buying a minidisc player and extras...

[soundwave9900]

i've been listening to sleepbot lately and now i want to record outdoor ambience.

i'm looking at getting

SONY MZ-N10

SOUND PROFESSIONALS - DELUXE CARDIOID STEREO MICROPHONES

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...C-20&type=store

Standard Battery Module

http://www.stealthaudio.net/standbat.htm

maybe with controls if they'll make a big differnce with thunder.

is this a good setup?

[A440]

Executive summary: Get omnis/binaurals to record ambience. Try them first without a battery box. And there are alternatives to the N10, including the imminent arrival of Hi-MDs.

Longer version:

If you want ambience you'll be better off with omnis (a.k.a. binaurals) rather than cardioids.

Here's why: Omnis pick up in all directions, like your ears. Cardioids are directional, good for pointing at a speaker or performer and eliminating noise (that's ambience) off to the side or back. They're called cardioids as in cardiac because the pickup pattern is heart-shaped, with the mic at the point.

Of course, the quality improves as the budget goes up. Look for wide frequency response (20-20,000) and, especially to pick up quiet ambient sounds, a high S/N (signal to noise) ratio.

For mostly quiet ambient sounds, you may not need a battery box at all, because the N10 has a mic sensitivity switch that helps eliminate overloading from loud sounds. For nature sounds you may want to record on high sensitivity anyway. The extra controls on a battery box are to minimize the heavy bass sound of some concerts; you obviously don't want to eliminate bass notes from thunder. On the other hand, a battery box into mic-in or line-in may give you a warmer sounding recording in general--you'd have to test and see. But a good mic is really the key element, and that's where you should start.

The N10 places a premium on thinness, and makes some compromises to do that--the USB port (if you also want to download MP3s from your computer to MD) is on the charging stand, not the unit, and it has a special battery that has drawn some complaints for shorter life. Check the reviews under the equipment browser listing for point/counterpoint. Also look at the N910 as a possible alternative.

http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-N10.html

http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-N910.html

Although I've only used Sonys, you might also want to look into Sharp recorders. There are many recommendations among the folks on this forum for the Sharp IM-DR420.

http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sharp_IM-DR40...R410+DR420.html

And at this point, you might wait just a few weeks to see how Sony's new Hi-MDs perform, because they will upload recordings to your computer, too.

One thing that may affect ambient recordings is motor noise from the MD--a problem on Sony's N1 and some older models. When you do ambient recordings, you may want to wrap the whole MD in something soft to muffle it, and keep the mic as far from the unit as possible.