piblondin

I recorded in Hi-SP. I think the only thing I did to the file before encoding as MP3 was amplify it using Audacity. I will pull another snippet from the original recording and upload that here if that might help with the diagnosis. I don't really think there's anything wrong with the microphones, but rather there's something I'm not doing correctly when I use them. I've purchased a couple other small microphones, as I think I mentioned in an early post, and they all exhibit the same differences from the 907. (Granted, I believe my Sony ECM-DS70P is a fake.) I just seem to be missing something. Also, on another subject, the other type of event I record most frequently is talks/lectures. So far, the 907 has worked well for these. I usually just put AGC on standard and mic sensitivity on high. Again, I have trouble using the small microphones in this setting, as the microphone's noise is very present in the recording and the speaker sounds distant and washed out. It would be nice to be able to use these smaller microphones, but I haven't figured out how to do so yet. Again, any advice is much appreciated. Thank you for all your responses so far!

I tried your suggestion as a test at home with the stereo. It seemed to help, but the SP mics produce a near-constant hum of bass, which is better than the complete absence of bass that I seemed to get with the attenutator attached. Still, the Sony 907 with AGC on and mic sensitivity on high just seems to produce a cleaner sound, while the SP with mic sensitivity on low sounds sort of washed out and distant.

I recorded a show this week, but I can't help but feel that the Sony 907 would have performed much, much better with the same placement. I had mic sensitivity set to low, volume on the Radio Shack attenuator maxed out and recording volume on the RH-1 set to 24/30. I think next time I will try AGC even though everyone seems to say it's bad for music. What do you think? Attached is a clip from the show with quiet singing, audience cheering, louder singing + band, and audience sing-a-long. It was heavily amplified using Audacity, but there isn't any significant clipping. It sounds to me like something I could have recorded with a cheap voice recorder in my shirt pocket, not what I would expect from a MiniDisc and a popular concert taping microphone. Any suggestions for improvement are much appreciated. I know I could have been closer to the sound source, although everything seemed quite loud where I was. Other than that and maybe trying AGC, I'm not sure what else I can do with this microphone. It seems like replacing the attenuator with a battery box wouldn't make much of a difference. So, I'm sort of at a loss for how to make these Sound Professionals mics work. Thanks again for any help. Patti_Smith_12_30_2008.mp3

I did some more research and found that the SNR in the SP-BMC-3 is 58 while in the Sony ECM-MS907, it's 65 db. That seems like a significant difference in signal-to-noise ratios; is that what accounts for the differences I'm hearing in my recordings? And if so, naturally, my next question is: Are there any smaller mics with an SNR of around 65 db?

I've also been using the 907 and am having the same problem with other microphones I try. I've been testing out the Sony ECM-DS70P and a similar mic from Sound Professionals as well as a pair of the SP binaural microphones. All three of those produce that sort of background hum that ths 907 doesn't. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks, Green! I guess my issue is that for any given signal level in the recording, the noise seems much higher with the SP mics. So, say I produce recordings that reach sound level X in playback, for any given signal sound level X, the signal sounds clearer with less noise coming from the Sony. As a result, I have a tendency to make low volume recordings with the SP mics to limit the noise. But that doesn't really solve anything as I need to either jack the volume up in playback or amplify the sound file after recording. I understand that these mics require different settings on my MD from the Sony mic, but I'm still uncertain as to how people record things as simple as a single piano or a guitar in am empty room with a clear signal and little background noise using the SP mics with strong playback volume. Thanks again for any help!

I'm curious to know how people handle big shifts in volume when they're recording. I recently recorded a play which went from quiet conversations to very loud explosions and gunfire to quiet conversations to loud music etc. I used my Sony ECM-MS907 with AGC on and mic sensitivity set to high. The result turned out decent for my standards, though I would have liked the talking portions to have been louder when I play back the recording. (I'll try uploading something to the gallery.) More common situations may include lectures which alternate between quiet talking and relatively loud applause or concerts the go from loud music to the musicians' chatter in between songs. It seems impractical to constantly monitor the level on my MiniDisc recorder, especially if I'm trying to be discreet. So, I'm wondering how people capture things like musicians talking to the audience in between songs without having to amplify and distort it afterwards or producing clipping in the loud parts of the recording. Any advice, as usual, is appreciated. Thanks!

I have long used a Sony ECM-MS907 plugged into the mic in on my Minidisc recorder, and it works fine, usually producing clear recordings. However, I wanted to get something a little more discreet for recording shows and picked up a pair of those binaural microphones from Sound Professionals along with one of their small stereo omnidirectional microphones. Both of these mics produce a lot more noise than the Sony. They seem extremely sensitive and there's always a hiss of background noise when I record with them that isn't present with the Sony. I've been testing them out on my stereo at home with the Radio Shack volume attenuator plugged into the mic in jack on my recorder. I'm using manual recording levels and have tested both high and low mic sensitivity. The Sony w/out the attenuator blows them away. I know the Sony isn't a super great microphone or anything, and I am struggling to understand why there's such a big difference between these microphones. The sample recordings that I've heard from the Sound Professionals mics sound clean, so I feel like I must be doing something wrong. Any advice is much appreciated! Also, on another subject, is there any way to prevent interference from cell phones when making recordings? Is this also a problem on flash-based recorders with integrated microphones? Thanks for any help!