Help a complete newb create high quality ambient recordings of spaces (need recommendations on equipment, and software)
September 16, 2011 11:14 AM Subscribe
Help a complete newb create high quality ambient recordings of spaces (need recommendations on equipment, and software)
So I've had this goal for a while but have been a bit too timid to pursue it. My goal is to create high quality recordings of ambient spaces. A cafe, the people congregated outside of a club, whatever. I am a technical person (CS), but new to recording.
Ideally I'd want a portable setup that can be somewhat discrete (I imagine people are leery of that dude with the boom mic). I don't really know much about this space, so I'm open to any and all suggestions. Would it be better to have one more obvious setup, and another slightly less high quality but much more discrete setup?
A plus would be if the setup could also be used to conduct interviews (at least generally, I understand if I'd have to buy another mic or somesuch and am open to suggestions).
Then, what sort of program would be good to edit these sorts of things? The same ones people use for music? Live/Logic/etc?
Some things that I'd like to at least have some control over: let's say I wanted to record a busy cafe, and wanted to deemphasize the background music in the cafe and try to bring out people's voices...can this be done, either in the field, or in editing?
I guess lastly, any resources or guides to this sort of thing would be greatly appreciated :)
I appreciate any and all help! As far as budget, quality definitely trumps budget, but obviously I don't want to drop a bajillion dollars. But I'd much rather know my options, their costs, and their limitations than immediately go for the bargain choice.
Thanks for your help!
So I've had this goal for a while but have been a bit too timid to pursue it. My goal is to create high quality recordings of ambient spaces. A cafe, the people congregated outside of a club, whatever. I am a technical person (CS), but new to recording.
Ideally I'd want a portable setup that can be somewhat discrete (I imagine people are leery of that dude with the boom mic). I don't really know much about this space, so I'm open to any and all suggestions. Would it be better to have one more obvious setup, and another slightly less high quality but much more discrete setup?
A plus would be if the setup could also be used to conduct interviews (at least generally, I understand if I'd have to buy another mic or somesuch and am open to suggestions).
Then, what sort of program would be good to edit these sorts of things? The same ones people use for music? Live/Logic/etc?
Some things that I'd like to at least have some control over: let's say I wanted to record a busy cafe, and wanted to deemphasize the background music in the cafe and try to bring out people's voices...can this be done, either in the field, or in editing?
I guess lastly, any resources or guides to this sort of thing would be greatly appreciated :)
I appreciate any and all help! As far as budget, quality definitely trumps budget, but obviously I don't want to drop a bajillion dollars. But I'd much rather know my options, their costs, and their limitations than immediately go for the bargain choice.
Thanks for your help!
I would also second something like Audacity for editing and filters.
Some pages with potentially useful information for you on the practice of field recording:
Quiet American DIY recordings page
F7 Sound and Vision field recording
A beginner's Guide to Field Recording Pt. 1
Phonography.org - Gear
London Sound Survey - Budget Mics
You might also want to have a look at websites/forums for people who record live music for lots more debate about the best gear.
A possible discrete set-up could involve a portable digital recorder such as an Edirol, Zoom or Sony recorder, and a pair of in-ear binaural microphones or other small microphones. Of course binaural recordings, although they give you wonderful representation of the sound space around you, ideally need to be listened to on headphones. I understand that the chap who runs the London Sound Survey site uses a pair of very good quality small microphones (Sonic Studio DSMs) mounted on a hat to overcome this somewhat, but I can't find the exact blog post where he talks about this right now.
If you don't mind less than very high quality, you could set the recorder up on a table in the space and record through its internal mics. For outside recording in this case something like a Rode Dead Kitten mounted over the mics will cut wind noise.
Hope this is of help.
posted by frogbit at 12:21 PM on September 16, 2011
Some pages with potentially useful information for you on the practice of field recording:
Quiet American DIY recordings page
F7 Sound and Vision field recording
A beginner's Guide to Field Recording Pt. 1
Phonography.org - Gear
London Sound Survey - Budget Mics
You might also want to have a look at websites/forums for people who record live music for lots more debate about the best gear.
A possible discrete set-up could involve a portable digital recorder such as an Edirol, Zoom or Sony recorder, and a pair of in-ear binaural microphones or other small microphones. Of course binaural recordings, although they give you wonderful representation of the sound space around you, ideally need to be listened to on headphones. I understand that the chap who runs the London Sound Survey site uses a pair of very good quality small microphones (Sonic Studio DSMs) mounted on a hat to overcome this somewhat, but I can't find the exact blog post where he talks about this right now.
If you don't mind less than very high quality, you could set the recorder up on a table in the space and record through its internal mics. For outside recording in this case something like a Rode Dead Kitten mounted over the mics will cut wind noise.
Hope this is of help.
posted by frogbit at 12:21 PM on September 16, 2011
I'm happy with my Zoom H4N. They seem to be going for $230-$300 online.
posted by harmfulray at 12:23 PM on September 16, 2011
posted by harmfulray at 12:23 PM on September 16, 2011
Response by poster: Do the in ear binaural microphones also come with headphones? How would you set it up so that you can hear what you're recording when the mics are masked as headphones? Just curious, as it seems like being able to tweak on the fly would be important.
Some good recs! I especially appreciate the links. The H4N had come up a lot, as well, so I think i is going to come down to mics. Is there anything stopping me from using the mic that comes with the recording device, as well as a binaural mic, etc in other channels? I guess complexity of editing?
posted by wooh at 1:54 PM on September 16, 2011
Some good recs! I especially appreciate the links. The H4N had come up a lot, as well, so I think i is going to come down to mics. Is there anything stopping me from using the mic that comes with the recording device, as well as a binaural mic, etc in other channels? I guess complexity of editing?
posted by wooh at 1:54 PM on September 16, 2011
Do the in ear binaural microphones also come with headphones? How would you set it up so that you can hear what you're recording when the mics are masked as headphones? Just curious, as it seems like being able to tweak on the fly would be important.
The in-ear ones I've seen and used don't, as the microphones basically sit in your ears like ear buds and don't transmit any kind of sound into your ears for monitoring purposes. You have to monitor the sound levels visually from the display on your recorder, to watch out for clipping etc.
However it might be possible to monitor if you have small mics clipped to a pair of spectacles or the outside of a hat, for example, and then separate earbuds in your actual ears. I'm reasonably sure at least one of those pages I linked to above will have something alluding to that.
On doing a little more poking about I see that Roland have some kind of dual microphone/headphone thing going here, but I have no idea as to sound quality.
The other thing I would mention is that binaural recording isn't always so good for interviews as your own voice can be a bit muffled as it's in the very center of the recording space between the microphones. You'd probably want to look into a more conventional mic set-up for that.
I'm only a casual hobbyist - I imagine you could get extremely technical and extremely expensive in this area, and hopefully someone with more experience will chip in here as well.
posted by frogbit at 2:12 PM on September 16, 2011
The in-ear ones I've seen and used don't, as the microphones basically sit in your ears like ear buds and don't transmit any kind of sound into your ears for monitoring purposes. You have to monitor the sound levels visually from the display on your recorder, to watch out for clipping etc.
However it might be possible to monitor if you have small mics clipped to a pair of spectacles or the outside of a hat, for example, and then separate earbuds in your actual ears. I'm reasonably sure at least one of those pages I linked to above will have something alluding to that.
On doing a little more poking about I see that Roland have some kind of dual microphone/headphone thing going here, but I have no idea as to sound quality.
The other thing I would mention is that binaural recording isn't always so good for interviews as your own voice can be a bit muffled as it's in the very center of the recording space between the microphones. You'd probably want to look into a more conventional mic set-up for that.
I'm only a casual hobbyist - I imagine you could get extremely technical and extremely expensive in this area, and hopefully someone with more experience will chip in here as well.
posted by frogbit at 2:12 PM on September 16, 2011
Response by poster: I feel like with audio stuff, you can go off the super deep end, but 80/20 DEFINITELY applies. With some solid mics and decent recording stuff, you can make nice recordings while the geeks go off and die before they have the perfect setup to make whatever it is they'll never actually make. I want to avoid that!
And yeah, I assumed I'd need a separate setup for interviews, mainly would just like to reuse the recording body. Are there any guides alluding to how you'd use filters etc to "bring out" someone's voice, or whatnot? And of course, the idea of mixing space and whatnot is ingenious.
posted by wooh at 2:17 PM on September 16, 2011
And yeah, I assumed I'd need a separate setup for interviews, mainly would just like to reuse the recording body. Are there any guides alluding to how you'd use filters etc to "bring out" someone's voice, or whatnot? And of course, the idea of mixing space and whatnot is ingenious.
posted by wooh at 2:17 PM on September 16, 2011
I think it would be worth taking a look at the tutorials page for Audacity, and then sites that deal with methods of mixing and music production, as you'll be using similar filters and techniques. Not so much my field though.
My final bit of internet-ferreting for this evening has come up with these links for techniques and technical stuff:
Transom >> Tools - radio journalism, gear reviews, interview and sound production techniques
Blind Cool Tech podcast - lots of audio demos and reviews
Have fun. :)
posted by frogbit at 2:30 PM on September 16, 2011
My final bit of internet-ferreting for this evening has come up with these links for techniques and technical stuff:
Transom >> Tools - radio journalism, gear reviews, interview and sound production techniques
Blind Cool Tech podcast - lots of audio demos and reviews
Have fun. :)
posted by frogbit at 2:30 PM on September 16, 2011
Taperssection.com is a great resource for hobbyist on-location recording, with endless "what gear should I buy?" questions and great leads on mic setup/hack-it-yourself stands/quality stuffs. As long as you're not afraid of model-number purgatory there is snobby advice there :)
Just be aware that pre-amps are necessary with most microphones and that a good preamp will reduce hiss (handy for recording at low levels, etc.) Take a look here if you're interested in why: http://www.micpres.com/why-do-i-need-a-microphone-preamp/
posted by Khazk at 3:18 PM on September 16, 2011
Just be aware that pre-amps are necessary with most microphones and that a good preamp will reduce hiss (handy for recording at low levels, etc.) Take a look here if you're interested in why: http://www.micpres.com/why-do-i-need-a-microphone-preamp/
posted by Khazk at 3:18 PM on September 16, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
You can do this in post processing, by applying filters and compression, etc..
Then, what sort of program would be good to edit these sorts of things? The same ones people use for music? Live/Logic/etc?
You can do all that stuff in music programs, but if you're not concerned with time syncing, then audacity would handle it just fine, and it's free.
As far as what kind of mic, you can get an omni-directional mic that people use for conference calls, but that won't get you any kind of stereo separation which, is kind of essential for the 'ambient soundscape' effect.
One thing you can do is use multiple mics in the same place (or even in different places, or in the same location at different times).
Since ambient sounds from different spots in a cafe aren't particularly related to each other, you can take sounds from different places and times and mix them together in different locations in the stereo field and with different volume settings so you can get a surround effect. If you want to get really fancy, there are filters you can apply that make sounds sound like they're coming from either behind you or directly in front of you. In other words, you can create a space that only exists in your imagination.
posted by empath at 11:36 AM on September 16, 2011