Topic: Environmental recordings around London

[IanR]

Hi, haven't posted here for a while, been busy recording. Some people here may be interested to give my efforts a quick listen on my London Sound Survey website:

http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk

Basically does what it says on the tin, with sound recordings of people, places, and events organised into categories and onto clickable sound maps. There's also some historical references about how the city sounded in the past.

As for the gear: definitely prefer the Edirol R09-HR over the Olympus LS-10. Also, I like my new Fostex FR-2LE recorder. Mics used: Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH head-worn stereo, 2 x Shure WL-183s (again, head-worn) and an Audio Technica BP4025 single-point stereo mic.

Taperssection gets a mention on the links page, as I've always found it a useful place and have learned quite a bit from reading people's posts here.

[digifish_music]

Amazing site, that's a lot of work to get all those recordings from across the grid. How long did it take?

BTW: Not sure if you are aware of

www.freesound.org

digifish

[IanR]

Thanks digifish  The daytime sound map has taken a few months to do, and there's still a few outlying places to visit. It is slow work cos I don't have a car these days, so a lot of walking is involved, plus scrambling over fences, running onto golf courses etc.

I have seen freesound, and note you've got a *lot* of recordings there. There's a few freesound recordings on London Sound Survey and they all get credited as such. I've uploaded a few files as spudsonic, but need to do more soon.

Cheers
Ian

[sunjan]

As for the gear: definitely prefer the Edirol R09-HR over the Olympus LS-10. Also, I like my new Fostex FR-2LE recorder. Mics used: Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH head-worn stereo, 2 x Shure WL-183s (again, head-worn) and an Audio Technica BP4025 single-point stereo mic.

Hey Ian,

I understand the stock WL-183s come with 4-pin mini XLR plugs.
According to your site, you had this Y-cable made for them:
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-reports/Shure-WL183s/images/shure183p-i-pAdaptercable.jpg

So if I get it correctly, you just run them straight on the plug-in power provided from the R-09HR? No other power source or preamp? Don't you need to add a lot of gain for ambient sounds, and do you find it sufficient? Just curious...

[IanR]

Hi Sunjan,

Yes, the WL-183s are plugged straight into the R09-HR via the wiring arrangements in the diagram you've linked to in your post, and they run off the R09's plug-in power.

I don't use an external preamp with them, the R09-HR's preamp seems to do the job just fine. If the signal ever needs boosting, it's because I've been over-cautious and set the recording level too low on the R09-HR.

Considering they're fairly inexpensive and have a self-noise of 22.5dB, the Shures are good value for money (imo).

[guysonic]

  REALLY EXCELLENT SITE  in my opinion showing much thought and creativity.    Look forward to posting a link on my site if this is OK.

  Suggest ONLY using 24bit depth mode so even if having a very low recording post level adjustment still has plenty of resolution to not be a quality issue.

Also I am finding most MP3 encoders allow full 24 bit depth 44.1/48K encoding.  So no need to reduce masters to 16 bits wav before MP3 encoding.

  Sent IM about you only having most versatile /EH for urban work, BUT suggest also getting most quiet-for-natural-rural ambient DSM-1S/H mic model (but has miniplug output, not miniXLR) + WHB/N + R09HR/MOD-4 at slightly used great-deal price. 

Owner of used mic is in NY USA, and I can supply miniplug-to-miniXLR patch adapter for using this mic direct to MOD-4 09HR or Sony PCM deck, or into miniXLR input of PA-3SX preamp.

  NOTE: DSM model chart is at: www.sonicstudios.com/dsm.htm#chart
BUT name-server is moved and site not be available until next week.