Freesound Forums

Hello to all, I am new to digital recording and building my kit to get started. I am most interested in recording thunder storms and ocean surf. I been studding which microphone to get and done some searching on forums and have not found what I am looking for, which is what microphone to use for recording thunder storms. So what do I use to do thunder storms? I have a Marantz PDM661. This site has me stoked!!

put it the other way: what would be a good speaker to listen to thunderstoms? The best one you can afford seems a reasonable answer..

Now seriously, any decent condenser mic would suit, but a logical choice would be a stereo mic (Rode NT4, Audiotechnica AT8022, Edirol CS50..) We warned that, whatever the mic, you must put some kind of winscreen/blimp over it, otherwise you wont get anything but wind noise

Hope this helps

D
PS, of course you could also use a pair of capsules (rather than a stereo mic) but setting them up and protecting them from wind is more annoying

I would suggest to use a pair of omidirectional capsules because they are less sensitive to wind and their frequency response will not go down at low frequencies which are important aspects for thunderstorms

Erdie

I love the AKG 414c. it has great highs, and captures a nice mid range. Not too much low end, but for that you can always use the 421. (aka the fish mic) What ever you use, be prepared for the wind. or have an amazing noise filter.

Thanks everyone. So many choices it hard to pick one.

A tip: I once tried to capture a thunderstorm that was right above the studio. A had a Rode NT4 with wind screen in the doorway hooked up to a good pre-amp and was waiting. All was set. However, I was not prepared for the sound level of a strike close by. So be very conservative with your levels, otherwise you may spoil a good opportunity. If you have noise free equipent and record 24 bits, low levels should be no problem, just enjoy the headroom.

Good advice about head room for the big booms. One can never tell when a strike can occur very close. I just remembered the cabin has a tin roof so I will have to hang the mics out on a pine tree so I don't get too much rain on a tin roof.
Joe