I wanted to study the variations in the songs and calls of a particular babbler during the various seasons of the year. I also intent to find out the variations in the calls and songs during breeding and non breeding seasons. Kindly suggest which microphone and recorder will be better for the study in a limited budget. Which one will be better Zoom H1, Sony PCM-M10 or Zoom U-24 Handy Audio for recorder and for Microphone Sennheiser ME 62, Rode VMGO or Audio Technica ATR 6650 Microphones.
I think microphone is far more important in your setup than the recorder, because most of the modern interfaces have good enough audio quality for your task. Check if the features will match you needs (e.g. audio format, connections, amount of memory, environment etc.)
I don't know your setup but I assume you want to pick up source as much as possible without getting very close to it, and at the same time suppress background sounds/noise. So you need some directional mics with cardioid or even supercardioid polar pattern. From the microphones you provided I would not go for ME62 because it is omnidirectional.
From VMGO and ATR6650 I'd go for AT because you can switch between cardioid and supercardioid patterns, so you have a choice if supercardioid is too narrow field for your situation. Besides, I have not tested myself but I've heard in 'Tele' mode AT shotgun is very good at picking up distant sources if you need to. Hope that helps.
Hello,
from all those mics you list, I would go for audio technica or any other high quality shotgun. Generally speaking, shotguns of high quality are recommended for recording birds or you could also use a parabolic microphone for amplifying sounds even in a distance 50-70m (the size of parabola will determine your low frequency range; the larger the diameter of the parabola the lower the frequency you can catch, though it needs lots of experimentation to find your right spot). Personally, I would avoid usb microphones and the alike, as their frequency response doesn't always correspond to what they claim to offer. Of course, everything has to do with your budget and the degree of accuracy you want to achieve...
Hope that helps..
Hello,
I agree with the suggestions of Valeri Tsatsishvili and Aphrodite Karantonaki. However, I would go for an autonomous recording unit, similar to the ones provided by wildlife acoustics.
https://www.wildlifeacoustics.com/store#song-meter-sm4
Unfortunately, ARU's come at a higher price, but there are benefits including the ease of remote sampling across spatial and temporal scales.
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