I'm building an audio-based insect / pollinator monitoring device for crowdsourced biodiversity assessment.
I want to record sounds of bees, bumblebees and other pollinators arriving, departing and flying close to a flower. These events will be then detected and insect species automatically classified.
An ideal setup should:
- be independent on flower density; this means clearly capture sounds in a small volume close to the flower
- record an insect in the same distance from the microphone with the same intensity in different devices
I have made sample recordings using Zoom H1 pointed directly to a flower from ~ 5 cm distance. I have struggled to record anything usable with the cheapest clip Hama MicroClip CS-460.
The used Zoom H1 setup is workable, but the final setup should be suitable for a crowdsourced effort. Most probably a cheap microphone plugged into a smartphone.
- What microphone type / model / polar patterns do you recommend?
- What orientation and positioning? Should the microphone point upwards to reduce the influence of the neighbourhood?
- What inconsistency could be caused by different pieces of the same microphone model?
- What inconsistency could be caused by different smartphone model (different internal audio circuitry)?