Hello Laurent,
I would not recommend any preamp for less than $50 USD -- in fact the Rolls,
while it works, is not really that great in the sound quality department. At
the time I mentioned it on the Old Bird website, it was just the cheapest
functional preamp I could find offered online. It is convenient in that it
offers multiple input and output connector-type options (i.e., XLR, phone
plug, miniplug). The better overall option I think now is to bypass your
computer's sound card and use a USB audio interface, such as: Creative Labs
E-MU 8740A 0204 USB 2.0 Audio Interface. However, these devices are geared
toward music and have bells and whistles beyond what is necessary for night
flight call monitoring. By the time you factor in their added cost (~$130)
with the parts for microphone & your labor, you might be better off buying a
fully-built, ready-to-go, microphone system specifically designed for
monitoring night flight calls. If you are on a tight budget, the cheapest
preamps are those contained within old cassette decks -- you simply use the
cassette deck in the pause-record mode as a preamp, running the signal from
your mic into the cassette player's microphone input and out its line-level
output to your computer's audio input. With a little searching around one
can find an old cassette deck for free or <$10 at a garage sale or junk
shop.
Regarding recording system, yes folks use digital recorders and transfer to
computer for later analysis. This is typically done if you are just
monitoring on a night-to-night basis. If your intentions are to record
nightly for a whole migration season, then it is much more convenient to set
up a computer in a permanent location so it can automatically record each
night -- you are then hands-free until you choose to analyze your data.
Bill Evans
----- Original Message -----
From: "laurent fournier" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 10:15 AM
Subject: [nfc-l] hardware question from a beginner, recorder, preamp, etc
Hi All
I am currently in the process of building the "flower pot mic" described in
the
"oldbird" website.
2 questions :
- any tip about which preamp I should use? (does everyone uses one?). The
old
bird website only mention the Rolls MP13 preamp ($70 on Amazon.com), but I
noticed others available for a much lower price ($20).
- Does everyone here does their own recording using a laptop, as suggested
in
the oldbird? Does anyone use a digital recorder, and later transfer their
files
on their computer for further analysis?
Any comment or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Laurent in Michigan
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