Coins...again

Location
Melbourne CBD
Equipment
Zoom H4N
Shure Beta 58A

I rerecorded the coin sounds today. This time I positioned the microphones further away from the sound source. The results were better. The input signal was obviously less and this would account for not getting the “distortion” I was having. I have spoken to several industry people I know and there have been mixed opinions as to the cause of the original distortion effect. Some people thought it might be issues with the pre map in the recording device. (I am still not using a separate mic pre amp as I have not had a chance to get one) Someone thought it might be an issue with the analogue to digital signal converter being overloaded and causing artefacts. There is apparently a issue with recording brass ringing with certain types of microphones. I have some more information to look into regarding this. It might end up being worth creating a tutorial about when I find enough information.