Topic: Suitable mic for recording birdsong on iRiver H120

[winterdune]

Hello all - this is my first post and I am not a technically minded person so please bear with me!  I recently purchased a used iRiver H120 and immediately replaced the battery (an operation which went smoothly, thank goodness) and installed the Rockbox firmware which enables you to alter gain as you are recording, unlike the iRiver firmware. 

I want to use the H120 to record bird calls so was imagining that I could simply use my old camcorder directional rifle mic (a very cheap one) which I have used relatively successfully with a Sony MD recorder.  However the mic does not do as well in the iRiver - I think I need something with a higher gain/more sensitivity to quieter sounds, as the results I got were very quiet. Pushing up the gain to max on Rockbox gives very hissy results.

I am a total novice at microphones but through reading it seems I need either a better mic with higher gain or a pre-amp setup.

The trouble with the pre-amp idea is that I cannot find a reasonably cheap one which runs off batteries, and also using one will start to make the setup a bit cumbersome for field recording.

So can anyone recommend a decent mic (directional)?

Or can anyone tell me the technical specs I need to be looking for when I am considering a mic? 

And finally a silly technical question: is the battery in a powered mic used for pre-amping the signal, or for something else?? (You can see I don't know much, can't you?). If so, do I just need to buy a mic which takes a lot of batteries???

Thanks for your patience!

Sean

[Shawn]

didn't realize all those old deadheads used special mics just for birdsong. that's wild stuff. was there a special set of mics just for dark star too? What about bobby songs?

 

[winterdune]

Thank you, Shawn, for your helpful comment...

[goodcooker]

If you wanted to drop a little change you could get this set of DPA mini mics and battbox

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,95143.0.html

Or another option would be a Church Audio (in the retail space) setup or maybe a Sennheiser batt powered shotgun mic (for the focused directivity). They can be had fairly inexpensively if you only want one channel.

I have never any of these setups for nature recording so take it with a grain of salt...I'm just trying to be helpful.

edit: I think some pros use parabolic mics for birdsongs. There are a few tutorials for building your own on the cheap out the on the interweb.

[John Willett]

The standard for birdsong are the Sennheiser MKH range of microphones because of their immunity to damp - IE: they work well without noise and crackles when recording in the early morning with dew all around, and in the rain.

You have two options:-

1) A gun mic. (MKH 70 or 70 or equivalent - the K6+ME66/67 works well even though it's a pre-polarized condenser)

2) Omni mic in a parabolic reflector.

You may find it useful to look up the website of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society and look at the Newcomers Guide.

I hope this helps.

[Shawn]

Thank you, Shawn, for your helpful comment...

your welcome.

[bhakti]

didn't realize all those old deadheads used special mics just for birdsong. that's wild stuff. was there a special set of mics just for dark star too? What about bobby songs?

 

i must admit, i thought that was hilarious shawn...