Need a sound recorder, what should I get?
in [Repair]
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From: Robert Macy on 10 Mar 2010 14:46 Need a sound recorder for recording noise intrusion from an adjacent tenant. Using Sony ICD-SX700 did not achieve very good results. What should I use?
From: William R. Walsh on 10 Mar 2010 16:14 Hi! > What should I use? How about a cheap tape recorder? You could pick up a battery operated unit very inexpensively secondhand (and for not much more brand new). It's cheap, simple and a (still) large installed base of tape players means you can play the recording almost anywhere. What you really want to do is look at the microphone you are using. I think you'll want a microphone with an omnidirectional pickup pattern and the ability to pick up sounds from afar. Unidirectional and "noise canceling" microphones are probably not going to work well for this application. William
From: Gareth Magennis on 10 Mar 2010 17:13 "Robert Macy" <macy(a)california.com> wrote in message news:5ce869bd-d2d4-4eb5-a6bb-088e9a1a75f2(a)c16g2000yqd.googlegroups.com... > Need a sound recorder for recording noise intrusion from an adjacent > tenant. > > Using Sony ICD-SX700 did not achieve very good results. > > What should I use? > What exactly are you trying to achieve? If it is some kind of evidence that your neighbour is making noise, how are you going to tell from the recording exactly how loud the noise is? Chances are the spillage is actually very quiet, which is why you have not so far achieved a good result.
From: Robert Macy on 10 Mar 2010 17:17 On Mar 10, 1:14 pm, "William R. Walsh" <wm_wa...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi! > > > What should I use? > > How about a cheap tape recorder? You could pick up a battery operated > unit very inexpensively secondhand (and for not much more brand new). > It's cheap, simple and a (still) large installed base of tape players > means you can play the recording almost anywhere. > > What you really want to do is look at the microphone you are using. I > think you'll want a microphone with an omnidirectional pickup pattern > and the ability to pick up sounds from afar. > > Unidirectional and "noise canceling" microphones are probably not > going to work well for this application. > > William Thank you for your reply. I fear you are correct that the front end is most important - the mike and preamp. In defense of digital vs mechanical, the Sony has 1 1/2 hr of 'perfect' MP3 and more than 340 hours of plain recording [even speech recognition software] and the design is supposed to be for individual, conference room, or that tiny sound from the corner. However, the playback sounds more like excessive tape hiss. My wife said 'typical sony' ...she once had a walkman that was no end of trouble. Also, heads up, comes with CD Sound Editor software and a DVD with Speech Recognition SW, both will only install on OS of Win2000 or better. As you may know, picking up high frequency is no problem so this recorder apparently shifts everything into the treble. can't hear thumps and bumps, but the slightest scritch/scritch is gangbusters. For that reason may not be the right choice. Apologies for not being scientific, so try again. Apparently the Sony ICD SX700D is inadequate in the low frequency spectrum, below 300Hz, probably deems that not very important because that's adequate for speech. However, the higher spectrum where ruslting of paper resides, the recorder appears to enhance that sound bandwidth. As a result, I fear the unit will not fulfill the function I need. I just realized I was playing the sound back using the built in 1 inch diameter speaker. Duh! Will try using earphones with better fidelity to see if the lower spectrum exists. I also have the capability of storing as a 16 bit .wav file, so I can do some very esoteric manipulations using a Matlab clone, octave. I'll see if I can find flatness of the recording system and the noise floor of the recorder. At least I'll find the noise density coefficient. Robert
From: b on 10 Mar 2010 18:19
On Mar 10, 8:46 pm, Robert Macy <m...(a)california.com> wrote: > Need a sound recorder for recording noise intrusion from an adjacent > tenant. > > Using Sony ICD-SX700 did not achieve very good results. > > What should I use? As mentioned above, a tape deck is cheap and effective. A second hand stereo one (be sure to get one with mic inputs) and a couple of good mikes will knock the socks off any mp3 type device, for the same or less money. see http://www.vintagecassette.com/ for specs. -B |