Assembling cheap, high-performance microphones for recording terrestrial wildlife: the Sonitor system [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]
Passive acoustic monitoring of wildlife requires sound recording systems. Several cheap, high-performance open-source solutions currently exist for recording soundscapes, but all of them are still reliant on commercial microphones. Commercial microphones are relatively expensive, specialized for par...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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F1000 Research Ltd
2019-11-01
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| Series: | F1000Research |
| Online Access: | https://f1000research.com/articles/7-1984/v2 |
| _version_ | 1818399042151907328 |
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| author | Kevin Darras Bjørn Kolbrek Andreas Knorr Volker Meyer Mike Zippert |
| author_facet | Kevin Darras Bjørn Kolbrek Andreas Knorr Volker Meyer Mike Zippert |
| author_sort | Kevin Darras |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Passive acoustic monitoring of wildlife requires sound recording systems. Several cheap, high-performance open-source solutions currently exist for recording soundscapes, but all of them are still reliant on commercial microphones. Commercial microphones are relatively expensive, specialized for particular taxa, and often have incomplete technical specifications. We designed Sonitor, an open-source microphone system to address all needs of ecologists that sample terrestrial wildlife acoustically. We evaluated the cost and durability of our system and measured trade-offs that are seldom acknowledged but which universally limit microphones' functions: weatherproofing versus sound attenuation, windproofing versus transmission loss after rain, signal loss in long cables, and analog sound amplification versus directivity with acoustic horns. We propose five microphone configurations suiting different budgets (from 8 to 33 EUR per unit), and fulfilling different sound quality and flexibility requirements. The Sonitor system consists of sturdy acoustic sensors that cover the entire sound frequency spectrum of sonant terrestrial wildlife at a fraction of the cost of commercial microphones. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T07:14:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-430752ee6b7945baa971586407c37319 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2046-1402 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T07:14:23Z |
| publishDate | 2019-11-01 |
| publisher | F1000 Research Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | F1000Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-430752ee6b7945baa971586407c373192022-12-21T23:11:44ZengF1000 Research LtdF1000Research2046-14022019-11-01710.12688/f1000research.17511.223009Assembling cheap, high-performance microphones for recording terrestrial wildlife: the Sonitor system [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]Kevin Darras0Bjørn Kolbrek1Andreas Knorr2Volker Meyer3Mike Zippert4Department of Agroecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Niedersachsen, 37077, GermanyCelestion, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP6 0NL, UKMess-, Steuerungs-, und Regeltechnik, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Niedersachsen, 37077, GermanyKonstruktion, Geräte- Neuentwicklung, Schreinerei, Schlosserei, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Niedersachsen, 37077, GermanyKonstruktion, Geräte- Neuentwicklung, Schreinerei, Schlosserei, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Niedersachsen, 37077, GermanyPassive acoustic monitoring of wildlife requires sound recording systems. Several cheap, high-performance open-source solutions currently exist for recording soundscapes, but all of them are still reliant on commercial microphones. Commercial microphones are relatively expensive, specialized for particular taxa, and often have incomplete technical specifications. We designed Sonitor, an open-source microphone system to address all needs of ecologists that sample terrestrial wildlife acoustically. We evaluated the cost and durability of our system and measured trade-offs that are seldom acknowledged but which universally limit microphones' functions: weatherproofing versus sound attenuation, windproofing versus transmission loss after rain, signal loss in long cables, and analog sound amplification versus directivity with acoustic horns. We propose five microphone configurations suiting different budgets (from 8 to 33 EUR per unit), and fulfilling different sound quality and flexibility requirements. The Sonitor system consists of sturdy acoustic sensors that cover the entire sound frequency spectrum of sonant terrestrial wildlife at a fraction of the cost of commercial microphones.https://f1000research.com/articles/7-1984/v2 |
| spellingShingle | Kevin Darras Bjørn Kolbrek Andreas Knorr Volker Meyer Mike Zippert Assembling cheap, high-performance microphones for recording terrestrial wildlife: the Sonitor system [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations] F1000Research |
| title | Assembling cheap, high-performance microphones for recording terrestrial wildlife: the Sonitor system [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations] |
| title_full | Assembling cheap, high-performance microphones for recording terrestrial wildlife: the Sonitor system [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations] |
| title_fullStr | Assembling cheap, high-performance microphones for recording terrestrial wildlife: the Sonitor system [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations] |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assembling cheap, high-performance microphones for recording terrestrial wildlife: the Sonitor system [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations] |
| title_short | Assembling cheap, high-performance microphones for recording terrestrial wildlife: the Sonitor system [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations] |
| title_sort | assembling cheap high performance microphones for recording terrestrial wildlife the sonitor system version 2 peer review 2 approved 1 approved with reservations |
| url | https://f1000research.com/articles/7-1984/v2 |
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