In this video we explore sounds through a parabolic dish.

What is a Parabolic dish?

A parabolic dish works by collecting sound waves from a wide area and focusses them onto a single point where the microphone is positioned. Making it ideal for recording birds and wildlife. 

A parabolic Dish is super directional. It has to be pointing directly at the source to capture a good recording. The benefit of this directionality means you can isolate your sound source from other sounds and background noise, like cars, humans and so on.

Modifying the Dish

I did a few modifications to this dish when I bought it. Including spray painting it black, drilling a hole for the microphone and filing down the mount to attach my LOM Usi Pro Microphone.

The spray painting process was pretty straightforward. It just required me to unscrew a few bolts and take the handle off. I decided to spray the dish black because I thought that black would be more stealth when I'm recording in the woods. The white was a bit too bright and obvious. 

Parabolic Dish Setup

For the setup I used a LOM Usi Pro Microphone with a Large Bubblebee Windbubble Pro, a few Radius Cable Straps all recorded using a Zoom F6 digital audio recorder. 

Recording Tips & Tricks

The setup is Mono so it can be difficult to find the subject if you can't see it. I found that it was easier to record with one headphone off and one on. I used the ear without the headphones to figure out where the bird sound was coming from then the ear with the headphone to lock in. When the sound was louder I knew I was pointing in the right direction. 

Windy environments are a nightmare with a parabolic dish so I would recommend recording with your back towards the wind to offer the setup some protection. I found that it was incredibly difficult to keep the parabolic dish steady when it was pointed towards the wind or at an angle. The dish acts like a sail, capturing all the wind energy and wiggling around like crazy! 

If you cut a hole for the microphone to fit through the dish like my setup, use a small piece of pro gaff tape to cover it up. I noticed on my test recordings that having a small hole created a whistling sound similar to blowing on an empty bottle. The pro gaff tape is great because it's super sticky but doesn't leave a residue like electrical tape or duct tape.

If you would like to purchase the parabolic dish, head on over to parabolicmicrophone.co.uk

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