Sound Devices Mix Pre 3 II, pair of clippy omnis, Rycote BBG, Radius fur

This time of year the birds are incredibly active, and sing wonderfully just before dawn.
It’s a wonderful time to be up and about, so much peace and solitude, it feels like I’m there only person in the world for a few hours. I set up my kit bestie the birds start singing, and sit and listen, and meditate as the world slowly wakes up.
It’s amazing to hear the woodland go from almost complete silence to bursting with birdsong.

I’m using a pair of Clippies mounted in a Rode blimp as a spaced omni stereo pair, and have recently added a Rode NTG5 in Rycote blimp as a centre mic to bring a little bit more focus to the sound. It seems to work really well at capturing the ambience.
That’s all being recorded into a Zoom F8nPro

If you have a 3d printer, you can build this yourself! (File link here) Inspired by u/beamshots

After beamshots showed off his version of his Merlin rig, I thought it'd be awesome to combine with a Parabolic Dome for field recording birds. Parabolic domes are expensive! But I happened to get a Bambu labs A1 mini 3d printer, right around the same time and decided to try designing and building my own.

Today after weeks of tweaking and field testing, Today I managed to get my lifer Yellow-Billed Cuckoo and I knew it was ready to announce and release it to everyone!

Links to all the added materials for assembly are in the file link (Along with my amazon affiliate links if you'd like to support my design)

There are 2 different assembly handles, if you do not want to worry about the tripod/monopod part use the hand held version.

Questions, comments, and constructive criticism are appreciated!!!

Happy Birding!!!!

Yeah, it’s not ideal, but it’s good enough to be good enough. I’m really excited to try it out!

So this was a fun experiment, obviously this isn't supposed to be actual field recording gear but I think it's really fun to play with.

The first configuration is a microcassette recorder with velcro on a cutting board with a mic amplifier and a cheap shotgun mic off a video camera. It picks up stuff super well.

The second is a cheap shoebox recorder with the same amp hooked up to a lapel mic, this one picks up everything, it's pretty wild. I also put a backpack strap on it lol.

Anyway, just though I'd share my fun experiment. Been walking around the city taking in sounds, fun to listen to. Going to a nature reserve this week to play with them.

Just wanted to share!

Mixpre 3, immersive Soundscapes Earsight standard v2, Sony MDR 7506.

I recently upgraded my field recording kit after many years with my Tascam DR100MKIII.

My new kit is actually two setups, one for mono and one for stereo. The only downside is that I have to carry a battery pack in my backpack for the Zoom F3. Not much of a pain though :)

Cheers!

Here’s the three-station setup for my one-year-old kid’s backyard party:

1. Zoom F3 and two pluggies on a Neewer T91 flexible tripod, about 50mm spacing with some aliexpress wind pro I bought a while ago for some sdcs (it’s reasonably transparent; it’s got an inner layer made out of the pond-filter material that a lot of newer pop filters use). This was the stereo pair in the middle of the action, with the main sitting area for adults to the right and the fenced area for the baby guests to the left. Good width.

2. Two NT1As in an ORTF configuration on a boom stand with some less-than-ideal wind pro. I used foam shields underneath furry screens sold for a zoom h6, which fit quite well over the small grilles of the NT1As. These mics were a go-to in the 2010s for ambient nature recording but they get a lot of hate for their shrill frequency response. I love them because you can buy one used on eBay for less than the cost of a new SM57 and get a preposterously quiet mic. Cheap-ish wind protection, to my ears, tames the shrillness. These were placed on the back porch running into my main studio interface, probably 20 feet from most of the ~40 guests. A bit distant, but a good picture of the whole scene without the more aggressive width of the pair of pluggies.

3. Original zoom H1 and instruction sheet for my relatives to record a birthday message that we can give to my daughter when she’s older. Fidelity wasn’t really the goal here. Originally I wanted to use a portable tape deck because I thought my baby boomer relatives would feel more comfortable, but the deck died and so I chose the simplest handheld I owned and tried to write fail-proof instructions. Resounding success. This was really important to me because it’s likely that by the time she’s 10 years old, at least a few of them may have died. In my experience, a person’s voice is one of the first things I forget when someone is gone, so I try to keep audio records now. Plus, who wouldn’t want an audio message from the past from a family member or friend?

Using the Clippy EM272's and a Zoom F3

Had a very good weather window these past few days on the trails.

I just discovered the wonderful world of field recorders, and their impact on sound design. This is what I carry around with me now!