Hello all!
First post, asking for general ideas. I am doing a project involving analyzing recordings taken of bees flying out in the field.
This is a proof of concept project so my system is quite cumbersome (made as inexpensively as possible.)
I am recording using an array of lapel mics (between 1 and 5) plugged into a converter plugged into a TASCAM 1800 USB interface connected to a Mac laptop. When out in the field, the interface and laptop are powered by a 12V battery using an inverter (an inexpensive $60 one that has been causing a lot of interference since it is not regulating power evenly.) When in the lab the interface and laptop are both plugged into a power strip plugged into a wall outlet- I still get a small amount of interference when plugged into the wall this way. The laptop is always as far away from the interface as the USB cord will allow (about 5ft.)
I am currently working with another researcher with a lot of experience with acoustics and its related equipment and processing to figure out ways to prevent/remove the interference from the inverter. He is sending us a voltage regulator so that we can connect the USB interface directly to the 12v battery safely.
My questions for you guys:
-Anyone have any other ideas to prevent the interference I am getting from either the inverter or the wall outlet? On both battery and wall outlet power, we have already tried having a 25ft extension cord between the inverter and the USB interface with no big difference in the amount of interference.
-The noise profile is different for each track I have recorded, so I at this time I am going through each using the noise removal tool to isolate the “flight buzz” I need to analyze- any other ideas for how I could remove the interference noise WITHOUT altering the peak frequency the buzz that I am isolating?
-Analysis- any efficient ways to find the peak/average frequency (most important) and peak amplitude of a track besides the plot spectrum, or best way to set up the plot spectrum for it to be the most accurate? Those are the data points I need for my project.
Super long post, thank you for bearing with me! I’d honestly appreciate any ideas you have particularly for post processing.
Specs: Audacity 2.0.5, recording with Mac running OS X 10.9.3 and doing post processing/analysis with a Toshiba PC laptop running Windows 7 32-bit.