Sound Recordist Dave Ruddick goes through his set-up and explains how he records surround sound in the field. This clip was shot at Tongass National Forest where Ruddick was handling sound for the film Fortress of the Bears.

Fortress of the Bears

Via Colin Hunter’s Audio Lounge

Frank Bry has published a very nice post about the recording process of his newly released sfx library called Ultimate Foliage.

I’ve been asked a few times, “You’re recording leaves? Why?” My short answer was because they are there. The long answer is because I’ve always needed some leaf-type sounds in my video game work. Whether it was for a fantasy forest ambient track sweetener, a tree monster, or a spaceship roaring low over trees, leaves come in very handy. So now the question is: What do I record and where do I record it? In this article I will detail, the best way I can, the adventure this turned out to be, what I learned, and how I put it all together.

Continue reading…

Piezoelectric materials are about as close to magic as you can get. They turn physical pressure into electricity and can even turn electricity into physical pressure – an amazing sort of bidirectional converter for mechanical and electrical energies. Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that you can easily ‘grow’ your own piezoelectric crystals overnight using just a couple of common ingredients – awesome.

Ever since I made my first contact microphone, I’ve been amazed by piezos and their unique abilities. I was more than psyched to learn I could make my own piezoelectric crystals after finding recipesonline.

Collin’s Lab: Homebrew Piezo

Leafcutter John has posted a recording of a music box with these home grown crystals on his awesome website,:

First Recording Using Rochelle

His article on building a hydrophone is also worth reading here.

/via Create Digital Music

Sound designer and recordist Tim Nielsen has written a great article for Designing Sound, talking about his addiction to microphones and sharing his thoughts about the following setups he uses:

• Schoeps MS Rig: CMC6XT Bodies with MK41 Mid and MK8 Side
• Sennheiser MS Rig: MKH50 Mid with MKH30 Side.
• Sennheiser MKH416 Shotgun
• Schoeps CMIT-5U Shotgun
• Sennheiser MKH816 Super-Shotgun (x2)
• Neuman XY Rig: KM00 Bodies with AK40 Capsules
• Schoeps CMC6XT with MK2 Omni (x2)
• Sennheiser MKH8020 Omni (x2)
• Telinga Stereo DAT Parabolic
• DPA 8011 Hydrophone
• Sennheiser MKH800
• Rode NT1A (x2)
• C-Ducer Ribbon Contact Mic (x2)
• AKG C411pp Contact Mic (x2)
• Sennheiser MK421 Mark II (x2)
• Countryman E3 Lavalier (x2)
• Crown SASS Mk. II

Chris Watson interviews Alan Lamb for The Wire, BBC Radio 4.

Download

The Music of the Wires: wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson is captivated by the extraordinary sounds of the wind and the weather as they play on vast lengths of fencing wire stretched across the Australian landscape.

Alan Lamb is an artist, biomedical research scientist and composer who has long been fascinated by the vibrating qualities of telegraph wires. As a young boy he was introduced to the music of the wires during walks with his sister and their nanny, who showed the children how to press their ears against a telegraph pole to ‘hear the sound of the world’.

Years later, when he was a student on a camping holiday in Mull, Alan pulled into the side of the road and fell asleep in his van. He was woken by an extraordinary sound. It was produced by the telegraph wires overhead as they waxed and waned in the wind. Alan was transported by the sounds and became determined to record their music.

Since then, he has worked with abandoned telegraph wires on several sites across Australia and installed new structures in order to produce and record music from them. Alan has also completed extensive research into auditory perception and developed theories relating to the wire music and its behaviour.

In this programme, wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, who has long been interested in the sounds of the wind, travels to Australia to meet Alan Lamb and some of his colleagues at The Wired Lab Project. He discusses their work and its evolution and records for himself some of the extraordinary music of the wires.

Presenter: Chris Watson
Producer: Sarah Blunt.

The Wire Lab Project | Via musicofsound

A thing of beauty is a joy forever - J.Keats

1. Why?

I had been using the Mbox2 with my laptop (MacBook Pro) and desperately needed to upgrade. I was never a fan of it and the only reason I had it was to run Pro Tools. With the release of Pro Tools 9 the time came for me to upgrade and also invest in something with better preamps, conversion and support for higher sample rates (96KHz or 192KHz). I initially planned on either buying the Mbox3 or RME Babyface until I heard of the USBPre2 and the possibilities of using it standalone with an external USB power supply. Thus began my gear lust saga.

Since I rented out gear when I needed it, my field recording gear had largely been non existent (except for the Zoom H4n and Sennheiser MKH416 – although there have been new additions lately). The USBPre2 seemed like a welcome addition for better recordings in the field.

2. First Impressions:

After the long wait and the trip to pick up the USBPre2 (and almost getting bit by a dog) I returned home in obvious excitement. Here’s what I thought when I unpacked it:

• It looked smaller than I expected (probably the effect of drooling at hyped marketing material for many weeks!)
• Fantastic build quality (infinite steps up from the plastic junk called the Mbox2)
• Ergonomic design – mic/line/aux inputs on the left, USB/SPDIF/Aux outs/Headphone outs on the right, line outs/optical IO/DIP switches at the back
• Meters! Who wouldn’t love a 23 -segment multi-colour LED meter which indicates both VU and peak (PPM) ballistics?
• The USB cable that comes with it firmly fixes itself into the port – making it tough to ‘accidentally’ unplug it

3.Digging Deeper:

• The Front Panel
  
  The most commonly used functions in a studio are available on the front panel – input source selection, output level control, headphone level control, meter selection, headphone mono switch and direct monitoring mix control. There are indicators for the low cut (at 80Hz, 12dB/8ve), 15dB pad and phantom power. The indicators light up if any of those options are enabled for either or both input channels. It’s obvious that Sound Devices designed the USBPre2 keeping in mind the growing number of ‘headphone editors’ along with it’s experience in designing field recording equipment. The preamp/pc output mix knob and the output level control knob are spring loaded and can be ‘pushed in’ during field recording use. This along with the design of the other switches decreases the chances of accidentally hitting the wrong switch right when that elusive thunderbolt strikes after recording hours of boring rainfall!
  

 

• Right Panel
  
  The Aux outputs are unbalanced which is useful for recording to a handeld recorder for example. I loved the provision of both 1/4th” and 1/8th” outputs for headphones – saves me the trouble of carrying a convertor every time I use my IEMs (Etymotic hf5). Also S/PDIF i/o = wonderful!

 

• Left Panel
  
  Options for connecting a variety of input sources – line level TRS inputs, XLR microphone inputs and unbalanced phono inputs
  (do those old cassettes need a transfer?).

 

• Back Panel
  
  Switchable Mic/Line outputs, TOSLINK optical i/o and the DIP switch panel with a removable rubber cover (protection in the field).

 

• The Bottom
  
  Instructions for entering stand-alone mode and the legend for the dip switches (control for routing, limiter, low cut, pad, metering options, sample rate in standalone mode and  most importantly – input source lock).

 

• The Top Panel
  
  Just incase you forget which sound interface you are using.

4.Integration

Integrating it into a home studio setup is easy – connect microphones, speakers & USB cable and you are set to go. It’s a class compliant device – which means no drivers..plug and play. Except, for working at higher sample rates on Windows you will need the ASIO driver (available on the Sound Devices website).

Integrating it in to my present field recording (humble) setup was a different ball game though. It so happens that the “line inputs” on the Zoom H4n are nothing but Hi-Z unbalanced inputs (thank you Zoom/Samson for being SO clear in your documentation – NOT!). This meant that I had to make a 18dB in-line pad if I didn’t want the inputs on the H4n to distort. I found a good tutorial here (along with a very detailed comparison of field recorders). It’s not the best sounding solution, but it works (until my PCM D50 arrives!!).

5.What does it sound like?

The difference in sound was audible on my headphones (Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro) even when I played back an MP3 file (yes, kill me for saying MP3). The stereo image has more detail, the low end is focussed and over all it seems more balanced across the frequency spectrum. The headphone amplifier is clean and  has enough room for amplification (even when using a 250 ohm headphone). The preamps are nothing short of fantastic (same as the Sound Sevices 700 series) – clean, lots of headroom and beautiful sounding.

Here’s some dirty street ambiance I recorded simultaneously to Pro Tools and the Zoom H4n, using the USBPre2 as a front end with the Audio Technica BP4025 stereo microphone. The USBPre2 was setup to route the preamp outputs to the aux outputs (“HP Mix to Output”) which was connected to the H4n using the in-line pads. The results are unprocessed except for being normalized at -1dBFS.

Convertor comparison – Sound Devices USBPre2 & Zoom H4n on SoundCloud

The difference in sound is quite obvious. The USBPre2 sounds more clean and balanced across the frequency spectrum. This test is only a comparison of the sound of the two convertors (and how the inputs on the H4n affect the sound). The next part of this series will have more detailed comparisons with a variety of gear and source material.

6.It would be nice if…

After a couple of field recording sessions I found the dip switches to be a bit cumbersome.  If I needed to enable to the HPFs, pads or phantom power I’d have to flip the box around, consult the legend, dig out a tiny screwdriver/pen/thin-long-object and hit the right switches. I wouldn’t have a problem if the box was 2 inches longer and had these commonly used options on the front panel. The other switches are mostly for set-and-forget controls depending on your working style.

Any other complaints/regrets? None so far! It’s worth the price and definitely one of the best pieces of gear I’ve ever bought. If you have second thoughts about buying this – you shouldn’t!

7.Power in the field

In my research it seemed like most people were powering the USBPre2 on the field with the Lenmar PowerPort portable battery (thank you Michael Raphael and Shaun Farley for the discussion on Twitter).

Lenmar PowerPort

New Trent IMP50D-2T

U2O iWalk15600

I decided on ordering the New Trent IMP50D simply because it was available where I live and seemed reliable. Unfortunately/fortunately I ended up receiving the U2O iWalk15000 (confusion with the order on Ebay). While I was skeptical, it so far seems impressive. I’ve powered the USBPre2 for ten hours and lost about 50% of battery power (capacity rated at 15600mAh, which is WOW). It also has switchable DC outs (12V/16V/19V). If I get a 12V to 5V convertor I’ll be able to power the H4n/D50 with it. Everything seems good so far (although to say the user guide was mildy hilarious would be an understatement).

In Part2 of this series I will run controlled tests and compare  the preamps/convertors with other commonly used gear and also include more recordings. Look out for it soon!

The group spent one early morning and one full evening out in the field, analyzing and collecting sounds. We then listened to the recordings that were made an identified the animal species that were heard. Comparisons of different recording setups were helpful to in defining both aesthetic and scientific approaches to the sounds that were captured.

(Recordings by John Grzinich)

Summary of the Workshop

Via phase space

Stairwell @ Keystone - Vancouver BC

In 2009, I decided to make an A/B test between the voice of (Foley mixer and editor) Craig George, recorded in a big stairwell and the same voice recorded in an ADR booth with the same mic and convoluted with the impulse response of the same stairwell and at the same position were the voice was initially recorded.

Our technical supervisor Peter Sartwell quickly set up a dolly cart with a mounted Tannoy speaker and a DVD player that allowed me to playback 30 sec of sweep tone. I placed the speaker exactly where Craig was located (top of the stairs), I adjusted the loundness of the DVD amplifier so that it matched Craig’s voice and then placed the mic two floors lower to get a significant reflection effect.

A/B Test 1 : Stairwell  /  ADR Booth

A/B Test 2 : Stairwell  /  ADR Booth processed thru the Altiverb Stairwell IR with no parameter changed, 100% Reverb Time, 100% size and 100% Mix, Mute direct ON).

(TOP: Sweep tone, BOTTOM: Impulse Response)

Frequency domain comparison

Time domain comparison

Frank Bry has published a very cool post talking about his experiences on recording thunderstorms, along with examples, tips and more.

Most of my thunder recordings are made with my Sanken CSS-5 microphone sitting right outside my front door. I sit in my kitchen with the recorder and a glass of single malt scotch and safely wait until the universe gives me a good one. I have an open field directly in front of my porch with the forest on one side and a huge open space that leads to the street on the other. Unless it’s really windy or raining heavy I get some very clean takes. On occasion there will be cars going by, birds, squirrels or people mowing their lawns and chainsawing. This is very rare but can be annoying and just part of life. The middle of the night is the best time here, it is very quiet… almost to quiet (spooky).

And some quick and cool tips:

1. Always be ready. I have my gear set and ready during the thunderstorm season.
2. Be patient. Waiting is the hardest part. Don’t tear down to quickly after the storm passes, there might be the “good one” (Has happend to me one too many times)
3. DO NOT STAY OUTSIDE during the storm. Our body voltage is low, not a good idea to add more.
4. Protect the gear. If it’s raining and windy, cover and secure your precious stuff.
5. Drink Scotch if you want, it can help pass the time and your recordings actually sound better.
6. There will be a next time so don’t worry about getting crap for recordings.

The Recordist

Tim Prebble has recently published several posts about a trip he did to Samoa some days ago.

The posts contain a lot of fantastic visual and sonic footage. I could add some examples here but I think it’s better to discover all the stuff in the posts, so let’s read:

• Samoa Fiel Trip Debrief
• Samoa Field Recording 01 – Saleapaga beach
• Samoa Field Recording 02 – Alofaaga Blow Holes, Taga
• Samoa Field Recording 03 – Night and Day
• Samoa Field Recording 04 – Coconut Husking
• Bonus: Savaii, Samoa Timelapse