First field + indoor recordings

[schill]

Firstly, hello and thanks to the moderators and some of the regulars - GreenMachine, A440 and others - who have provided lots of detailed info in archived posts. It's been valuable when researching what kind of equipment to buy, recording techniques and so on.

I used to record things with a low-end GE portable tape recorder as a kid, so it's been fun to return to trying this with a "hi-fi" slant some years later. I got an MZ-RH1 and some TFB-2 in-ear mics after reading various posts on the forum; I was going for something low-noise, hi-sensitivity and portable - within reason, of course.

Sounds can be found here as 256 kbps CBR MP3s. At time of writing, this is a live and growing collection.

The first recordings were done with high-sensitivity, after the frogs and rain I think I rolled back to "low" as it seemed unnecessary and I thought maybe "high" would mean more noise would be introduced. Some have obvious distortion, but most level settings were (I think) fairly reasonable for the environments I was in. I'd like to get some general feedback from some of the local experts on the recordings, whatever comes to mind and stands out when listening. Hopefully it's not all just distortion.

Thanks.

(Edit) For interest, I'm noting some of the things I've heard in these recordings thus far..

* Fans (fridge, bathroom etc.)

* 60 Hz hum

* Wind

* Distortion from closing doors, air pressure (closing car door while inside), etc.

* Recorder (MD motor) noise

* Cell phone interference

So many ways to mess up an otherwise-decent recording.

Edited May 1, 2007 by schill