You mentioned noise reduction on the EM172s... it would be interesting to know how much. They sound so similar that it must be close to the actual noise difference, be interesting to compare to the paper figures.

The European fire-bellied toad is, in fact, a frog. (No fire, either.) However, this is more than compensated by its satisfyingly fun-to-say Latin name: Bombina bombina. They also produce antimicrobial peptides in their skin secretions – the even more fun-to-say ‘bombinins’. 

Native to eastern mainland Europe – recorded here in the protected land of Poland’s Barycz Valley Landscape Park – they use their internal vocal sacs to produce their “whoop” call: the mournful, slow-motion honk immortalized here. Imagine the sound that clowns might make when they cry and you won’t be far off.

Bombina bombina mysterious call

Rooftop Morning Seagulls And Crows, Istanbul, Turkey

Street Vendor On Megaphone, Da Nang, Vietnam

Northwestern University Library - Vent

Rotary Gas Meter

Recorded on the land of the Peramangk people.
Deep, slow, careful listening required.
Read the Playlist description for more information: https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/sets/2023-iron-curtain-autumn-and-summer

2023.03.16 Iron Curtain. Early Autumn.

An hour before sunrise in a secluded valley mire in Dartmoor National Park. Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) are performing their "winnowing" courtship display, flying up and diving downwards so their tail feathers vibrate with a distinctive thrumming sound. Tawny Owls and Cuckoo call across the valley.

Recorded on 1st May 2023 with 2 x AT4022 microphones in an Olson stereo array (www.trackseventeen.com/mic_rigs.html) and a Sound Devices 722 recorder.

May Day Snipe

This is a very high-gain recording, the forests are so quiet in this part of Sweden, I like the idea of really opening up the gain.  MixPre3 the gain set to 74db, with a pair of Lewitt 440's.  Recording 4000.

Stream (1) -  12 May 23 - 11am - Dalsvallen

At the crossroads of day and night, diurnal birds meet nocturnal animals for a precious hour. Thus the black-crowned night herons, doves, ducks meet the roar of the deer, the fleeting bats and the tawny owl, in a unique and precious soundscape in the heart of the forest of Orléans, the biggest forest in France

Crépuscule Automnal À L'étang Du Ravoir (Automn Nightfall At Ravoir's Pound)

Recording I made while waiting in a parking lot to get out until the rain shower was over.

Rain on the roof of a car - interior

PodCast

Rain on the roof of a car - interior (September 21st, 2023)

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

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. 

Audio Technica AT4022 Vs Primo EM172 Blind Test

Douglas Langley

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