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Owl calls with IPX7 Waterproof Case

I'm trying to record owls calls with the AM in the IPX7 case but I'm not getting anything, while I know that they are there calling. Looking at the spectrum it seems that the low frequencies are very weak in my recordings. The case+AM works fine when recording bats. My current assumption is that the case does not play nice with below 1kHz sounds. How do people deal with this problem? Does turning up the gain while filtering high frequency signals do any good, or should I use a different kind of enclosure?

Thanks

Wim van Dam

Solvang, CA

9 comments

9 Comments

Alex Rogers

Apr 16, 2021

If you are only interested in the owl calls then low pass filtering the 48kHz recording, or recording at 8kHz, would significantly reduce the noise floor as it increases the oversample rate by a factor of 6.

jernej.polajnar

Apr 16, 2021

Replying to

We're interested in calls of different species of owls and some other conservationally important birds, so this solution is only partially useful. Certainly, 48 kbps is an overkill and was used for initial testing only, but even with the noise floor improved a bit, 20 dB attenuation will severely limit detection range - which is doubly important with rarer large predators.