Recording ambience, portable gear

[grkn]

Budget high quality ambient portable recording

So, from what I've read the ECM8000 is a steal, and I guess I'll need two, along with an amp? (I could use a battery to power it) and a some portable player with recording capability.

I'm looking for stunning sound at a tight budget.
What amp and recording gizmo would be suitable?

I need to record them crows, or maybe I should choose seagulls as Max Richter already took crows.. damn him.

 

[scrubs]

Nerd Alert

So, from what I've read the ECM8000 is a steal, and I guess I'll need two, along with an amp? (I could use a battery to power it) and a some portable player with recording capability.

I'm looking for stunning sound at a tight budget.
What amp and recording gizmo would be suitable?

I need to record them crows, or maybe I should choose seagulls as Max Richter already took crows.. damn him.

This is sort of related, but not really:

You might want to google Ben Burtt, who does a lot of movie sound effects requiring a mobile recording setup. I was listening to his commentary on the StarWars DVDs (I readily admit my dorkiness) and he had a lot of cool insights about field recording.

I would guess a good small condenser with a mobile recorder (like this one: http://www.ggvideo.com/mar_pmd670.htm) might do the trick. It's kind of expensive, though. Alternatively, if you have already have a laptop, you could do mobile recording with a USB interface of some kind (Tascam US-122, MAudio MobilePre, etc). They are powered from the USB port, have built-in preamps, and supply phantom power for your condenser mic.

 

[grkn]

Hmm, price is very important :/
The recorder seems damn nice, but wouldn't it be cheaper to get the individual necessary components? A phantom power supply isn't that expensive?
And then I'll just need a recorder capable of recording 44100hz wav? (Or is there much to gain when upping the samplerate? I'll probably need a more expensive recording device then).

Too bad I can't use my EMU 0404...

 

[chessrock]

The Bear-ringers are going to crap out on you if there's even a small breeze.