Are in ear binaurals worth it for ambient recordings? I'm looking for an addition to my PCM -m10 to record mostly Foley / atmosphere and ambient sounds for an indie film. Any suggestions?
I also have recently bought a PCM-M10 and I'm looking for binaural mics. I've heard a few binaural(ish) recordings I really liked (at
www.quietamerican.org /
www.oontz.ru (check out the creakign tree!) /
www.whitenoisemp3s.com and others.) I find it a beautiful experience to 'hear a place' like that. I got the PCM-M10 because it was reported to have good, quiet preamps, and excellent battery life (important if away from power points, ...and to get away from distant vehicle noise and so on one is generally far away from power points!). Also it is small and discreet, and doesn't have obvious microphones sticking out. So far I'm very pleased with it.
I am very much a novice but here is my recent experience...
I got a pair of Roland CS10-EM in-ear binaurals last week and I can say they are OK, but not so good for quiet nature ambiences because their self-noise is noticeable at a low signal level. I made direct comparisons with the PCM-M10's (very quiet) in-built mics and the noise floor of the Roalnds was much higher. (Not extreme; I think the Sony mics are just particularly quiet.) It's not an unpleasant kind of hiss but I prefer 'darker' recordings. For music and urban ambience I think the Rolands would be excellent. (see this video of guy drumming in his room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hKtUlUux9o ) They were quite cheap at £85 and they will have a use as they also double as monitor earphones so I'm not so disappointed. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well they picked up my own voice. As long as I make sure to keep my breathing quiet and don't swallow, etc. the voice sounds very natural. (One thing I've found is that it is best not to make binaural 'in-ear' recordings right after eating!) They also appear to be well made and are discreet as they look like standard ear phones.
So I'm still looking and I would appreciate any reports of first hand experience anyone has. There are quite a few of these mics on the market (although not many in the UK) but the only real way to evaluate is to try them. This poses a problem when it comes to expensive in-ear mics as one can often not return them 'for hygiene reasons'.
I'm quite impressed with the quality of the internal mics/preamps of the PCM-M10 so one possibility I'm considering is to make some in-ear binaurals using the same capsules used in the recorder. I understand that Sony used Primo BT EM172's and these are available online, both in the UK at FEL and across the pond at frogloggers (sorry, no url's to hand but you'll find them). From what I've heard on various forums they do work well and DIYers have had good success. And at $10 or so each I can happily experiment. I may fail to make good in-ear binaruals from them but I can recycle the capsules into other projects. (I also wanted to experiment with underwater recording, and at $10 I can live with the risk of experimentally sinking one (suitably protected) into deep seawater. Yes, I could buy a hydrophone for $200 but I'm only experimenting here, and there is a risk of snagging the thing on rocks or in weeds.)
As for film work, as I understand it one normally wants very much more directional mics to pick up what the camera is picking up (cameras are usually directional) but I can imagine using binaurals (or near-binaurals) for certain things 'post filming'. In my experimenting with the Rolands I found the stereo (binaural) images created by recording such things as washing my hands under a tap quite impressive. Whether that immediacy will come across to an audience listening over speakers in an environment the film maker cannot control is another matter...
Topic: In ear binaural mics (Read 5916 times)