Audio Hardware/Software Response

1. Discuss your experiences with building your microphones. Was this process more or less what you thought it would be? How did your microphone rig work on your Drift walks? Were you able to capture both overall ambiance and extreme closeups? Describe your ideal microphone and recorder setup, with unlimited time and money.

My experience with building the microphones was great. I was very excited to get to do some hands on work and actually be able to build my own mics. The microphone building seemed to be easier than I thought it would be. This was probably because I took my time and triple checked everything before moving forward. I made sure to be very meticulous because I wanted my mics to perform well on my Drift walks, and they did. I captured a wide variety of sounds ranging in pitch and volume and was able to record ambient sounds just as well as close-up sounds. The only issue I had was that occasionally the wind would interfere with the recording. If I had unlimited time and money I would buy high end microphones with an array of different booms and other stands in order to position them better. I would also spend some time and money experimenting with different materials to use as wind screens.

2. How was your experience with operating the MiniDisc recorder? How does this recorder compare to other audio equipment you've used? In an ideal world, how would your recorder of choice function?

The MiniDisc recorder functioned great, but I thought it had a terrible user interface. I haven't really used any other audio recording equipment so I can't say it was any better or worse than other recording devices. If I had my way, I would redesign the recorder so that it was much easier to navigate through the menus and adjust things like equalization and mic sensitivity. The recorder would be much easier to use and adjust on the go, unlike the MiniDisc recorder which forced me to stop paying attention to my drift in order to adjust the settings on the recorder.

3. Discuss the audio-editing software you chose and your history with this application. If you used this software for the first time, explain why you chose this particular application and how you think it helped you to accomplish your creative goals (or proved detrimental). Will you use this software again for future projects?

I used the free audio editing program named Audacity to edit all of my recordings. This wasn't the first time I had used Audacity so I was fairly familiar with it and knew how to do all basic editing with it. I chose this application because it's free and most people I had talked to seemed to like it a lot. Audacity worked great with my recordings and gave me the ability to make very precise edits. I will definitely use Audacity again unless I obtain a higher quality editing program. SonicStage also worked very well, but I was frustrated that the only way to digitally get the recordings off of the MiniDisc recorder was this one PC based program. It would have been nice to have more options to choose from.