Recordings and cameras don't do the Thunderbolt justice.

[Jim Z]

I was inadvertently blasted by a 1000T this afternoon. I forgot that today was Michigan's test day (1 p.m. on the first saturday of the month) as I was driving past the Tbolt in Harper Woods- the one recorded by EL1998P71. Believe me, when you've got the horn pointing right at you, the sound is... impressive. I wish there was an easy way to capture its true sound; most recording setups will overload the mic input and alter the sound.[/url]

[Justin]

There is a better way than using stock microphones and such, but it requires quite a bit of currency to do so.

Adam Smith had a good audio recording setup that would have beaten the living daylights out of most audio equipment (don't hold me to this, I'm a computer nerd, not an audio geek).

I think it was a higher end microphone that fed into a DAT recorder.

I'm wondering if Sony's defunct MiniDisc would offer the same quality with a decent microphone...

[Jim Z]

I'm wondering if Sony's defunct MiniDisc would offer the same quality with a decent microphone...

I don't think the actual recording format is the problem; Minidisc is the same 16-bit, 44.1 kHz as CD. I think what I want could be done with lab microphones so long as the pre-amp gain was set appropriately for the sound levels. The "problem" I'm thinking of isn't insufficient sampling rate, it's the fact that the high SPLs overload the recording systems. thus, instead of the raspy "blat," you record a clipped/distorted signal.

hmm... we do have some B&K equipment at work...

[kx250rider]

It's my guess that a good recording could be done from a greater distance, and from an angle NOT directly in front of the horn. When I recorder my T-bolt last month, I had my digital camera sitting 3 feet from the siren. The sound was horrible; just a warbling rasp. But when I recorded it with the same camera a couple months ago from 200 feet away, the sound was pretty accurate.

Charles

[AllSafe]

Adam uses an Audio-Technica AT-822 special-purpose stereo condenser microphone and a Sony TDC-D8 DAT recorder. The TDC-D8 runs around $800 but you could do just as well with an M-Audio Microtrack or a Roland R-09 for around $300-400. The AT-822 is a good mic, but it costs considerably more than an MXL which in many cases can perform just as well.
I wonder if anyone in here has tried MXL's USB studio condenser?

[ronatello]

Zoom has a recording device called the H4 that records onto SD flash memory. AFAIK, it has both manual and auto recording level controls. The H4 has its own built in condenser mics but can accept external mics as well.
more info is available on the Zoom H4 here -> http://www.samsontech.com/products/prod ... rodID=1901
The problem is getting the recording levels set right when the siren goes off. I guess one would have the level set just off minimum and slowly ramp it up.
And digital "clipping" sounds much worse than the old analog clipping distortion. Thou shall not allow peak levels above "0dB"!
If I were recording the siren, I would probably set the equipment around 500 to 1000 feet away so you can get some echo / reverberation instead of the "direct" sound.