Greetings - interested in field recording

[jamesd256]

Hi to everyone,

I just built my first stereo mic based on the wm-61a capsules I have had sitting around for 5 years!

They sound great. Haven't done 'the mod' yet (I have 8 more caps to play with).

Next will be a battery box, then a pre-amp. Following that I would like to make a dual mic with switchable modded / non-modded wm-61a's. I understand that while the modded versions give less distortion at high SPL's, it is at the cost of sensitivity.

Once I get a bit more confident, I will take on an digital pre-amp project, hopefully with 24/96 output.

Ultimately I would like to tinker with really advanced stuff like building a solid state field recorder with digital in.

Should keep me occupied for a few decades.

Cheers & thanks for reading.

James

[planet10]

Welcome to the forum James/

What kind of "fields" are you hoping to record in

dave

[jamesd256]

Corn fields sound great to my ears. Wheat field audio suffers from harsh high frequency components.

In addition to recording in fields, I am interested in a number of applications.

I am an amateur film maker, so the option of having off camera sound is attractive. I would like to build up to having a more comprehensive set of options for recording audio to a professional level.

I also want to make impromptu recordings of buskers, my own guitar playing, story telling, concerts, lunch time walks through Spitalfields market, etc , etc.

My philosophy is to build everything I can myself - not just to save money, but to be in control of the features, design and quality, and for the hell of it!

Thanks for the welcome.

[chris661]

Welcome to the forums. Where abouts are you on our damp little island?

[SY]

Welcome, and I have exactly the same interest. I'll be curious how you get your capsules to perform- they may need some severe modifications to get the noise down, but they are cheap and perform well otherwise.

[jamesd256]

Originally Posted by chris661

Welcome to the forums. Where abouts are you on our damp little island?

Thanks! I'm in rainy London, but I don't like warm weather, so I'm fine about it.

Originally Posted by SY

Welcome, and I have exactly the same interest. I'll be curious how you get your capsules to perform- they may need some severe modifications to get the noise down, but they are cheap and perform well otherwise.

I'll let you know how I get on. Planning on playing with the mod mentioned here:

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/images/graphics/microph1.gif

Do you know what effect that will have on self-noise?

[SY]

I *think* that this will have little effect on noise- the mod is mostly to increase maximum SPL (useful for near-field speaker measurement).

[jamesd256]

I have read a few pages on Rod Elliot's site, and he has me sold on his P93 microphone preamp project. I'm thinking of sourcing the components and breadboarding it before eventually buying one or two of his PCBs.

What I would like to add to the design is:

• VU meters for both channels
• Gain pots for input and output
• An amplified headphone stage for monitoring.

Are any of these wishes going to compromise performance or dramatically increase the complexity of the design?

Maybe there is a design out there that ticks these boxes without compromising the fidelity offered by this one?

I have trouble understanding his words about the implication of applying the Linkwitz mod in terms of it's impact on the design. Do I simply need to reverse the polarity of the inputs?

Can anyone give me some direction to study for any of these, or perhaps tell me where to post.

Thanks!