Reactive

Hi Zeppelin, most of the cheaper minidisc recorders do feature a mic jack (beware of the net MD super cheap models, as they do not support any mics at all). So to keep things realy simple go for a Sharp or a Sony recorder with a mic jack. If your on a budget you can use one of the plug in mic's that are available through us or (mindisc canada). A plug in Stereo mic, will be allow more creativity down the road, and you can extend them with a 6ft extension cable to allow for some really cool location recordings. You'll be looking at approx $25 to $60 US for a mono to a stereo mic (respective). Either one will be just fine for recording your lectures. Good luck and let us know what you decided on, and why.

count me in Dex, I live in a very noisy and very quiet area. I have just the thing for this project. I'll update you after the weekend. FUN!!!

Another trick you can do is to record the room noise and microphone noise while on the high gain setting. Generally 10 seconds is plenty. Just make sure there are NO other noises that you are recording. Now go ahead and record your interview. If you transfer the interview to the computer you can easily filter out the room/mic noise from the conversation. I recently cleaned up a really hissy bird recording for a freind, she needed to present the bird call as part of her study group. She found that when playing the bird call back over the room's PA system the hiss was very loud and it took away from the original recording of a Hutton's Variable (local Northwest bird). This is how I cleaned up the recording: First make a backup of the original. Use a editing program such as soundforge or cool edit. Zoom way in and Highlight a section of the recording that has only the background noise. Open the "remove hiss or noise" plug in that comes with either program. Select "get noise floor from selection" and apply the filter to the whole recording. Note you should be able to preview a section before doing this. Go have a cup of tea while the computer edits your wav file. You should be able to clearly hear a huge difference between the original file and your newly edited and much quieter sound file. You may have to play around with some of the noise removal settings to minimize the flanging sound that can creep in if you try to remove too much background noise. You can also boost the overall levels at this time if you require more of output sound level. Of interest, the above technique is commonly used by professionals, although in a slightly different manner. The room noise is recorded on a seperate track to allow the editing person to add or remove the voices as needed. Without the background noise you would be able to clearly hear the new voice track being inserted. A old trick but a good one.

We have a good product range that would fit your budget. The Auris Stereo microphone system is well suited for live events.

I may be way off here but I have had this occur once outdoors while recording in a static location. I attributed it to the changing thermal currents coming from the ground, crowd, sun light (as it was a very hot day) . This in effect would be similar to the doppler effect changing pitch as sound moves either to or from the subject. In my case the tonal changes particularly in the upper frequencies were most noticeable. Any physics guru's out there care to comment on this?

Hi, manual record MODE is essential for live recording. I would set the recording level to approx -12db or the fifth bar segment on your recorders level meter. This should give you a bit of head room for transient peaks that may occur during the show. I have never had any luck with auto level control, as it's circuitry cannot move quick enough to compensate for immediate peaks and valleys in the recording environment. Pratice as much as you can and you will find that recording sweet spot that you can use as a reference point time and time again. If you really want to get serious about recording live i would suggest that you move to a seperate battery box or even a pre-amp. Both of these add on items will allow you to record a louder show, and will allow the mic's to operate at their optimum performance.

Hi Greg, You'll most likely not hear the difference in the left and right field from the show, because most show's playback in mono. This is done mainly for the crowd who often cannot move around freely once they are in the venue. A mono playback system ensures that all of the audience no matter where they sit will hear a full balanced mix. So why not simply record with a mono mic then? Well it turns out that even recording a mono show with stereo mic's is way better than recording a show with just one mono mic. It helps to understand that the microphones hear lots of other sounds, including one that we humans take for granted...Ambience. Ambience and stereo imagery are closely related, your mono single mic recording would sound flat, lifeless, and would be clearly missing something (even to a person who has no experience with recording). Not to get confused with close micing like a cricket , in that scenario ambience is not a requirement of the recording. A live show however needs ambience in the recording, even a professional live show recording will have a few mic's pointed to the audience to capture the essence and the spirit of the evening. A440 nails it on the head, place your mic's 6inches apart on a pair of sunglasses or a ball cap with your head placed between them. Place them as high as possible so you don't hear the guy next to you screaming!! Become very familiar with your equipment, practice lots before heading off to the show. A battery box with line out would be a better choice for recording a loud show than just simply plugging the mic's into the mic jack. On crickets: It's also loads of fun to set the recorder on auto stand-by, and place your gear in the middle of the cricket field . Once you have left the area the crickets will begin chattering loudly. Frogs are great for this too, as they seem to shut up when they detect a human presence. Good luck to you

My apologies for giving a bad link in my last post (re-cricket) if you click on the sound effects drop down menu and select open country http://www.reactivesounds.com/soundpack.php you'll see a list of recordings we have made. The one called "Cricket love" is what you should have listened to.

if your interested in hearing a really cool cricket sound head on over to our site http://www.reactivesounds.com/soundpack.php and listen to the track called cricket love. This was recorded with one of our early models (SM-1) which has now been replaced by the Auris microphone system. A small but freindly cricket landed on our doorway, and took up a residency. I gently captured the creature and made a small temporary shelter for him. This was a plastic tupperware sandwich box. The lid was punched with holes to allow airlflow, and the inside was covered with some of the local plant life we have around here in beautiful british columbia. I placed a Omni-directional mono mic into the lid of the box (facing into the area that housed the cricket). I waited, and waited and waited. No cricket chirp. Mintues turned into hours and still nothing. Hmmmmm how do you get a cricket to sing, I wondered. Simple!!! Play the sound of another cricket. I searched the web and found a short cricket recording, and played this back through a set of computer monitor speakers. Success!! The cricket began to call, and began to sing. I was able to record about one hour of useable material. I then released my new friend into the wild. The really interesting thing about this recording is the frequency and duration of each short call, it's really quite amazing how these tiny little critters can nail a beat bang on, each and every time. I'd swear it was mechanically timed. If you download the media file and look at the wav form you will be able to see just how precise and tight the timing really is. One of nature's great wonders.

Hi Classicalnu; Frequency response: is how well the microphone responds to a fixed frequency of sound. Ideally you will want a mic to not increase or decrease any of the signal frequency. However many mics are tailored to perfrom at a given frequency range, such as a vocal mic. When I am shopping for a mic I will look for a flat frequency response that remains flat between the subsonic and the ultrasonic sound range. Typically this will be 20hz to 20,000hz. Signal to noise ratio: All electroinc gear microphones included have a self noise that they generate all on their own. Microphone manufacturer's strive to get the self noise in a microphone as low as possible. The ratio in db bewteen the self noise and the recorded signal is often displayed as S/N in dB at a particular frequency and at a particular sound pressure level. The greater the number is, the lower the self noise of the microphone. Open circuit sensitivity: This is the sensitivity of the microphone at the end of its cable when not connected to an electrical load. A lower value say 50dB usually indicates that the mic is more sensitive than one of a higher value. It's confusing, and often hard to measure one mic against another unless you have some pretty fancy equipment. I would not make this speciification the sole determining factor when purchasing a mic. Dynamic range: The difference bewteen the highest and lowest measurable sound pressure levels in the system of measurement is called the dynamic range. The bigger the number the greater the dynamic range of non distorted sounds can be captured by the microphone. Placement of the microphone, the room your in, and the experience of the user are often far greater influences on the recording than just the microphone specs. It has been said that a $1000 microphone will produce a worse recording than a $100 microphone that is better placed. Recording really is a science and sometimes a black art. Practise often and become familiar with your equipment. In time you will be producing very high quality recordings, and that is a great feeling!!

If I can recommend this: http://www.minidisco.com/am-1.html It's a quality built rugged performer that will give you years of reliable service, and you most likey won't need to upgrade. (comes with a secure mount clip too I hope this helps?

I need the small black drive wheel that moves the linear drive screw. If anyone has an old unit they want to part with please contact me

Hello there, your microphone produces a tiny amount of signal, this is normally boosted many hundreds of times thru the microphone pre-amplifier directly behind the mic jack on your recorder. Some of the mini electret microphones available on the market today do produce fairly high signals when, and only when the sound that they are recording is very loud (ie rock concert, train, aircraft ect ect). I am not surprised that your only able to hear a very low volume. You need either a recorder with a mic jack (and hence a built in pre-amp) or an external pre-amp that will feed the signal into your line-in jack. Pre-amps start at around $150 for a basic unit and go up from there depending on the features you need. I hope that helped?

I'll try an answer your questions: The MZ-N707, is probably just fine for your needs. A mic sensitivity would be handy but not the end of the world for speech recording. You need a lavaliere type microphone, mono, mounted approx 5 inches below your chin. There are many to choose from. I can personally vouch for our own Auris Microphone, a high quality microphone that excells in this type of situation. The audio technica looks like it would do as good of a job. I guess the prices is a little low, and thus the quality may not be as good. Hard to tell unless you have a side by side comparison. Cool edit is very good for post audio editing. I started with this many years ago, and have not looked back. Your note book should work just fine with the Auris, things to watch out for are low pre-amp settings (gain) and tone controls. You may want to consider a seperate pre-amp down the rd, for a much higher quality recording. (ie clear sound with no hiss) I hope that gets you started?

Hi there, for live recording and an excellent all purpose microphone i'd suggest an reactivesounds Auris microphone, easy to use, and sounds very realistic particularly when used for recording music. you can find them at www.minidisco.com Good luck

Hi there, Gerry Bolda here, Reactive sounds President. Currently the AT822 is not compatible with the boost box. However we are working on a solution for this. Most likey a small module that fits in between that mic and our boost box. We will post a notification here, and on our website when we have a tangible product. No other microphones are known to cause any other problems with the Boost box, just the AT822. Thanks all Gerry Bolda President www.reactivesounds.com

Hi Gang, Maybe we can help, our Boost box pre-amp was designed just for this purpose. It has a handy clipping LED that lights up when your overloading your recorder. It has an adjustable gain so that you can back off the signal a bit (and thus the LED lighting up) so that you won't be lit up like a christmas tree. Yours truly Gerry Bolda President www.reactivesounds.com