Best bird recorders for field recording (3 Viewers)

[Elkhornsun]

What are your favorite field recorders to record birds?

MixPre 6 II that has the 32-bit floating feature as with the MixPre 3 II recorder. For bird recording the Mix Pre 3 II is all one needs and one of the Strut field bags and a power bank with a USB-C cable. AA batteries have a very short life and the most bang for the buck is with something like the Anker 335.

 

[Vollmeise]

Any experience with the all new Zoom M2 / M4 MicTrak Recorders? Their specs sound promising and the M2 seems to be most affordable 32bit FP recorder right now

 

[S_Man]

Any experience with the all new Zoom M2 / M4 MicTrak Recorders? Their specs sound promising and the M2 seems to be most affordable 32bit FP recorder right now

There is a thread about the M-series in this forum, you should see it listed below...
No personal experience, but some serious interferences issues are described with the M2 on the web, maybe to a lesser degree with the M4, too. That said this might be less of a problem for field recording, just switch your cellphone off and you shouldn't have any lamp, cable or micro-wave owen nearby? Some also describe handling noises, but this can be a problem with most equipment I suppose.
On the other hand the M4 looks like the perfect field recording tool, on paper, with integrated mics, 2 XLR, 1 x 3.5 mm (?), long autonomy, 32 bit float, low internal noise preamps should be on par with the F series, so quite good...
The size (and price maybe) is bigger than the F3, though.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

My guess is that the M Series are designed for interview or for recording an instrument. I know that mic sensitivity is not everything, but the M4 internal mic has a sensitivity of −42 dB/1 Pa at 1 kHz (8 mV/Pa) which is quite low, which is why I think the design is for close work.

You could use it for 'drop rig/autonomous' recordings, but then I would prefer other options - a recorder in a weatherproof bag or case with only the mic exposed. With the M2 and M4 not sure how you would cover the meters so they are not visible, but leave the mic exposed, or make the recorder semi weatherproof. With the meters exposed, I suspect the recorder may be more obvious to birds, which may then not approach as close,

 

[Jimmy G]

What are your favorite field recorders to record birds?

I picked up a Roland R-26 back in '11 and was quite pleased with the performance of both the built-in XY and stereo Omni mics when used as a handheld recorder, however, the plastic housing (and lack of any internal mic isolation) was very susceptible to handling noise and required diligent stillness when recording this way. I did not have any XLR mics at the time to test out the -124 dBu A-weighted preamps (per avisoft) and the recorder fell into disuse when I began searching out other, smaller, handheld devices (I like to travel light and simple).

Of the Tascam DR-07, Roland R-05 and Tascam DR-07X that ensued the R-05 was the better recorder, imho, with it's cleaner-sounding and less-noisy mics. Unfortunately, I recently lost that dear old R-05 (and all the unsaved recordings) when I apparently left it on the roof of my truck one night while packing up after recording twilight calls of GHOW (at a local park here in Westchester County, NY) and it, um, flew off into the night! (FWIW, I continually checked the park's lost and found, the local police and even posted an "lost" ad on craigslist, only to attract a scammer! LOL)

So I'm back to the DR-07X for now (it does a fine job if the bird is fairly proximate) and looking to possibly upgrade to 32-bit float with either a Tascam Portacapture X6 (reminds me of the R-26) or Zoom F3 with an Audio-Technica BP4029 mid-side shotgun (that I'd recently been gifted! Thanks Ms. Santa! 😘). Or, I may just take the 24-bit/96kHz R-26 out of retirement and see how it fares with the new XLR mic (I'd love to see Roland come out with a 32-bit float version of this recorder with those same built-in mics, I loved the fidelity they produced!)

The other "field recorder" that needs to be added here is the Panasonic DMW-MS2 mid-side shotgun fed into the preamps of my Panasonic S1, they provide excellent (IMHO) audio for my 6K footage shot with that camera. Panasonic has a real "sleeper" with that mic and their internal camera preamps, IMHO.

 

[Jason Bugay Reyes]

I got the Tascam DR44-WL with Sennhiser ME66/K6 mic since 2018 and been happy with it. The wifi function to smartphone works well especially when I need to asked for urgent ID from friends while on the field. Now I paired it with Marshall Major headphone. So far so good

 

[Jimmy G]

Ahh, thanks for shaking my cobwebs loose, horukuru...a correction on my previous post, it was not a DR-07 but a DR22-WL that preceded the R-05 and DR-07X, and again, the R-05 produced the best (signal strength and clarity, to my ears and needs) audio of that "smallish handheld lot".

Also, FWIW, I just took delivery on a Zoom F3 which will get a shakedown against my (still working) R-26 employing that aforementioned Audio-Technica BP4029 mid-side shotgun mic. Should be interesting...exciting times!

 

[Jason Bugay Reyes]

Ahh, thanks for shaking my cobwebs loose, horukuru...a correction on my previous post, it was not a DR-07 but a DR22-WL that preceded the R-05 and DR-07X, and again, the R-05 produced the best (signal strength and clarity, to my ears and needs) audio of that "smallish handheld lot".

Also, FWIW, I just took delivery on a Zoom F3 which will get a shakedown against my (still working) R-26 employing that aforementioned Audio-Technica BP4029 mid-side shotgun mic. Should be interesting...exciting times!

Just wondering why u didn't get the Tascam Portacapture?

 

[Jimmy G]

Just wondering why u didn't get the Tascam Portacapture?

Hi hurukuru,

Well, as I'm very much a fan of the all-in-one, the Portacapture X6 was almost was my next choice. However, after spending the past decade-plus using handhelds (for their built-in mics) my curiosity to finally explore the use of XLR mics had reached its tipping point.

I'd always resisted that path with the R-26 as it required too much gear for my field usage...DSLR-now-mirrorless camera with telephoto lens + microphone (for photos and short video clips of my targets), binoculars...adding the R-26 recorder in its case with strap-over-shoulder and having cables dangling about along with a pistol-gripped shock-mounted mic was too much gear to successfully manage whilst trekking through the brush! Something to be said for a quality recorder one can slip in and out of one's pockets and that now-lost R-05 was the best of the lot of pocket recorders for my needs!

My experiment with the F3 + BP4029 is to try and rig it all onto a single handgrip that I can somehow clip to my belt for easy access in the field (trust me, trying to manage three neck-strapped devices in the field is tempting the disaster fates! Ha!). I haven't figured the setup quite yet and it will be a bit of a project for me over the coming weeks, perhaps a, er, "fanny pack" of some sort?

Regarding the Portacapture series, a few other niggles kept me from pursuing a purchase...Firstly, I had reached out to Tascam over the past couple of weeks (both through their online contact portal and via phone) as they do not provide or publish and any performance information regarding the built-in mics (e.g. frequency response graphs, EIN noise figures, sensitivity, etc.) in their advertisements or user manuals beyond that the X6 has 10mm mics and the X8 has 14.6mm mics and they could could provide no further specs or information from my requests. Secondly is that full-color touchscreen GUI, way-overkill for a field recorder (it requires too much menu-diving to set things right), IMHO, and all the useless-to-me preset recording modes (something the R-26 suffered from, as well). Thirdly, size and weight and field practicality (read above, dangling wires, etc.), it's all on-par with my underutilized R-26 (and Tascam does not provide their own accessory custom-fit field cases for their Portacaptures as did Roland for the R-26).

Musing here, methinks if one of the manufacturers could provide an F3-size 32-bit recorder with a single 5-pin stereo XLR port (thus negating the need for any cables) one could easily rig any stereo field mic to a shock-mounted pistol grip and be off and running...something already possible for mono recording with a single mono mic with the F3.

Anyhoo, that's it in a nutshell.

Jimmy G

 

[Jason Bugay Reyes]

Hi hurukuru,

Well, as I'm very much a fan of the all-in-one, the Portacapture X6 was almost was my next choice. However, after spending the past decade-plus using handhelds (for their built-in mics) my curiosity to finally explore the use of XLR mics had reached its tipping point.

I'd always resisted that path with the R-26 as it required too much gear for my field usage...DSLR-now-mirrorless camera with telephoto lens + microphone (for photos and short video clips of my targets), binoculars...adding the R-26 recorder in its case with strap-over-shoulder and having cables dangling about along with a pistol-gripped shock-mounted mic was too much gear to successfully manage whilst trekking through the brush! Something to be said for a quality recorder one can slip in and out of one's pockets and that now-lost R-05 was the best of the lot of pocket recorders for my needs!

My experiment with the F3 + BP4029 is to try and rig it all onto a single handgrip that I can somehow clip to my belt for easy access in the field (trust me, trying to manage three neck-strapped devices in the field is tempting the disaster fates! Ha!). I haven't figured the setup quite yet and it will be a bit of a project for me over the coming weeks, perhaps a, er, "fanny pack" of some sort?

Regarding the Portacapture series, a few other niggles kept me from pursuing a purchase...Firstly, I had reached out to Tascam over the past couple of weeks (both through their online contact portal and via phone) as they do not provide or publish and any performance information regarding the built-in mics (e.g. frequency response graphs, EIN noise figures, sensitivity, etc.) in their advertisements or user manuals beyond that the X6 has 10mm mics and the X8 has 14.6mm mics and they could could provide no further specs or information from my requests. Secondly is that full-color touchscreen GUI, way-overkill for a field recorder (it requires too much menu-diving to set things right), IMHO, and all the useless-to-me preset recording modes (something the R-26 suffered from, as well). Thirdly, size and weight and field practicality (read above, dangling wires, etc.), it's all on-par with my underutilized R-26 (and Tascam does not provide their own accessory custom-fit field cases for their Portacaptures as did Roland for the R-26).

Musing here, methinks if one of the manufacturers could provide an F3-size 32-bit recorder with a single 5-pin stereo XLR port (thus negating the need for any cables) one could easily rig any stereo field mic to a shock-mounted pistol grip and be off and running...something already possible for mono recording with a single mono mic with the F3.

Anyhoo, that's it in a nutshell.

Jimmy G

If that's the case, I will have a look at the F3 soon hehehe

 

[Jon.Bryant]

Also, FWIW, I just took delivery on a Zoom F3 which will get a shakedown against my (still working) R-26 employing that aforementioned Audio-Technica BP4029 mid-side shotgun mic. Should be interesting...exciting times!

I also have both these recorders and have been meaning to play for some time. It is a shame that I bought the R-26 not that long before another recorder came on the market that tickled my fancy. So the R-26 has been underused and I keep trying to think of excuses to bring it back into operation. If you can please share your views on how the recorders compare, hopefully it will spur me into getting of the couch and doing more recording.

One thing is that the R-26 is a six track recorder, so if you are looking to do stereo recording withe the recorder on a tripod, then you can have three sets of audio - the two different internal mic pairs (which may give you different stereo effect, and if you can set gain different, perhaps a back-up recording to guard against clipping), and then a stereo recording with XLR mics located at a different location, providing a different perspective, or increasing the odds that a bird comes within ideal distance. I have two cardiodal mics and a couple of 10m cables, so was looking to experiment with how successful this approach is.

Musing here, methinks if one of the manufacturers could provide an F3-size 32-bit recorder with a single 5-pin stereo XLR

On a similar issue, is was saying in another thread that there are now a few stereo PiP mic options, including various parabolas and the new High Sound Compact (designed predominantly for cameras, but does come in a hand held kit version), but there isn't (yet) a compact 32-bit float recorder, with stereo mini-jack inputs. The compact 32 bit float recorders with mini jack inputs (like the F2 and the Track E) are all mono.

I really enjoy drop rig recording, and I think I generally get away with using the Wildlife Acoustics 16 bit recorders - if birds come close enough I think results can be pretty good. I recently captured a nice Himalayan Owl recording, which sound like a pair 'dueting' and then copulating!. I previously got a similar recording of Papuan Boobook - so I seem to becoming some type or owl voyeur (if only in audio). I have asked Wildlife Acoustics whether they are considering manufacturing a 32-bit version, but alas it would mean a complete overall of their system architecture. A stereo 32-bit recorder, in a weather tight enclosure, with sufficient batter power to last a few days, would be a thing of joy, and definitely on the Xmas present list.

 

[Jason Bugay Reyes]

Just wondering if anyone here uses this cable for recording? Do you considered this as an alternative for 32 bit for the input gain?

 

[Jon.Bryant]

Just wondering if anyone here uses this cable for recording?

Is this not just for a mono to dual cable - a mono mic to two channels on the recorder? I don’t think it would have any impact on gain. I don’t think it is like a similar USB that doubles up the voltage - just the same signal duplicated/divided.

 

[Jason Bugay Reyes]

Is this not just for a mono to dual cable - a mono mic to two channels on the recorder? I don’t think it would have any impact on gain. I don’t think it is like a similar USB that doubles up the voltage - just the same signal duplicated/divided.

I used this and get different input gain for far and near birds. So far ok

 

[Jon.Bryant]

I used this and get different input gain for far and near birds. So far ok

Ah, I think I understand. You are taking one input and feeding it to two channels that are not linked. You are then applying different gain settings to each channel. You could either do this as preset gain levels (near and far as you suggest), or you could create a backup channel (with lower gain applied), to fall back on if the main channel is clipped. You could then play with the gain on one channel only, and have the other as a fall back.

Never thought of this, but a potential work around to getting the recording levels wrong.

 

[Elkhornsun]

With the SSD MixPre-3 II and the MixPre-6 II recorders I can record for 12 hours using a single Anker 335 power bank and USB-C cable. More compact setup with the USB-C cable running to the power bank instead of using a sled and special L compatible batteries.

The better mics use XLR connectors and this is not a problem with the MixPre recorders. Easy to link the channels so the gain can be adusted for both with a single knob.

 

[Joop99]

Just wondering if anyone here uses this cable for recording? Do you considered this as an alternative for 32 bit for the input gain?

Is not going to work. What you do is connecting the two input stages parallel, in practice this means that you get half the input resistance. It is very likely that you will loose signal from the mic because the mic sees a lower input resistance. With a Zoom F3 the input amplifiers are set to a higher amplification, due to lower input signal, which will introduce more noise. Just record it on one channel and in the computer you can make it double channel.

 

[Elkhornsun]

IO bought the Zoom F-6 but found the user interface to be terrible and like something designed in the 1980's. Returned it and bought the Sound Devices MixPre-3 II sound recorder that is vastly better with its touchscreen and menu structure. It is what Cornell Lab uses and they provide setup information.

Setting up the Sound Devices MixPre-3

The Sound Devices MixPre-3 is a professional quality, durable, and portable field recorder that is very user-friendly. However, the out-of-the-box settings are not ideal for using in the field. We rec

www.macaulaylibrary.org

 

[Jon.Bryant]

It is very likely that you will loose signal from the mic because the mic sees a lower input resistance.

This is interesting to know. Reading between the lines I think in the original post the intention was not to create dual mono, but to create two tracks with different gain settings - in effect safeguard against too low or too high gain settings, by having the ability to select the channel with the best result, and discard the other.

If the splitter degrades the signal, so that each has added noise/reduced signal, then as you say this will not work.

It is not something I was going to try, but initially seemed like a work around people looking at recording transient or mobile sounds and not having the luxury of 32 bit kit.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

IO bought the Zoom F-6 but found the user interface to be terrible and like something designed in the 1980's. Returned it and bought the Sound Devices MixPre-3 II sound recorder that is vastly better with its touchscreen and menu structure. It is what Cornell Lab uses and they provide setup information.

Setting up the Sound Devices MixPre-3

The Sound Devices MixPre-3 is a professional quality, durable, and portable field recorder that is very user-friendly. However, the out-of-the-box settings are not ideal for using in the field. We rec

www.macaulaylibrary.org

As per earlier in the thread, I think the Mix-Pres are currently the best 'standard' field recorders for birders. For starters they are standard format, so fit a normal audio bag rather than being some peculiar shape, and requiring a special carrying case. The main controls are easily accessible and the devices are relatively easy to use - although understanding mixing and gain control can be lit odd at first.

I find the touch screen a little too small for my big fingers and aging eyesight, but you can do the touch screen setup in advance in the comfort of home with your reading glasses on!

I think that Sound Devices have probably moved down the price ladder to provide some very appealing recorders. I recall my first Sound Devices recorder was the 702 and cost circa £1,800 circa 15 years ago, so these units are much cheaper in comparison. Sound Devices still make the higher end 8 series and there are other high end manufacturers, which I sure make beautiful equipment - though probably out of the price range of the amateur.

Given the value for money, it doesn't surprise me that the Mix-Pres are used by Cornall Lab.