Solid state recorder for bird calls

to record a few

Yes, lots of those around.

Yes, but its not very portable.

Yes.

would be delighted.

A few minutes is nothing these days with modern storage capabilities and bit rate MP3 compression.

Laptop is bulky. Many people use PDAs or MP3 players which can also record.

The microphone and pre-amp is the thing that will drive the quality of your recording. You'll pay (or should pay) a lot more for these than the recorder itself. Presumably for such purposes you would need a long range directional microphone. You can get portable battery powered pre-amps designed for just such purposes too.

Google for Portable Podcasting, should be plenty of info out there and gear recommendations.

Dave.

I am no expert in sound recording but I do know that a good sensitive microphone is absolutely essential - particularly a uni-directional(??) one, in this case. I mean, if one cannot pick up the sound properly, one will not get a good recording, eh?? That's what I think, anyway :

One would think that a laptop could be suitable (size and weight notwithstanding) to carry around cos it is fairly easy to get recording s/w which can record sound frequencies well over 40KHz. I have no idea of what frequencies a lyrebird can put out.

I am told that an average humans can only hear up to 20KHz - I wouldn't have a clue as my hearing has been damaged due to excessive loud music in a misspent youth :)

Anyway, that my 2 cents worth :)

I use a minidisc recorder for field recordings. The recorders are fairly cheap these days since mp3 seems to have taken over the consumer market.

You can get small portable stereo condenser mics for most of these sort of portable recorders as well. These are sensitive enough to pick up a good image of this type of sound. I've used it for both frogs and birds with good results.

On Wed, 06 Jun 2007 23:44:18 GMT, "L.A.T." put finger to keyboard and composed:

FWIW, Silicon Chip magazine published a "Sooper Snooper" project in

It used a parabolic reflector (home made?).

"This particular Sooper Snooper is the one you would use to listen in to distant conversations, bird calls, etc ? anything in the open air which would normally be too far away or too faint to hear."

- Franc Zabkar

What's your budget? The Edirol R09 will do the job and it accepts an external mic as well.

Flashmic is one piece that immediately comes to mind.

Cheers,

Thank you all for your responses.

I have tried a USB microphone (a cheapie from Logitech) using the free package Audacity to record the sounds. It works well enough for me to give it a try with a little parabolic dish. Unfortunately Audacity doesn't provide much in the way of controlling the input level, saying that if clipping occurs, decrease the level from the input device. What I need, I think, is a volume control between the mic and the laptop. I have found a couple of kits that amplify a signal from a little mic to headphones, but neither has any means of controlling the signal level. Does anyone know of a module, or kit, that would go between a USB mic and the laptop and enable control of the signal level? Possibly screwed to the back of the small parabolic dish that I have ordered from Oatley. The Sooper Snooper kit from Oatley (Silicon Chip, September 2001) is about right, and a careful reading of the specs shows that a preset pot can be replaced with an external pot as a volume control. If I can't get something ready made I will try that.

I made one of these to adjust the balance levels between a cassette deck and PC sound card. You will need a resistor, linear pot, plastic case and female RCA jacks. Ask on rec.audio.tech and someone will provide the values for the resistor and pot. The whole lot will be under $10 and take half an hour to put together.

Another thought. Use the recording mixer controls of your sound card. Not sure how you configure this for a usb mic, but alternatively get a regular mic and use your soundcard's mic in socket.

There should be a level control on the mixer etc.

a USB mic

No, mic inputs on PCs are horrible quality. If you want good quality then you need a proper external mic preamp and use the line-in sockets.

Dave.

Audacity might not be the best choice. On reading Help and so on, I gather that it depends on the input device having an adequate output control

The helpful responses to my post have been most gratifying. The up-market suggestions are all beyond my means, mouth-watering though they are. I have ordered the Oatley Sooper Snooper kit and when it is up and running I will look at improving the microphone if that is an option. I think it will be possible to record to the laptop, and I think there must be a simpler piece of software than Audacity. One thing at a time. I will post again with my results, and thanks again.

Did you look at minidisc recorders on ebay? They are going for as low as $20. Transfer to PC can be done using optical on most units (s/pdif). 80 minutes per disc and the unit runs on AA batteries and is extremely light and portable. Using a small portable stereo condenser mic with it, the whole thing fits neatly into the camera bag or backpack.

On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 21:16:13 GMT, "L.A.T." put finger to keyboard and composed:

FYI, here are some pictures of the Sooper Snooper kit:

- Franc Zabkar

I've just downloaded a copy of Audacity, as I had never used it before. It looks rather simple to me, and I would suggest if your friend is serious he will need a decent editor. I think Audacity will fit the bill for recording and editing on a laptop. However, you will need a decent mic preamp. I would also suggest a long mic cable so the laptop can be kept well away from what you want to record.

Mic preamp you can make yourself