Friday, December 26, 2008

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Sunday, December 21, 2008

Why Is There No Body?

I talk to lots of people in the general public about the subject
of bigfoot and the # 1 question I always get is:

Why is there no body?

I go through all the usual answers including:
1) they bury their dead
2) the remains are eaten immediately by scavengers or
3) they crawl into the thickets and die where no bones or
other remains are found.

When and if a body is obtained the very first thing that would
happen after obtaining a complete DNA genome would be to
make a human / sasquatch hybrid. I have a friend in Colorado
Springs, Colorado who works in a genetics lab. He says that
if I can deliver to him two units of blood, he can have
a complete genome sequenced with two weeks. I have already
heard fellow researchers comment on how great it would be
to have a 10 foot tall basketball player and a 800 lb football
lineman. Can you imagine an army of soldiers with the
strength, size and speed often reported in bigfoot sighting
reports.

Several articles on the internet discussing the ethics of
hybrids can be found at:

The Ethics of Gene Splicing by Andrew Boardman

Singapore plans to create animals with human DNA

Perhaps the final answer comes from the Bible.

Genesis 1:24-25:

"And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures
according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along
the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind."
And it was so.

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the
livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that
move along the ground according to their kinds.

Leviticus 18

Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself
therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie
down thereto: it is confusion.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Gift from Santa

I have always subscribed to the idea that many of our
Western European folk beliefs are rooted in ancient encounters
with hairy wildmen. It is difficult to separate fact from fairy
tale but trolls and ogres seem to fit into a likely category
of real animals inspiring human storytelling.

Last year there was an interesting article on Cyptomundo
entitled Happy Wildfolk Yule! and there is also a book
Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men:
The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas,
Spanning 50,000 Years
by Phyllis Siefker that
thoroughly discusses this subject.

November of 2006 I was researching twice a week in my main
research area. I had recently purchased a small field GPS.
Just for fun I taped it onto my dog's collar. I wanted to
see what distance she would travel while I hiked the two
miles of trails. I typically take the same paths in and out
of my research area.

After hiking for a mile I sat down on my favorite log and
listened to the sounds of the woods. My dog, Belle, came
up to me for a quick pat on the head and was gone again on
her relentless hunt for something to chase, albeit squirrel,
rabbit or deer.

I noticed that the GPS was still attached, although not as
securely as when I left the car. Five minutes later she was
back and the GPS was missing, obviously it was a poor idea
of just taping the unit onto the collar. As it was getting
late I decided to wait until the next week to do a more
thorough search of the area.

Over the next seven weeks I made six hikes into the area. I
kept my eyes open for the missing GPS but it was not seen
again.

The second week of January 2007 my research partner
called me and asked "Stan, did you lose a GPS unit?" He had
found it in the middle of the trail very close to where we
always parked our vehicles, about a mile from where it had
been lost.

Although we both hiked the same trails we usually hiked on
different days so we had probably made a total of ten hikes
along the trails.

The GPS was still in the little pouch that I had placed it
in, and it was also encased in the duct tape I had crudely
wrapped the pouch with. The unit had not been taken out of
the case but appeared to look just like it was when it was
dropped those weeks before.

How did it get back to the trail entrance? I don't know
but my wife said "I tell you one thing, a human would not
find your GPS, leave it in the case unopened and not keep
it." If it had been carried by some animal they certainly
knew my scent and knew where I started my hikes.

That little episode changed how I think about the research
I have been doing. I have never before dealt with an animal
that can perhaps show benevolence and return a lost item.
There are several reports of squatches returning lost
children
and many reports of squatches leaving gifts.

It reminds me of the 1897 editorial:

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no
Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.”
Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been
affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not
believe except they see. They think that nothing can be
which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds,
Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little.
In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant,
in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about
him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping
the whole of truth and knowledge.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Field Recording - Microphones

Microphones have often been said to be half the equation when it comes to recording. Experts advise to spend an equal amount of money on the recorder and an equal amount on the microphone. A great recorder with a poor microphone is just as bad as a poor microphone with a great microphone.

Common types of microphones used in field work fall into three categories.

1: Omnidirectional - I prefer this type of microphone when I leave my system unattended in the woods for an extended time. Obviously I will not know the direction of the sound so I must record in all directions.

Seenheiser MKH20 Omnidirectional Microphone

2: Directional - includes short and long shotgun style microphones. Many of my better bird recordings were gathered by walking through the woods and pointing the shot gun in the direction the bird song was coming from.

Sennhesier MKH70 Long shot gun microphone

3: Parabolic - this type of microphone has been used extensively in recording birds. There is a wide variety of microphones used with parabolic reflectors.

Telinga BioAcoustics Parabolic Microphone

The number of models of microphones is staggering. Companies producing microphones that have been used by nature recordists include:

Audio-Technica

Røde

Sennheiser

Sennheiser has two series of microphones that have been used for field recording for years. The ME Series, which includes an interchangeable capsule system and a more expensive series, the MKH Series. The MKH20 is undoubtedly the finest omnidirectional microphone available today for field work.

The ultimate combination for field recording is the parabolic microphone, which consist of a parabolic reflector and an omnidirectional microphone.

Telinga Microphones of Sweden is known world wide for their parabolic microphones. They can be purchased in this country both through Nature Songs and Stith Recording.

There are many articles available on the internet that discuss theory, techniques and setups for field recording.

Acoustic Properties Of Parabolic Reflectors

Avisoft-Biocoustics

How Plug In Power works

MacaulayLibrary

Microphone Input Noise Comparision


MS with reflector - A versatile "two for the price of one" rig


Parabolic microphones and stereo sound

Parabolic microphones - reality, mono and stereo sound

Parabolic Stereo


Sounds of Nature!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Field Recorders - Pt 4

Last time we looked at a recorder that was listed at around $1000. The next step up is:

Above $1800.

In the highest price range is the Sound Devices 7 series.



From their website I quote the following:

7-Series Family of Digital Audio Recorders


The high-resolution 7-Series family of digital audio recorders shatter the size, performance, and feature-set paradigms of all previous generations of audio recorders. They are the next generation - replacing digital and analog tape-based portable recorders with far more powerful file-based digital recording devices. The two-track (702, 702T, 722), four-track (744T), and eight-track (788T) recorders write and play audio files with either 16 or 24-bit depth at all professional sampling rates, up to 192 kHz (48.048 kHz on the 788T). Multple storage mediums, analog/digital I/O, and high-speed computer connectivity make all 7-Series recorders stand out as world-class products.

This series of recorders from Sound Devices has taken the industry by storm and is acknowledged as being an excellent field recorder.

There are five models available depending on how many channels you desire and whether it comes with Time Code and hard drive included.

702 - $1,875 - 2 channel - CompactFlash only
702T - $2,495 - 2 channel - CompactFlash, with Time Code
722 - $2495 - 2 channel - CompactFlash, internal hard drive
744T - $4095 - 4 channel - CompactFlash, internal hard drive
788T - $5995 - 8 channel - CompactFlash, internal hard drive

The manufacturers website:

Sound Devices 7 series

The user's manuals can be found at:

702 Users Manual
702T Users Manual
722 Users Manual
744T Users Manual
788T Users Manual

Excellent reviews can be read at:

The Transom Tools Column

F7 sound and vision

Pro Audio Review

Forums discussing this recorder are:

Sound Devices Forum


The Taperssection Forums

Recording media - uses 3 types of recording media
- Compact Flash - currently 32GB is the largest available
- Internal Hard drive - I had a 160GB installed
- External Hard drive - firewire connection to external hard drive

Maximum recordable time
-

FlashCard - Using a A-DATA 32GB Speedy CompactFlash card the record time in .wav at 44.1kHz 16bit CD quality mode is 12 hours 27 min.

Internal hard drive - record time in .wav at 44.1kHz 16bit CD quality mode on a 160 gig hard drive is 252 hours 21 min.

External hard drive - unlimited

Batteries
- uses Sony NPF970 L Series Camcorder Battery - about 8 hrs record time, I use an external battery supply

Recordings -

Black-billed Magpie

Cassins Finch


Green-Tailed Towhee

Hermit Thrush

Microphones - the best omnidirectional microphone made today for field recording is the Sennheiser MKH-20 - Omnidirectional Condenser Microphone listed at $1,395.95.

Conclusion - I have been recording with the 722 for 2 years now. It has been proven to be an amazing field recorder. It is fairly easy to use, extremely durable and of superb sensitivity to very weak and distant sounds.

Pros
- excellent pre-amps
- superb sound quality
- best field recorder on the market

Cons
- very expensive
- heavy, 2.6 lbs without battery

Field Recorders - Pt 3

This short series on recorders is not to compare units of $200 vs $5000, but instead is simply my recommendation within each price range.

Last time we looked at a recorder that was listed under $450. The next step up is:

Around $1000.

In the high-priced range is the Marantz PMD 670/671.



In an attempt to make the pre-amps quieter Oade Brothers Audio does modifications on various recorders. It is my suggestion that anyone looking at the Marantz for nature recording only buy a unit from Oade that has had the pre-amps modified. The quality of my recordings were dramatically improved after this modification.

The manufacturers website:

PMD 671

The user's manual can be found at:

Users Manual

Forums discussing this recorder are:

The Taperssection Forums

Thread one

Thread two

Thread three

Thread four

Thread five


Recording media
- uses a CompactFlash card.

Maximum recordable time - Using a 4 GB card the record time in .wav at 44.1kHz 16bit CD quality mode is 6 hours 30 min.

Batteries
- uses D batteries - about 8 hrs record time, I use an external battery supply.

Recordings:

Sound clips -

1 - Using a non-modified Marantz 671 DB Donlon recorded what he calls the East Central Ohio Chatter.

2 - Using a modified Marantz 670 I recently recorded this lone coyote. Most of the recordings on my website were made with this recorder before I had it modified.

Microphones
- both DB Donlon and myself have been using the AT3032 Omnidirectional Condenser Microphones. However these mics are no longer being made. I typically use omnidirectional mics because I am leaving my gear overnight in the woods therefore I do not know which direction the sound will be coming from.

Conclusion - I have been recording with the 670 for 4 years now. It has been proven to be consistent, easy to use and durable. After having the unit modified the quality of my recordings were greatly improved.

Pros:
- great sound quality
- very easy to use
- sturdy build

Cons:
- battery compartment is poorly designed
- plastic body