, announcing the different camera and recorder changes (such as input gain, wind sock on, dead cat on, etc). All good I thought. Plenty of reference material to review back in the studio.

It wasn't until I decided to dismantle, pack up and head home that I discovered that I didn't hit record !

[joeyluck]

Oh damn lol.

For a good bit I used the marker tone on my H5 as extra reassurance that I had hit record. But I have since disabled it since it records it onto the track, and often times it would be on top of something that I wish it wasn't. Definitely handy though if you are doing video like you are. You can send the line out of your H6 to your camera and record audio onto it from the H6, not necessarily to use the audio recorded to the camera, but just to be able to line up the marker tones later... Just makes syncing easier.

[Proboscis]

Oh damn lol.

Yes, that was my reaction . I had to chuckle. No big deal, at least I got to play with the camera, and get out into the fresh air, as well as scope a location for a future recording. It's unlikely that the gear would be that high up (above my head) in most situations.

I have been adding audio spikes the oldschool way, just clapping. Good enough for syncing. But I wonder, how does adding markers help confirm that record is on ? The input meters (on the H6 at least) light up when the mic's are active, not when the recording starts.

Might follow up on an idea I had to make a pocket sized checklist to keep in the gear bag, so I can 'tick off' everything when I'm ready to capture.

[joeyluck]

For me I'm always monitoring with headphones, so I would hear the tone and that would be my reassurance. Without it, i just gotta make sure the red LED is lit and the recording time is ticking away...which I can do most of the time if I don't have the recorder on a stand or rigged somewhere where I can't see the screen. I guess there's also the remote option, which I don't have, but that too has a red LED on it to confirm recording has started.

[joeyluck]

If you want to have a play with ambisonics, the Zoom Ambisonics Player for Mac or Windows is free and you can download it from here:

https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/handheld-rec ... r-support/

You can then find various ambisonic format recordings around, such as these here, which were captured with the Zoom H3-VR (link found at the end of the first post):

https://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/32 ... ple-files/

You can load those in the Zoom Ambisonics Player.

[littlejam]

hello,

@joeyluck

the link you provided to the player
further down the page is a 'stereo asio' driver download
do you think / know if this asio driver can be used in windows 7 like 'asio4all'
for general audio stuff or is it specifically for the zoom stuff

it's always nice to have options

thanks for any advice

j

[joeyluck]

hello,

@joeyluck

the link you provided to the player
further down the page is a 'stereo asio' driver download
do you think / know if this asio driver can be used in windows 7 like 'asio4all'
for general audio stuff or is it specifically for the zoom stuff

it's always nice to have options

thanks for any advice

j

Sorry I'm on Mac and don't know much of anything about drivers.