Soundscape Compositions

Oxford Wanderings

Weather

Edgelands

A Flood Of Bees

My former recording setup versus my new one. The 'Hydra' is an 8 capsule EM272 stereo module built for me by Micbooster. I'm using it with a recently acquired Olympus LS-10 recorder. The Sony PCM-A10 I would normally use couldn't supply enough power to drive 8 capsules and the preamps were too noisy. 

I bought a 9v battery box to use with this setup but bizarrely I don't need to use it with the Olympus. It seems to somehow be powering 8 capsules from 3v plug in power just fine!

The PCM-A10 with a normal EM172 stereo pair is up first, followed by the 'Hydra' and LS-10. Note the reduced self-noise. This is coming from the combination of the microphone and recorder, as using the standard stereo pair with the Olympus sounds pretty much the same as the Sony.

Sony PCM-A10 Primo EM172 Vs Olympus LS-10 'Hydra'

Location: Hinksey Meadows, Dean's Ham, Oxford, UK
Recorder: Sony PCM-A10, Olympus LS-5
Microphone: Custom 8 capsule rig (4 + 4 Clippy EM272 capsules wired in parallel), JrF C-series contact microphones, JrF electromagnetic coil pick-ups
Stereo technique: Baffled omnis (foam baffles on stereo bar)

Pylon

Recorded in Oxford at a protest against Putin's war against Ukraine.

Ukraine National Anthem

My 8 x EM272 rig (going via a 9v battery box) is lower noise than a normal EM272 pair but it is also quite a bit more sensitive (around 7.5dB). 

In a very dynamic situation like a thunderstorm, I like to record at the lowest possible level to avoid clipping. On the Sony PCM-A10 you can set the gain right down to level 3 without introducing any additional noise (with a normal EM272 stereo pair). Levels 1 and 2 add quite a bit of recorder self noise.

I wanted to test recording at level 1 with the 8 capsule rig, to see if the lower noise of that rig would mitigate the effects of the increased recorder noise.

In this clip you hear a standard EM272 pair recorded at level 15, followed by the 8 capsule rig at level 1. Recordings were made simultaneously to two separate Sony PCM-A10 recorders and subsequently normalised to the same level using a 1kHz test tone played from my phone.

The result was positive. The 8 capsule rig still has less noise, despite the added recorder noise due to the low gain level.

Sony PCM - A10 Low Gain With 8 X EM272 Capsules

First Storm Of The Year

UFO Cleaning

Test of various wind protection options for Clippy EM172/272 microphones.

I had a hairdryer around 60cm away, pointing directly at the microphone capsule. Gain was not changed at all throughout, nor was the position of the microphone or the hairdryer.  No EQ has been applied so you can hear the effect of the low rumble reduction as the wind protection gets increasingly more effective, as well as the impact on high frequency loss which is not completely linear through the test.

Clip 1: Bare capsule
Clip 2: Clippy foam windshield only (https://micbooster.com/clippy-and-pluggy-microphones/66-clippy-foam-windshield.html)
Clip3: Clippy foam windshield + Rycote Clippy windjammer (https://micbooster.com/microphone-windshields/222-rycote-windjammer-for-clippy-microphone.html)
Clip 4: Bubblebee Windbubble (Size 4)
Clip 5: Large ball (35mm diameter) foam windshield (https://www.connevans.co.uk/product/5549008/MXG122CH/Black-35mm-ball--7-mm-Internal-Diameter-Foam-Microphone-Windshield)
Clip 6: Oball with Cinela fabric cover (DIY job with fabric purchased from Cinela of the same type they use on their windshields)
Clip 7: Oball with Rycote BBG Windjammer
Clip 8: Oball with Cinela fabric cover + Rycote BBG Windjammer

The clips are in order of wind protection effectiveness. The best small format wind protection was provided by the 35mm diameter foam windshield, which was better than both the Rycote Clippy windjammer and the Bubblebee Windbubble, which I find surprising considering no fur is involved, and the cheaper cost compared to those those options. The Windbubble also had quite a big high frequency reduction compared to the others.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest improvements came when introducing a blimp-style enclosure (provided by the Oball). The Rycote BBG Windjammer had a huge reduction on the low frequency rumble. The Cinela fabric was a bet less effective in that regard (though better than all the small format options), but did a great job of retaining high frequency content. Combining the Cinela fabric and the BBG Windjammer took out a tiny bit more rumble, but not very much.

Clippy EM172 Wind Protection Test

Enigmatic Grille

Ferry Morning Wake Up Calls

St Ebbes Primary School Choir

After The Storm

Oldham Street, Manchester. Ambience from the top floor of an apartment building. I recorded this from the rear of the apartment  which was surrounded on all sides by the neighbouring buildings. Almost all the sounds are indirect, travelling up from the street and over the buildings giving everything a soft, reverberant quality. I love these kind of indirect soundscapes.

Oldham Street Rooftop

A busy Sunday afternoon in Manchester's Northern Quarter. Recorded from the balcony of a 5th floor apartment on Oldham Street.

Northern Quarter Ambience

Ki Bagus Baghaskoro with the Oxford Gamelan Society performing Eka Cakra and the Spiced Warrior at St John's College, Oxford,27/11/2023. Part of the World's Music at Oxford series.

Eka Cakra and the Spiced Warrior

Water dripping onto the scaffolding at West Dean College of Arts after heavy rains.

Scaffolding Drips

Scaffolding Wind

A montage of recordings made whilst staying in a cottage in the Tatras, where my partner used to stay every summer as a child. We hear Bela, the river that runs through the area and is always audible from a distance as a continuous rush of white noise; a small stream near to a natural spring (the cleanest water I have ever tasted), cicadas in the mountain meadows, and finally some chat around the fire in the cottage.

Everything was recorded on the internal microphones of the Zoom H4n Pro and edited together in Reaper.

Slovakia 2017

The Zoom F6 occasionally displays the error 'exceeding maximum input levels' when recording high SPL sound sources in 32-bit mode. Other users have reported the same problem but on analysis afterwards, the sound isn't clipped or distorted in any way. On this test I'm using a pair of Clippy (EM172) microphones right on top of a ride cymbal. The first couple of hits are quiet but then for all the subsequent ones the error came up on screen so I was expecting either clipped or distorted sound afterwards. However, I was able to normalise the audio to get rid of the clipping, and there is no audible distortion. This looks like maybe a software problem, where the unit is displaying the error at the wrong time.

Zoom F6 Exceeding Maximum Input Level

2 x AT4022, 1 x BP4025 (stereo microphone) and 2 x Clippy recorded at unity gain on the Zoom F6 and normalised in reaper (+22db for AT4022, +24db for BP4025, +16db for FEL Clippy). 

AT4022 sound the quietest to me, with BP4025 very slightly more noisy, and the Clippy microphones quite significantly more noisy,

Audio Technica AT4022, Audio Technica BP4025, FEL Clippy (EM172) Noise Test

Another test of the BP4025 vs Primo EM172 (FEL Clippy XLR). This time in a more real-world setting. 

I have noticed how bright the EM172s are in comparison to the BP4025 (and AT4022 which I tested earlier). This led me to think they can stand a little EQ adjustment to try to reduce the noise, which is naturally higher than the BP4025.

1. Primo EM172 stereo pair
2. BP4025
3. Primo EM172 with EQ applied (-4db reduction in the 5-15khz range)

1 and 2 were recorded simultaneously to a Zoom F6 and later normalised. 3 is a copy of 1 with EQ applied.

Conclusion 1: BP4025 is naturally more quiet than the EM172 but has a more narrow stereo image. However, applying some EQ to the EM172 brings the noise level even lower, and without any negative impact to the overall sound. To my ears, it sounds even more natural now. 

Conclusion 2: I didn't need to buy the BP4025 to achieve lower noise recordings. Damn!

EM172 VS BP4025 VS EM172 With EQ

One clip is Sennheiser MHK 8020, the other clip is Primo EM172 with EQ applied. Can you tell the difference?

As of August 2020, a pair of Sennheiser MKH 8020 costs more than £2,000 in the UK. A pair of Primo EM172 microphones can be purchased ready-made for less than £100, or built for even less. 

Original recording by Vicki Powys used with permission. You can read more about the setup of the original recording here: https://caperteebirder.com/?page_id=333

Sennheiser MKH 8020 VS Primo EM172 Blind Test

This test is comparing the self-noise of the Sony PCM-A10 and the Olympus LS-P4 at various gain settings using external microphones (Clippy EM172). Both recorders allow gain settings from 1-30. I recorded the same sound source (quiet ticking clock) at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and then 30 simultaneously on both recorders and then normalised the levels in Reaper. I then had to do quite a bit of manual correction of the levels because there were some low frequency sounds that were louder than the ticking clock and which were messing with the normalisation process. Recordings were made at 24/48 WAV.

In this recording you first hear the Sony at gain level 1, followed by the Olympus at gain level 1 and so on up to level 30.

As shown in an earlier test the Olympus exhibits much higher levels of self noise at lower gain settings, with a noticeable improvement coming at level 20. This means that when recording quiet scenes, it is worth taking the risk of setting the gain high to minimise the recorder self noise.

The Sony behaves quite differently. At gain level 1 the noise is quite terrible  but at level 5 there is a sudden improvement and in fact there is almost no difference between the noise at level 5 and level 30. This seems to suggest that you can be much more conservative with setting the gain on the Sony to avoid clipping, and increase the levels later in post with no apparent self-noise penalty.

Sony PCM - A10 VS Olympus LS - P4

For Practice (Nyamaropa)

Chandasarira

Bangiza

Heavy Rain Against The Window

Pine Needles In The Wind

In this test I compare the self-noise of Clippy EM172 into a Sony PCM-A10 recording at extremely low gain (level 3 out of 30) versus the same microphones into a Zoom F6 recording in 32-bit float mode.

Clip 1: Sony recording of outdoor scene at original volume
Clip 2: Same Sony recording normalised (+24.2dB)
Clip 3: Zoom F6 recording of the same scene normalised to the same level
Clip 4: Sony recording of indoor scene normalised (+24.2dB)
Clip 5: Zoom F6 recording of the same scene normalised to the same level

My conclusion is that when using Clippy EM172 microphones (14dBA self noise, -28dB sensitivity), low noise preamps such as those on Zoom F series recorders or Sound Devices are overkill. In addition, if you want to avoid clipping (a reason for using 32-bit float) you can simply set the gain level on the PCM-A10 very low, and when you bring the noise levels back up there is no noise penalty (you should avoid going below level 3 however as I have demonstrated in a previous test that the noise increases considerably below level 3).

Sony PCM-A10 Low Gain Vs Zoom F6 32-Bit Float

Grey Squirrel Alarm Calls

A Quiet Moment In Kybald Street

Rainstorm From Inside The Greenhouse

A little sonic postcard from a trip to Sicily in 2019.

Sicily 2019

Merton Grove Robin

Queen's Lane Song

Queen's Lane Bells

Oxford Castle's Perpetual Drip

Quick self-noise comparison of Primo EM258 (aka Lom mikroUsi) vs Primo EM172/272 (aka Clippy, aka Lom Usi).

EM258 is rated at 20dBA and EM172/272 is rated at 14dBA. The difference is noticeable indoors, but not so much outdoors in the situations I have tried so far (not super quiet).

EM258 EM172/EM272 Self-Noise Comparison

Recording of a quiet suburban scene. EM172 followed by EM258. Simultaneous recording to 2 x Sony PCM-A10 recorders.

EM172 Vs EM258 Self-Noise Ambience

Two simultaneous recordings made a while back when I was temporarily in possession of a pair of Audio Technica AT4022 microphones and a Zoom F6 recorder. The AT4022s have a similar performance in terms of self-noise to the Sennheiser MKH 8020s but come in at about a third of the price.

I record everything with Primo EM172-based microphones at the moment but keep getting tempted by lower self-noise (but more expensive, larger and heavier) microphones. However, a test like this makes me question how worthwhile that would be...

One clip is the AT4022s, the other is the EM172s with some noise reduction applied (Izotope RX8 Spectral De-Noise). The difference is very subtle and I doubt it would be noticeable at all outside of an AB comparison like this. Also, in 80-90% of recording situations I find myself either the subject or the environmental noise is much louder than in this test (the gain is really cranked here), and so you wouldn't be hearing any self-noise from the Primo capsules anyway.  Combine that with the fact that the Primos are tiny, weigh almost nothing and are cheap to replace, I can see why so many people love them!   

Let me know in the comments which you think is which.

Audio Technica AT4022 Vs Primo EM172 Blind Test

I wanted to test whether the Primo EM258s (same capsules used for the Lom mikroUsi) have low enough self-noise for recording in a quiet, natural environment. I recorded the following clips in the middle of winter in a relatively quiet local wood. I set the gain so that when played back at maximum volume on a computer or phone, the clips should be approximately the same volume as the sound was in reality. That meant setting the gain lower for the EM172s, which are a bit more sensitive than the EM258s.

The first section presents first the EM258s and then the EM172s without any gain added. This was a very quiet environment, so even at this very low playback volume, the noise of the EM258s (clip 1) is pretty noticeable, whereas the the EM172s sound pristine.

The next section presents the same two clips again with 12dB of gain added, which is probably a bit of a more 'typical' playback volume. The EM258s are very noisy now, with the EM172s still sounding great. There is a small amount of noise, but really very little.

The third section presents the same two clips again still with the 12dB of gain, but also with some noise reduction (Izotope RX8 spectral de-noise). Despite the noise reduction, the EM258 self-noise is still pretty noticeable. There has also been quite a loss of high frequency content meaning the birds are harder to hear now. The EM172s however fare much better. The self-noise is completely inaudible, and the high frequencies although attenuated, are still sufficiently present. In fact, you could say it makes them a bit more flat and natural sounding, in line with higher-end mics like the Audio Technica AT4022s, or Sennheiser MKH 8020s. 

Probably a bit of an obvious outcome based on the specs of the microphones, but it has confirmed for me that I should always have my EM172s with me for recording in quieter environments. They are more sensitive and have lower self-noise than the EM258s. In addition, they naturally have a boost in the high frequencies compared to other microphones, meaning you can apply significant noise reduction but without drastic loss of high frequency content. 

Apologies for my swallow, and the odd little crackling sounds throughout. I was wearing the microphones on the straps of my backpack and picking up some human self-noise!

EM258 And EM172 Self - Noise Test In A Forest

Southwell Building

Snow Dripping Onto Dry Leaves

5 Osney Mead

Snow Dripping Onto A Flooded Grid

Pigeon Tower

On Monday morning this week we discovered that someone had tried to break into our flats by attempting to chisel out the lock (damage pictured).

That evening I decided to put my microphones out of the window above the front door and record overnight, in case the would-be burglars came back.

Nobody tried to get into the flats again, but I accidentally recorded a completely separate and more mundane crime of our cheese being stolen an hour after it was delivered by the milkman! It is a particularly lovely cheddar I suppose! 

Act 1: Delivery
Act 2: Theft

Cheese Theft

Untitled

Stereo soundscape recordings. Sometime nature, sometimes people, sometimes machinery. Sometimes quiet things like a single branch creaking in the wind on Dartmoor, sometimes odd moments in the city. Mostly local, but sometimes travelling. 

Douglas Langley

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