Live Field Recording Of Pacific Island Style Music

[Linguini]

Hi, I hope someone will be able to help or give some pointers.

I am currently in the field recording language for linguistic research. I am using a Hi-MD machine MZ-NH900 and only record in PCM. The microphone is a Sony ECM-MS907. This equipment makes great uncompressed recordings of spoken word.

However, I have been asked to make recordings of a local group of musicians that perform a Pacific Island style of music with drums, clap-sticks, guitar and vocals. The recordings are turning out quite poor.

After reviewing posts on this great site it looks like it could possibly be caused by the overloading of the MD's pre-amp.

So I just want to check my set-up.

Microphone set to 120 degrees (other option is 90 degrees)

On MD

Mic-Sens to LOW

Rec-Vol to MANUAL; where should the peaks in recording volume reach – at the moment they are hitting the max on the level indicator.

I am in Australia – is there an equivalent of the “radio shack volume attenuator” solution here?

I would be interested if anyone had any other ideas of improving the recordings or other settings I am missing.

Cheers........

[greenmachine]

where should the peaks in recording volume reach – at the moment they are hitting the max on the level indicator.

Ideally they should reach as high as possible without hitting the max, practically it's better to leave some headroom (lowering the level a little bit) if you don't know how loud the loudest part will be, to avoid clipping - you can normalize the recording afterwards if it's too quiet.

I am in Australia – is there an equivalent of the “radio shack volume attenuator”  solution here?

Instead of spending your money for a suboptimal solution (I've tried it for myself and the recording was still distorted, additionally it decreases the signal to noise ratio), why not build your own "battery box", which will supply the microphones with a higher voltage and this way allows higher sound pressure levels for the mics. It's very easy to build one yourself, you just need a condenser and a resistor for each channel - an example is shown here ... For recording very loud sounds it is suggested to use the mics with such a BB through the Line In of your recorder.

For realistic sounding records, I'd suggest to use binaural microphones (shown on the same site). Also you may want to pay attention to the links at the bottom.

edit:

I just took a look at the specifications of your mic, a frequency response of 100 to 15000Hz is adequate for spoken word, but not too exciting for music (it basically means that it can't record the lowest and the highest frequencies) - the human ear can hear about 20 to 20000 Hz and there are inexpensive microphones which can pick up that whole range as well...

Check out some samples of a recording i did a few days ago, using (pseudo-?) binaural microphones at a rather loud concert here

Edited April 25, 2005 by greenmachine

[Linguini]

Thanks very much greenmachine for all the info. Unfortunately I'm a two-hour light plane flight from the nearest town and will not be able source those parts from here, but it would be a good project when I return to the city. I wasn’t expecting to have to do any music recording, so my microphone is inadequate for live music. I guess even with a microphone with a wider dynamic range the Hi-MD is still going to struggle. Thanks for your help.

[greenmachine]

Dynamic range? I was talking about the frequency response...

What exactly do you mean with "it is still going to struggle"?

I don't think you will overload anything if you use the suggested battery-box-line-in configuration, at the utmost the microphones if they're not suited for extreme levels, but even some of these can be optimized, shown here, he claims they would accept far more than 130 dB with his suggested modification, which is hell of a lot, believe me; you're sooner deaf than your recording would clip...

[A440]

You should try keeping your Manual Volume levels low enough so that the meter peaks between the two little dashes.

And I hate to say it, but even there the mic pre-amp may have trouble with sudden bursts of sound. You need something to cushion it--either the attenuator (which greenmachine and I are just going to have to disagree about) or battery box--line-in, which would bypass the preamp.

Understanding that you're far from electronics shops, this is an off-the-wall idea, but...

You must have a pair of headphones with you. Headphones can work as very weak microphones. If you have time to try the experiment, why not try plugging the headphones into the mic jack with high sensitivity and probably a high manual volume level and getting close to the musicians. It might sound awful--but then again, it might not overload, either.

[greenmachine]

You must have a pair of headphones with you.  Headphones can work as very weak microphones. If you have time to try the experiment, why not try plugging the headphones into the mic jack with high sensitivity and probably a high manual volume level and getting close to the musicians.  It might sound awful--but then again, it might not overload, either.

lol, what an interesting solution! How about getting farther away from the musicians using the mic?

[Linguini]

Thanks A440 for the additional comments.

[A440]

How about getting farther away from the musicians using the mic?

←

Definitely try that too. The further away you are, the more background noise you'll get and the more indistinct the drumming will be, but given your situation, I'd try every possible variation. Try Low Sens/low Manual Volume (watching the levels), try moving back (still watching the levels), or--one more variation--try getting VERY close and running the mic through line-in while watching the level, and see if you get enough level that way. If they're really slamming you might.

[greenmachine]

running the mic  through line-in

Good idea, it's a microphone with built-in power supply (although it's voltage of 1.5 volts might be somewhat low). It could work. Try it this way with a propably pretty high level (maybe even up to level 30).

try getting VERY close

I wouldn't suggest to get too close, rather look for an acoustically good spot and accept the often negligible disadvantages of a somewhat too low level.

Edited April 25, 2005 by greenmachine

[Linguini]

Good idea, it's a microphone with built-in power supply (although it's voltage of 1.5 volts might be somewhat low). It could work. Try it this way with a propably pretty high level (maybe even up to level 30).

I wouldn't suggest to get to close, rather look for an acoustically good spot and accept the often negligible disadvantages of a somewhat too low level.

←

Thanks for this. I will post an update on how these different ideas went. Cheers.

[greenmachine]

I'm looking forward to it.