Rob,

You might try contacting;

Marice Stith Recording Services
59 Autumn Ridge Circle
Ithaca NY 14850
(607) 277-5920

They have a catalog with a wide range of equipment. The 1995 catalog has
Sennheiser micophones from $116 to $2499. I have a Sony TC-D5M. I have a
Sony parabolic dish that I use with it which cost about $50 eight years
ago. It will hold most mics in it. It will make use of most cheap mics but
in my opinion, if you are going to make recordings worth anything, you
will need to spend about $100 minimum on a mic.

I would think that finding a focal point on a homemade dish would be hard
(but, not impossible). I would question if a salad bowl would have a good
focal point at all. The shape of most bowls in the kitchen look a little
deep for catching sounds. It would need to be constructed very well, so
that it did not shake and rattle at all. With the dish I have, the
smallest of bumps and scrapes on the dish are picked up. I am even careful
not to move my fingers on the handle while recording as that can come
through.

When I bought my set up, I chose a dish and cheaper mic (about $50 for the
dish and $60 for the mic) over a cheap (but more expensive at about $199)
short shotgun mic. I have been kicking myself ever since! This is a
bizarre character of mine as I did not flinch at all at the $1000 I paid
for the tape recorder.

My two cents,

Russell

--------------------------------------------------------
Russell Rogers
4510 Glenn Way SW
Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 935-6280
rrogers at halcyon.com
--------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, 28 Oct 1997, Rob Saecker wrote:

> Ah, this thread is just what I had in mind; I've been thinking about this
> for about the past month.
> >
> >The best "shotgun" type directional mikes are in the $500-100 range, but
> >you can find cheap, somewhat directional mikes for about 60 bucks that
> >will help a LOT over using the built in mike. Although they're not
> >precisely defined, look for the following terms. "Cardioid" is better than
> >"omnidirectional," "super-cardioid" is better than "cardioid," and
> >"shotgun" is better than "super-cardioid."
> >Chris Hill
>
> Any suggestions as to specific mikes to buy? I'd love to get a Sennheiser,
> but don't have to $$. I already have a Sony Pro Walkman, but no mike.
>
> >I once had a situation where I used a cardboard home made parabolic (cone)
> >that I taped to my walkman to get some bird sounds.
> >Libor
>
> And I was wondering why one couldn't use a plastic salad bowl as a
> reflector. There are the problems of mounting the mike, and holding the
> whole setup, that I haven't thought through yet, but I imagine they're
> solvable. Any thoughts?
>
> Rob Saecker
> Olympia
>
>
>