Freesound Forums

Hi all,

next spring (March through May, south Spain) I'll be recording sounds for a research project and I would greatly appreciate advice from all of you. What I to record are the buzzings of bees and other insects foraging on flowers (and then analyze the timing on the computer, eg time spent on the flower, length of the foraging bout, etc). Usually you can get quite close to foraging insects (1-2 m) and from a few tests done with the gear I have now I'm sure it can be done. I do not intend to record ultrasonic frequencies (20-20000Hz is ok) but some extra stuff would help and I don't have a lot of money to spend.

Microphone: my choice is a relatively inexpensive condenser shotgun (Rode NTG2, can be battery or phantom powered) enclosed in a windshield. Focusing in a single insect is allimportant, so the hypercardiod pattern may help (?).

Recorder: I am lost here, the only thing I know for sure is that I cannot expend thousands and that, for convenience, should be a single box without external power or preamp.

a) SD 722, Nagra, etc: I couldn't pay for that

b) field recorders such as Marantz PMD 660/671 look handy and would allow editing and a lot more things, but according to comments on the net their mic preamps are ...crap. If I expended 600/1000 Euro only to discover that I still need an external (and expensive) preamplifier I think I would commit suicide If any experienced user is reading this please, please give advice!

c) the new Microtrack. It's relatively cheap, lightweight, and although full of bugs at least can record at 24 bits... No fancy editing features, though, and the preamp is rubbish...

d) rent a field recorder for 2-3 months (dunno if could this be done, any tip?)

e) keep using my old iRiver jukebox. Too bad it records noise from the internal drive on occasions, but definitely the cheapest option.

Input, questions (and support from anyone interested in the project are welcome !

Hi, that sounds like an interesting project

have you considered using a parabolic microphone ?
I have never used one and I know little about them... but they are always recommended for recording things like bird song.
Might be useful for recording bees and insects because I believe they are more highly directional than most shotgun mics but only pick up higher frequencies properly.

yeah, that's an idea... thanks!

Have you checked ebay for 2nd hand portable dat recorders?
I'd be interested to hear your results!!!

http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/quickparabolic.html

may be of interest

Perhaps I say a stupidity, but if you have the intention to record a honeycomb among other insects, you can introduce a wireless mic in it (not you exactly, better a beekeeper). I will think other "cheap solutions" for another kind of bugs.
One petition: will you record a concert of southern cicadas?

Spanish traslation:
Igual digo una tontería pero si entre otras cosas quieres grabar un panal de abejas igual sería buena idea que un apicultor metiera un inalámbrico dentro de él. Si se me ocurren otras "geniales y baratas soluciones" ya te las comunicaré.
Una petición: me grabarías un concierto de cigarras sureñas?

Pitx

Thanks to everybody for your suggestions. Just to keep you informed, the weather is still quite windy and cold here (so not much insect activity) but I have started to experiment and do some tests.

To my surprise, I have found out that you don't really need a high-quality device to extract valuable info (time spent flying, working etc) from the sounds made by insects. Believe it or not I'm using a handful of cheap mp3 players (and voice recorders) which I distribute by the plants I intend to monitor. The mp3's do their job (in crappy 8 bit mono) for 3 h, then I transfer the tracks to the computer for analysis. And it works! Of course you would NOT want to hear these samples, so don't ask me I mean the quality IS awful, but looking at the file in spectral view I can detect the buzzings at a glance (and get the info).

Such a dirty approach may surprise some of you but... hey, I don't care much if I lose an mp3 in the scrub because they are unexpensive! And.... ok, I must admit that I LOVE discovering 'original' uses for cheap mass-technology (even more than I love expensive devices :wink: ) Anyway, in a few weeks I will also perform some 'good' recordings to upload to freesound.

cheers

PD, pitx, recording cicadas in winter would be hard :wink: , please wait until summer. In the mean time, check this sample which I recorded in a hot afternoon in Aracena (Huelva):
http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=4198