Bats and detectors

[K9 Kai Niggemann]

On 06.10.2010, at 18:07, Tony Hardie-Bick wrote:
> 
> Ah - great!!! Shining a light into the dark of what humans cannot see with their 
> ears :) I guess the chirp sounds are classic broadband echolocation, utilizing 
> the dismbiguation through a plurality of wavelengths. Beautiful stuff, whether 
> your code is genetic or otherwise :)

I think they were hunting, so I suppose those are all hunting sounds. I guess for locating prey it would be good to have them pretty broadband.


> 
> Yeah - I know it's heterodyne, so, the harmonic series is displaced (ie, what 
> for bats would be octaves are rendered as something completely different), but 
> nevertheless, it's a window onto a world, we can hear they are living things, 
> sensing out their world just as we do with our eyes and sense of touch.

I have set my H4n to 96 Khz and with the internal mics was able to pick up a sound that wasn't there while I was recording that sounded like a bird chirp, somewhere between 20 and 48. The mic really doesn't go up that high, so most likely it was up at 22-24Khz. (I slowed down the sound with Max and that's how it became audible. I think with the right mic the H4n may be able to pick something up. Most of the sounds on my recording where best when the detector was set to 44 Khz, so if they are there +/-10 Khz, I should be able to get something...

I think it's eerie to make things audible that are all around, but just outside of our hearing range..


> 
> Wonderful...
> 
> I think building your own bat-listening gear counts as a cosmic sign of respect 
> to nature :)

thanks. indeed it feels that way. Listening to the bats is very beautiful, although I feel like I am listening to their voices through something equivalent to Steven Hawking's voice computer...;)

Kai