NPR: Sebastian Junger On 'War'

The arm-chair warriors amongst us will like this post on NPR:

"Five times between June 2007 and June 2008 the writer Sebastian Junger traveled to a remote Army outpost in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Junger, a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, made the trip to embed with a company of soldiers from the Army's 173rd Airborne brigade as they fought to keep the Taliban from controlling a small, treacherous plot of land."

I have yet to read all of the article and listen to the excerpts, but I can easily predict that a book such as this one, and its supporting hoopla, glorifies war.

On my flight back to NYC, I tried to watch "The Hurt Locker"...5 minutes into the movie, I turned it off. Is it eyeball fatigue from all the war coverage since 2001 or is it moral disgust...or is it both?

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Marantz-PMD 620

I just published an article on Photocrati providing my impressions of the Marantz-PMD 620, a small hand-held audio recorder, which I needed badly to replace my aging M-Audio MicroTrack I that was beginning to act erratically.

I’m not an audio engineer, so my take on the quality of my various recordings should be viewed as that of a photographer who records ambient sound to accompany slideshows...no more and no less. There’s no question in my mind that the PMD620 is an excellent “point and shoot” audio recorder, small enough to be carried as an accessory, and well capable of capturing sounds in sufficient quality to provide lovely sound tracks for my multimedia productions.

For the rest of my impressions, drop by Photocrati.

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Canon 5D Mark II Microphones

Kevin Reylek at B&H wrote an article on Recording Great-Sounding Audio with the Canon EOS 5D MkII, and listing 6 different options for affixing a microphone to the camera. These options vary in terms of price and quality...and practicality.

During my photo expedition in South India, I will test my own option, which is just plugging a Sony ECM-DS30P into the camera's audio in port. This is probably the cheapest, and I'll report back on this blog as to whether it's an improvement over the camera's built-in mic.

Also see this post on my ATR 6250 microphone.

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Marantz PMD 620

I finally succumbed. I dropped by B&H yesterday to check on whether they had any Canon 5D Mark II batteries in stock, and walked out with a Marantz PMD 620 audio recorder.

But first things first; the LP-E6 Rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries are unavailable. The salesman said that there were none available in the United States...perhaps an exaggeration, but probably not that far off. I guess the alternative is to buy a Canon 5D Mark II just to have a spare battery. In my view, Canon mismanaged the supply of both camera and accessories, and will eventually suffer the consequences.

Now about the Marantz PMD 620 audio recorder: I decided to replace my Micro Track which was showing its age...and it didn't perform that well in Bhutan last October. I had replaced its original microphone which had been damaged, but it still didn't perform as well as it should have...hence the new Marantz PMD 620.

I figured a new audio recorder would be useful during my forthcoming photo-expedition to South India to document Theyyam performances...I'm hopeful that the accompanying music and ambient sound during these performances will add much to my photographs.

I was glad that the Marantz PMD 620 was sold by B&H with a free 2gb SD card (it comes with a 512mb card), a free carrying case and a $100 rebate from Marantz. I briefly tested it yesterday, and think it'll work well. Why did I choose it over the other models? Well, because of these incentives.

For a detailed report on the Marantz PMD 620, check Transom Tool. I will put it through its paces in India and will write my own on my return.

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SoundSnap

SoundSnap is a free online sound library and community for sound designers and producers. People can upload sounds and share them with the rest of the public.

It's advertised as being mainly for Sound designers/recordists and music producers, filmmakers, web designer's and video game developers, but since photographers are increasingly getting involved in multimedia, I think we could find SoundSnap useful when needing a specific sound (or loop) for a slideshow. For instance, there are various train sounds in the library which could've been useful to photographers documenting the Central American migrants (see above post).

Is it cheating because it's not ambient sound recorded live by the photographer? Yes, perhaps some will see it this way...others won't.

(Via The Graphic Mac)

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Recorder Reviews: II

The valuable and informative Transom website has a comparative portable digital recorder review which lists most of the more available and popular brands here.

The recorder of choice used by the photographers attending my Multimedia Storytelling class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (Mexico City) was the Zoom H2, an easy-to-use and inexpensive model. The feedback I got was that it performs well...but that its controls are not really intuitive, and that it feels somewhat fragile,

I'm still using the M-Audio Microtrack that hasn't performed as it should have in the past few weeks. I'm not sure whether its a software problem, or whether it decided it had reached the end of its useful life (it hasn't been used long enough for that).

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EDIROL R-09HR Recorder

There's a new kid on the block as far as handheld digital field recorders are concerned. The R-09HR by Roland Corporation is described as a professional, high-definition recorder that is light but performs like a heavyweight. With 24/96 fidelity, the R-09HR is the new flagship of EDIROL’s award-winning R-series recorders.

Amongst its features are a built-in high-grade, high-sensitivity stereo condenser, it records to SD or SDHC memory card, a built-in preview speaker, a wireless remote controller, and is powered by 2 AA batteries. It should be available in a few weeks at a MSRP price close to $500, however it's unclear what the street price will be.

See it here or here.

I'm still using the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 Pocket Digital Recorder, however its plug-in T-microphone was damaged, so I just bought the Sony ECM-DS30P Microphone to replace it. This allows me to wait out the inevitable price drop in digital recorders.

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Yamaha POCKETRAK 2G Audio-Recorder

Yamaha has recently announced the Yamaha POCKETRAK 2G Pocket Recorder. It claims that despite its diminutive size, this audio recorder contains a large 2-gigabyte memory plus advanced digital audio technology that "lets you record and playback with outstanding quality." The audio recorder weighs only 1.7 ounces including battery, and is only a half-inch thick.

In addition to a linear PCM recording mode that allows the recording of up to 3 hours of music, there are a number of MP3 modes that Yamaha claims provide significantly longer recording times. The supplied rechargeable battery can keep the POCKETRAK 2G running for up to 9 hours continuously when recording in MP3 mode. It also has a built-in USB connector that allows a direct connection to a computer for file transfer. The CUBASE AI digital audio workstation software is bundled with the audio recorder.

The estimated price is $449, and a bit more expensive than other similar products.

Is it time to retire my Micro Track audio-recorder? Compared to the Yamaha PocketTrak, it's really clunky.

More information from the website: Synthotopia

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Olympus LS-10 PCM Audio Recorder

GIZMODO reports that Olympus announced its new LS-10 Linear PCM Audio Recording Device, a portable professional recording tool for "musicians and everyone who values high-quality recording."

It weighs 5.8 ounces and can track stereo 24-bit 96kHz linear PCM uncompressed. It can record and play back in WAV, MP3 and WMA. The LS-10 has two gigabytes of internal flash memory and also features an SD/SDHC removable media card slot to further expand its capacity. It can run 12 hours on two AA batteries. The LS-10 Digital Audio Device has an estimated street price of $399.99 and will be available in January 2008.

The GIZMODO reviewer adds this: "The only thing I'm truly wary of is the user interface—Olympus has given its recorders some supremely ugly interfaces in the past, and there's no indication that this will be any more intuitive than its predecessors."

GIZMODO's post on Olympus LS-10 PCM Audio Recorder

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Micro Track II Audio Recorder

M-Audio has redesigned its popular MicroTrack digital recorder, and dubbed it the MicroTrack II. The company says the redesigned version brings even more professional features to the original high-fidelity mobile digital recorder that’s used by audio and film professionals.

The new recorder has an extended input gain range, analog input limiter, 48V phantom power, faster file transfer rate, seamless recording of files beyond 2GB in size and other enhancements. It allows the recording of WAV (BWF) and MP3 files to CompactFlash or Microdrives through balanced line inputs or built-in microphone preamps—which can be dragged and dropped to computers via high-speed USB 2.0 for immediate editing or Web posting. Its MSRP is $299 and it's expected to be available in the stores in November.

I have used the older MicroTrack for about 2 years, and while I can't complain about its performance and operations, I wish it had a built-in microphone like its Samson Zoom competitor. The MicroTrack and its successor are sold with a small separate removable microphone. Sooner or later, I will lose this dinky microphone and I'll be stuck. An alternative is to get an Audio Technica ATR25 microphone to use with the recorder instead of the supplied mike.

M-Audio MicroTrack II

B&H's M-Audio MicroTrack II

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Audio: New Zoom H2 Digital Recorder

The Japanese Samson company has just announced the Zoom H2 digital audio recorder, which follows its successful Zoom H4. Few details are available at this time, but it's assumed that it is SD based. The price is estimated at $199.

More details at Photoethnography

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Audio: Soundtracks

I use the M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 to record either interviews or ambient sound from the field, to soundtrack any slideshows I plan on doing on my return. Although I've used commercial CDs or mp3 downloads to also add music to some of these soundtracks, I found them to lack authenticity and sound 'too canned'.

So here's a tip: Bring along a cheap transistor radio bought from Radio Shack -or even better, from wherever you're going...it'll be cheaper- and tune in to local stations until you hear typical/traditional music or songs you feel are appropriate to accompany your slideshow, press the record button on your audio recorder and you've got yourself an authentic musical soundtrack that is most probably not available commercially here! And if you're documenting a political event, a snippet of local news would add aural 'authenticity' to your photo project.

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Audio: Microphone Mount System

It was recently suggested by Bill Putnam, a photojournalist, that a solution to the problem of photographing and recording audio at the same time would be to use a Light Wave Mini Mount. Rather than switching his camera for his audio recorder and vice-versa to do so, he attaches the Light Wave Mini Mount to the camera's flash shoe for his microphone and does both. He uses a mono microphone with a narrow sound cone.

The downside to this system is that the microphone will catch the sound of the shutter, and possibly one's breathing...but it's an idea to be considered. I suppose it would be workable for ambient sound, by editing the shutter noise out...but that would not work for interviews.The other downside is that the mount is quite pricey at $165.

It's available at : B&H

Light Wave Systems

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Audio Editing Software

As a mac user, I normally use Apple's iTunes to download the tracks recorded on my M-Audio and edit these on GarageBand. Nothing could be easier than the combination of these two programs. However, I have also used Audacity, which is a free open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Why have I used Audacity? Well, it's because it allows me to record a perfectly silent soundtrack when I want a non-aural slideshow. You see, Soundslides is audio-driven which means that it builds the sequencing of images on an audio track. If I have no audio, I cannot create a Soundslides slideshow. However, the way around that is to record a 'silent' track, and incorporate into one's slideshow and it works perfectly. You can refer to my earlier post on Soundslides for its tutorial.

A reader of this blog suggested that I write about the audio tools I use, prompting my two Audio posts today. Thanks, Cathy!

Here's Audacity's website Audacity

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Audio Recording On The Go

I've recently expanded my photographic interests into producing my own multimedia stories, merging still photography and ambient sound (generally recorded live while I am photographing), and musical soundtracks. This was influenced to an enormous degree by the availability of Soundslides software (which I wrote about in an earlier post), and by non-expensive lightweight audio recorders needing only a Compact-Flash memory card.

The M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 is the recorder I chose for my work in the field. It's quite easy to use, and is small and inexpensive enough to be viable for many purposes. I found it to be perfect as a lightweight field recorder for recording interviews, capturing live performances at festivals or ethnic music, recording ambient sounds to provide aural 'texture' to my images, allowing me to record vocal notes to myself while photographing, etc. Its sound quality is better than expected for such a small package, and I imagine that, if fitted to a pro microphone, it would sound even better. I use a 250mb CF card with it, which is more than enough to record hours and hours of sound.

What I don't like about it is this: its seperate microphone (it looks like a T) is flimsy, and is not part of the unit which means I'm bound to lose it one day; the controls are somewhat fiddly, and lastly its batteries are not replaceable except by the manufacturer.

I found that the size of this recorder (and its tiny mic) doesn't intimidate whoever I interview or record, which is a big plus when working in the field. I used it in India to interview a number of widows in Vrindavan, and not having a huge microphone and machine waved at their faces, made things much simpler and they didn't shy away from it.

There's a new guy on the block, and that's the Zoom H4. I hear good things about it as well, especially that it runs on regular AA batteries and it has built-in mics.

For those of you who are still tentative about expanding their travel and/or their documentary photography into the multimedia sphere, I really encourage you to do so.

Here's a review for the M-Audio:M-Audio Microtrack

And another for the Zoom H4: Zoom H4

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