13
votes
Accepted
Pros and cons directional mic vs parabola
On the Cornell Lab of Ornithology webpage, there is a well written overview about the pro and cons for shotgun vs parabola:
https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/resources/audio-recording-gear/microphones/
...
9
votes
Recommendations for external microphone for smartphone for casual recordings (birds, frogs, bats if possible?)
I would highly recommend the Rode i-XY stereo microphone for casual field recording. Although I haven't used BirdNET, I would be fairly confident that the Rode microphone would be compatible.
https://...
7
votes
How reliable are "particle-velocity" microphones?
IMHO, there exists some confusion about particle velocity in the bioacoustic world, so some more words
There are couple of aspects to it
physics: sound propagates in form of varying pressure ...
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7
votes
Recommendations for external microphone for smartphone for casual recordings (birds, frogs, bats if possible?)
Echometers by Wildlife Bioacoustics is a great smartphone extension for recording and identifying bat species.
ECHO METER TOUCH 2 FOR ANDROID (USB-C)- $179.00 [Sampling rate-256k]
ECHO METER TOUCH 2 ...
- 1,141
6
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to estimate particle velocity from a pressure microphone?
Assuming a monopole sound source in free-field, RMS particle velocity $v$ and RMS pressure $p$ are related to each other with (chapter 2 p. 51 from Beranek & Mellow 2012)
$$v(r) = \frac{ p(r) }{Z }...
- 4,161
6
votes
Accepted
How long do hydrophone (/microphone) calibrations last for?
when bidding for projects our hydrophones and pistonphones are generally required to have been calibrated (certified to IEC 60565) within the previous 24 months, preferably 12 months. But if were is ...
- 466
6
votes
How long do hydrophone (/microphone) calibrations last for?
Intro
In general, there are two calibration procedures used with measurement equipment (I come from an acoustics background but this is more generic to metrology than a specific acoustics field).
...
- 314
5
votes
Accepted
What options are there for micro audio recorders?
While I could think about a low-cost alternative to AudioMoth (Teensy 3.2 + audioboard), the global chip shortage applies to nearly all micro controllers.
A possible solution would be a Teensy 4.1 + ...
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5
votes
Accepted
Recording parrots, would a Zoom H4N suffice?
If you have a Zoom H4n and your tests give you clear spectrograms, go ahead and use it. It is not clear to me why this type of recorder is not deemed professional.
The only thing you must make sure is ...
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5
votes
leaving mics in a cave during fieldwork
While I cannot speak to the effect on your microphone, I do have an alternative to consider:
My bioacoustics professor, Dr. Bill Evans, told me stories of the early days of underwater bioacoustics ...
- 3,704
4
votes
Microphone calibration stability?
We have used cheap knowles microphones for bat echolocation studies and they can get calibrated often and they have rendered the same sensitivity at least over 3 years.
The main issue with microphones ...
4
votes
How reliable are "particle-velocity" microphones?
To answer the last part of that question which is "does the fish bioacoustics community use pressure-gradient hydrophones"-
Yes, often the two hydrophone method is used to estimate particle ...
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4
votes
Pros and cons directional mic vs parabola
I use directional ("shot gun", though I hate that term) mic's for lemur vocalizations (+ a windscreen over it). The Sennheiser ME67, which has pretty much become the gold standard in ...
- 3,398
4
votes
How to avoid that cables get entangled in the field?
If you put the cable in a figure 8 pattern, it is less likely to twist and tangle. Sometimes you can also put a velcro strap around the middle of the figure 8 to hold them in place.
I've worked with ...
- 3,704
3
votes
Recording of whitefly vibrations: "piezo" versus "low-noise microphone with subtrate-air diffusion"
Good question. I have recorded whiteflies with a laser vibrometer before. They are very quiet. I have used piezo a few times and I would agree that they have quite a big self noise but maybe in very ...
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3
votes
Recommended wind screen for MEMS microphones
Wildlife Acoustics recommends using an extra foam cover over the mics. This helps some. Furries can be problematic, as birds attack and steal them.
3
votes
Recommended wind screen for MEMS microphones
You can create your custom windscreen to cover the whole microphone. Something like this:
https://www.dodotronic.com/product/windscreen-for-hi-sound-mono/
3
votes
Recommendations for external microphone for smartphone for casual recordings (birds, frogs, bats if possible?)
You can take a look to Ultramics:
www.dodotronic.com
you can record both audio and ultrasound at the same time
3
votes
Accepted
Microphone calibration stability?
This is a question that is not asked often enough in my view - outside of the marine acoustic sector anyway...
A good paper looking at this is Turgeon & Wilgenburg (2017): DOI:10.5751/ACE-00958-...
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3
votes
Is it possible to estimate particle velocity from a pressure microphone?
If you have two pressure microphones you can estimate the pressure gradient (and from that, the particle velocity $v$) as
$$v_r(t) \simeq \frac{1}{\rho} \int \frac{p_1(t)-p_2(t)}{\Delta r}dt$$
where $...
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
leaving mics in a cave during fieldwork
To be safe, I would use microphones which the specifications explicitly say that they can handle such humidity.
RF condenser technology is described as "weather-proof" by the manufacturer (e....
- 4,161
3
votes
How to avoid that cables get entangled in the field?
Several years ago, a sound engineer showed me a technique. As it is really hard to explain here is a video: https://youtu.be/5ifFk7NTalk?t=65
- 1,544
3
votes
How to avoid that cables get entangled in the field?
In the past I've had good success with a simple garden hose reel, and depending on the length and diameter of your cables, you could even use the smaller and lighter versions available for electrical ...
- 1,108
3
votes
Parabolic Microphones?
Wildtronics have one parabolic dish kit for around 250 USD, the Pro Mini Parabolic. They also have only the parabolic dishes from between 85 and 150 USD.
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3
votes
Accepted
How to convert relative db to db SPL knowing microphone specifications?
To make the answer simple and hoping that I understand your question correctly, note first that
You have given max SPL input level of 126 dB.
Your plots are dB relative to max input level.
...
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2
votes
leaving mics in a cave during fieldwork
I have not tried this myself, but I would be concerned with moisture damage. As far as I know, all condenser mics have vents to equalize the (static) pressure behind the membrane to the ambient ...
- 858
2
votes
Accepted
Recommended wind screen for MEMS microphones
a good option would be a lavalier mic windscreen. Various manufacturers produce this, like:
BubbleBee: https://www.pinknoise-systems.co.uk/bubblebee-windbubble-l01-mini-windshield-for-lavalier-...
- 1,691
2
votes
Accepted
Shotgun microphone position for low-level sounds in a tube
Considering the large difference between the size of the insect and the wavelength of interest, sound radiation must be very weak, indeed. Is that a species that signals by tremulation? Specific ...
2
votes
Accepted
Mic Recommendations for Hummingbird Chip Notes?
I would agree with @WMXZ that it sounds like you would benefit from a parabolic mic. Of these, the Telinga kit (https://www.telinga.com/) is often regarded to be the best, but is fairly expensive, ...
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