love these comparisons, they really do perform surprisingly similarly. Can't wait to get my em272 mics put together, love the detail in these recordings.

They really are great microphones. I didn't apply any EQ here, but you can get the noise really low with a little reduction about 8-10khz. I have some examples of this here on Soundcloud. 

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)

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

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. 

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

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