Week Two
Undertaking a practical challenge:
Developing a technical foundation for editing recordings: using Jona Fashings guide to basic steps in editing field recordings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmmboCtsf7
1. Download, backup, format recorder
2. Create folder structure: date, location, subject, mic. Subfolder for original, subfolder duplication for edits.
3. Use “universal categories system” for metadata?
4. Trim, fade in/out, delete distractions and cross fade joins
5. EQ to lower frequency range (subtle)
6. Dynamics to reduce volume of peaks (manually cut and cross fade joins)
7. Stereo balance
8. De-noise (sparingly)
9. Normalising (-1db full scale, for quiet tracks use loudness adjustment rather than peak normalisation)
10. Sample and layer
Then uploading to SoundCloud which seems to be a audio sharing site used by many field recordists as well as musicians. Their technical advice is:
Use a lossless format like WAV. 16 bits and 44.1kHz. Peak levels reduced to -1dBFS headroom. 4GB maximum file size.
Having registered with the free service on SoundCloud my first upload link of red grouse calling, predawn on Fiends Fell, North Pennines
The recording was on Fiends Fell, North Pennines, pre-dawn. It was windy and the sound of the grouse was quite haunting over the moor. I used a parabolic microphone (see below) to focus on the bird sounds. It was dark and as this is a very directional microphone, wearing headphones, I was sweeping from left to right from where I was hearing the sounds to gain maximum acuity. What I found exciting was the layering of sound (behind the bird highlighted) creating a sense of burbling community.
Parabolic Reflector Mic: a highly directional microphone which is located in the centre of a parabolic dish. When pointed directly at the source of sound the sound waves are reflected to a focal point where the mic is mounted. This significantly increases the gain to highlight an individual bird’s song or call. The microphone used is a Primo EM272 capsule which has a good reputation for producing low self-noise (14dBA). Covered with a windshield.
https://drbadphil.com/tag/primo-em272
Thoughts- like using all microphones handheld it is a challenge not to transfer addition handling sound. While recording the grouse I thought it would be best to use a small tripod to minimise this.