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Archives For Field Recording

Nature Sound Field Recording Workshop Announced

2013/05/15

Forest in Lisbon

Want to practice your field recording craft in the wild? Interested in learning from pro recordists?

This isn’t always easy to do. There isn’t a conventional path for learning field recording, especially in nature. I explored two options for growing your craft beyond the studio: Chris Watson’s Wildeye and Martyn Stewart’s naturesound.org workshops.

Recordists interested in learning how to record in the wilderness have another option. The Nature Sound Society has announced their latest field recording workshop.

In Field Recording, Websites field recording, school, workshop

Chris Watson Soundmap Project

2013/05/08

Chris Watson

One thing that’s fascinating about field recordings is that they demand imagination. What do I mean?

Hearing sound effects is almost always done at a different location than the original recording. This means that hearing these clips requires a contribution only the listener provides. We match what we hear to our past experiences, or create new ones.

Some recordings are paired with other video or audio in projects. But, for the overwhelming majority of sound recordings, they are disconnected from the original act of gathering them.

Because of this, I’ve always been fascinated with soundmaps. Soundmaps anchor a recording to a specific reality: an exact place and time on the planet. This is usually done by pairing audio previews with push pins on a Google map.

I record the sounds of cultures and cities worldwide, so soundmaps are a perfect fit for my recordings. I wrote about some cool soundmaps earlier.

Recently I learned of a new soundmap project. It is a joint effort by field recordist Chris Watson and Museum Sheffield.

In Soundmap field recording, geotagging

Why Envisioning Sound Effects Improves Them

2013/01/30

Via Train, courtesy Slideshow Bruce

Last week I shared a simple train recording, and explained how I cut it in Pro Tools.

Of course, many of you have cut vehicles like this before for your own library. So, the focus was not as an editing or mastering tutorial.

Instead, I wanted to explore another idea: how envisioning your sound effects improves them. When you conceptualize every stage of field recording – from research to archiving – your recordings strengthen. Mastering your sound clips before you record them informs your technique and enhances your sound library. How?

I’ll conclude the series describing why I cut the train as I did. I’ll share ideas you can use in your own field recordings, and explain the benefit to mastering your tracks before you record them.

In Field Recording, Mastering, Technique train, vehicle

How To Master Sound Effects — Before Recording Them

2013/01/23

Via Rail Locomotive

I’ve enjoyed recording freight and passenger train sound effects over the past year. I wrote about my experiences capturing them here, and here.

Early in January I had a chance to record another engine. Last week, I finally cut it. And, while I was editing, I remembered an important trick: mastering your clips before you capture them makes field recording quick and easy, and invokes strong, valuable sound effects.

Wait.

Doesn’t mastering follow field recording, chronologically?

Yes. I’ll explain, using the passenger train recordings as an example. First I’ll share how I cut the sound, and continue next week with ideas to help strengthen field recordings.

In Downloadable Sounds, Field Recording, Field Report, Mastering download, free, train, vehicle

An Introduction to Gathering Sound Effects

2012/11/29

A few months ago I received a revelation while writing here.

In response to a reader’s email, I wrote an article called An Introduction to Sound Effects Mastering.

In that post I outlined the stages of mastering sound clips, and shared my own experience polishing sound effects. I broke the tasks down, then unraveled them. I was forced to consider my workflow, step-by-step. I reflected on the effect each stage of mastering has upon the value of a sound effect.

That post made me realize an important idea: it’s incredibly helpful to return to the roots of your craft. It’s vital to reserve a place for your roots in your thoughts. After all, it’s easy to abandon them while we become dazzled by other aspects of work. Writing the article pulled me away from software versions, headphone models, and plug-in upgrades. It forced me to reflect on the way I work, and what mastering is about, at its core.

I’d like to continue that idea today.

So, in this post, I will describe exactly what happens when a field recordist strikes out into the world. What do they do? What sound do they capture? How do they do this? What happens while field recording?

My new e-Book Field Recording: from Research to Wrap, grew from that original post. I explore those field recording concepts in depth in that book. However, I felt that the ideas may interest blog readers too, so I wanted to share an abridged version here, as well. If you want to go deeper, check out the eBook.

In Field Recording, Technique ebook, field recording, sound effects, tips, tricks

Field Recording: from Research to Wrap e-Book Now Available

2012/11/28

My first eBook, Field Recording: from Research to Wrap – An Introduction to Gathering Sound Effects is now available!

It has been a long journey bringing it to publication, and I’m incredibly excited to finally share it with you.

Discover what the e-Book is about, what you will learn, and how it will improve your craft on the bookstore page. You’ll also see the table of contents there, and can download free sample chapters.

I’ll explain a bit about the book in this post, and why it may interest you. But, before I do, I’d like to thank you, the field recording community. Without your forum posts, Twitter conversations, and feedback here and on Airborne Sound, this book simply would not exist. I found inspiration from you all, so in a way, this is your book, too.

But what’s this book about? And why did I write it?

In Books, Bookstore, Field Recording book, bookstore, ebook, field recording

5 Ways to Fix Noisy Field Recordings

2012/11/21

The Lobster Nebula, courtesy ESO

This is a sample chapter from my upcoming e-Book, Field Recording: from Research to Wrap, which will be released next week.

Join the free newsletter to learn when it’s published. Read more about the book.

Capturing recordings with excessive noise is one of the most confusing and frustrating problems new field recordists face when recording sound effects.

Noise is a thick, rushing, steam-like sound that overlaps sound recordings. At higher frequencies it adopts a thin, nasal aspect, known as hiss.

Not all noise sounds the same. Some noise is steady and smooth and somewhat tolerable, or at least unnoticeable. Other forms of noise sputter coarsely.

When noise appears in recordings, it invades sound effects thoroughly, even at low levels. And this is why it is noise becomes an irritating problem: once it arrives, it’s difficult to remove.

Where does this noise come from? How can it be minimized? Can it be eliminated? How much is acceptable? How can you record with clean gain?

I’ll answer each of these questions.

In Field Recording, Mastering, Technique field recording, mastering, noise

4 Ways to Grow a Field Recording Career

2012/10/25

Venice Rooftops

Last week we looked at how to begin field recording on a budget. We saw how to:

Assemble a basic field recording kit.
Build a sound effects collection.
Use sound isolation tricks to improve your sound clips.
Join and contribute to the field recording community.

Have you been recording sound effects for some time? Have you gathered a substantial sound effects library? Still excited every time you power up your recorder?

Well, what’s next? You may have these questions:

Can you find work as a field recordist?
Is it possible to shape a career working with sound effects?
What options do you have for finding work?
How can you break into the industry?

In today’s post I’ll share how to make field recording and sound effects a larger part of your life.

And, if you wish, you can choose to have your sound library and your field recording wizardry support you.

In Field Recording, Sharing Sound career, distribution, ecommerce, field recording, sound effects

How to Record Sound Effects on a Budget

2012/10/17

Night Street

Do your ears perk up when you hear an interesting sound? Do you imagine how sounds combine, and how you can twist them? Do you notice how audio affects others? Do you hear things others miss?

Maybe you’re a recent film school or game audio grad that became intrigued during a field recording seminar. Perhaps you’re a musician, and are curious about sound samples.

What’s your next step? How do you start field recording? Gear is expensive. Not everyone has thousands of dollars to spend. How can you begin inexpensively?

Equipment costs are often seen as a barrier to entry in the field recording craft, but they don’t need to be. With a bit of ingenuity and effort you can begin field recording and gathering your own sound effects library with little cash.

This is the first of a two-part series. Today I’ll look at one way new field recordists can begin recording sound clips quickly, part time, with minimal expense.

Next week I’ll share three ways to take this knowledge and mould it into a field recording career.

In Field Recording budget, career, equipment, how to

What Ruins Stealth Sound Effect Recordings, and How to Fix It

2012/07/25

If you’ve ever tried stealth recording sound effects you know how tricky it can be.

Have you ever had people shy away from you while recording market crowds? Maybe your wildlife sound effects aren’t as rich and natural as you’d like them. Have you been denied access to a location as soon as your gear is spotted? Perhaps you’ve been dragged away by security.

Stealth field recording has many challenges, but many more rewards.

I was convinced of the power of stealth recording while travelling throughout Europe. Because I was recording for three months, I was able to experiment with different stealth methods.

Here are some tricks I use to capture better stealth sound effects.

In Field Recording, Technique, Tutorial field recording, how to, stealth, tips, tricks

Archives For Field Recording

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