BootsnAll's Travel Community

Hi.

Whats the best way to record sound, if you want to be able to transfere it to your pc?

I use my MP3 player. It records to mp3, i can set the bitrate or to wav. its a iriver h300. I think ipods can do that too, not sure though. I take an external microphone with me. It's perfect: small and old

Oh boy... I could lecture for days on this topic. So before I do, What are you trying to do? And what kind of quality are you looking to achieve?

I will record sounds from my travels. It will be the sounds that surround me, like the sound from the jungle or the sounds fra a busy street. The quality isn't so important, but you should be able to hear all the surrounding sounds and not just the ones 2 feet from the mic...

Well, quality will need to be of some importance to accurately capture what you hear. The human ear is much more sensitive than most recording devices, so if you want to record the ambient sounds around you, you'll need to have equipment capable of doing so. A cheap mic won't cut it... you'll need something with a low signal to noise ratio, high gain sensitivity, probably an omnidirectional pickup pattern, and for what you're doing, you probably want it to be stereo.

As for the actual recording, to a portable DAT would be best. Or, if you have a large capacity flash recording device that can record to an uncompressed format, that could work, too... I don't know much about what's out there for these as I haven't had a need for one, but I can do some research if needed. Even if you plan on converting to a lower fidelity recording later, such as MP3, you want to get the best recording you can to begin with. A good recording downgraded to MP3 is going to sound much better than something recorded directly to MP3 format. For ambient field recording, you want to capture as many of the available frequencies as possible for a realistic representation of what you heard when you were actually there, which is what you're trying to do, no? The MP3 format eliminates many of these frequencies by nature of the compression. DAT and uncompressed flash media will offer CD or better quality.

As for getting them to your computer, both DAT and flash media are digital, so you won't have any fidelity loss. Flash would be the easiest method, because it'll already be a file that you should be able to copy over like from any other drive. The only issue is, as I said before, I'm not entirely familiar with what's on the market right now, so I don't know how advanced they are yet and whether their capabilities even make them a viable option. With a DAT, you would need to ensure you have the necessary digital connections on your sound card, and you could transfer that way.

I could give you some recommendations, but I'd need to know what kind of budget you're looking at first. The possible price range of options is frickin huge.

I'm going to be doing a similar thing on my 1-2year RTW that I'm leaving for in 1 month. Can't stop smiling about that =)

I've done high quality field recording before using an iPod, iKey, Portable Mixer, and 2 studio small diaphragm condensors on a stereo bar. But it's not very practical to travel RTW with all that gear.

In my recent search I've found 2 good priced portable recording devices:
Roland R-09 at $350.00
&
Zoom H4 at $280 Zoom H4 at $280

Both devices use SD flash cards which are relatively cheap. You can get a 2GB card for about $30 on ebay and store about 2-3 hours recording at the highest fidelity.

They both have built in stereo condensor mics. The H4 has a ton more features, but at that price I really question it's durability and reliability. A friend at a local music store told me he doubts it would make it around the world.

Either choice you make, you will have to buy an additional mic if you plan to record outside. Wind noise will destroy a recording and unfortunately I have found no windsock that will fit either device. I'm researching this now, but two that I'm considering are the CS-15(the matched stereo electret condensor for the R-09, or the Sony ECM-MS907. It doesn't appear that either has a sufficient windsock for recording in heavier wind situtations... but unless you're willing to drop a $200 on a pro fur windsock, you'll have to settle for foam.

Let me know how it all works out, or if you found other alternatives.

I will also post the results of my field tests once I order the gear.

I'm already on the road and using my gear so you can check the results at my website (in the signature). Just click audio and the posts with audio will show up...

I wasn't satisfied with the flash devices, when I bought my kit didn' think they were where they should be yet. but by now could be a different story. I am using a Sony Hi-MD player/recorder to actually capture the sound. A hiMD can hold almost an hour at uncompressed audio. Been gone over a month and haven't used anything close to that yet. For the mics I'm using core sound binaural microphones. They capture sound the way you hear it because you are supposed to put them right next to your ears. They are fairly inconspicuous this way. I think the quality is amazing. When you play it back using headphones, it sounds like you're there again. The total package cost about 600USD, 300 for MD and 300 for mics. MDs are cheap and durable and I plan on mailing the masters home along the way. Check out the sounds, particulary the Blue Mosque call to prayer. Very satisfied, my favorite aspect of my all digital approach thus far! [URL= http://www.core-sound.com/default.php]core sound website[/URL]

I took some quick videos using my digital camera (we have a 5gb card) of the views from my hotel rooms in Paris and Cassis, the sound was great and it was nice to have that memory, and it captured the sound, even the sound of the cicadas in Cassis. They were just 2 or 3 minutes of video.