New to Field Recording: Tascam DR-07XP Noise Problem – Seeking Tips

[Orxion]

Hi everyone,

I’m new to audio recording and would really appreciate some help. My main goal is to record sounds of nature — birds, forests, streams — and sometimes the gentle buzzing of my bees, as I’m a beekeeper. For photos, I use a Canon R6 Mark II, and the video is fine when processed in DaVinci Studio, but the built-in audio is quite poor.

So I went looking for a better solution. After trying out the DJI Mic 2 (which didn’t suit my outdoor needs), I chose the Tascam DR-07XP mainly for its 32-bit float support, which is supposed to be more forgiving (similar to shooting RAW photos). The reviews and YouTube demos sounded great.

But I’m struggling with a persistent background hiss/noise in my recordings (using built-in mics, 32-bit float). I posted about this in a field recording Facebook group and got a useful reply from a member named Greg, who listened to my sample and responded:

“Both channels have significant DC bias, your signal to noise level is very poor. If I remove the DC bias your background noise is -70 dB with a max signal of -46 dB. That’s a pretty small dynamic range for a signal. Resolve the DC bias, improve the signal to noise ratio, use broadband noise suppression. Why are you recording at 96K, might be a little overkill.”

Greg even cleaned up the file and shared the result (which was a huge improvement!), but unfortunately, he hasn’t replied to my follow-up questions about the tools and techniques he used.
- my original file: https://vt.orxion.net/test.wav
- Greg’s cleaned version LINK (google drive)

At one point I was ready to return the recorder (still within the 14-day window), but after hearing Greg’s cleaned version, I realized the DR-07XP can deliver much better results than I’ve managed so far.

So, I’m hoping for some advice from the Tascam community:

• Is it normal to have DC bias and this level of hiss/floor noise on the DR-07XP, or am I doing something wrong in my setup?
• Any tips or best practices for eliminating DC bias and improving the signal-to-noise ratio, either during recording or in post-processing (ideally with Mac-compatible tools like Audacity, but open to other suggestions)?
• Is 96 kHz recording actually helpful for this kind of work, or should I stick to 48 kHz?
• Any recommended workflow for cleaning up nature recordings like this?

Thanks in advance for any advice — I really appreciate it and look forward to learning from your experience!

 

[Phil Tipping]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Couldn't see any specs for the DR-07XP noise performance so can't offer much help. If you've not tried already, there's a search option on the forum which may find similar posts.
Fwiw, I had a quick look on the internet and found a 3-page thread discussing noise here, and a link to some test results here.

From my own limited experience decades ago trying to record the 'dawn chorus', the input gain of the recorder is going to need turning up a lot, even to the max in my case, so I believe the most important factor is the self-noise of the mics and pre-amps, not the number of bits or sampling rate.
This may not be so critical in your case with a fairly local noise source from the bees, as you maybe wouldn't need so much gain.

I got great results with some (albeit expensive) studio gear: a Tascam DA-P1 DAT recorder with a pair of Neumann TLM-103 mics, recording at 16-bits at 44.1KHz. The self-noise for the mics is about 7dB-A. Not sure what the DA-P1 was.

I also found good quality wind shields helped. Even a gentle breeze can be detectable without them. I tried a few home-made ones, but eventually bought some low-end fluffy ones from Rycote.

I doubt if you'll get many passers-by when you're near bees, but if you try other sounds from nature, be prepared for strangers asking all sorts of questions; one thought I was working for the government, another thought it was to do with aliens