first thing was though i needed to fix the sound on my computer
though lots of tampering i realized that the audio wasnt pluged into the cpu
i opened it up and fixed it.
now it was to go out and record.
the first thing i started recording was water.
i used several diffrent levels of water and flow. all recorder in my house. it was very usefull having the stand for this as it meant i could ajust things whilst the mic could be in any possition. the hardest thing was drips as they were very quiet and very diffiuclt to create. i improvised though and created them using a shampoo bottle.
the only other water thing i needed was rain. i dicided as this was the only day in english history it didnt rain that i was going to recreate it. i used a set up hose and bucket. i tried all the diffent hose heads and ajusted levels for each one. i realised placing the mic near the bucket gave a really nice deep tone i could use later.
the last thing i need was fire. i firstly went out and used the insinerator in the garden it was go but the fire didnt give a colourful (sound wise) flame. it had nice crackles but not that classic wood sound. i decided to use my families wood burning stove. i made the fire set up the mic just outside the crack of the door. and lit it. thoughout the burning the fire made diffrent sounds and changed volume and intensity. i therfore worked between ajusting gain, possition of mic and the openess of the door. this gave me a range of diffrent tones of the fire.
i then took the recording equipment into farnham park to get some more sounds. I started by recording my footsteps through various things like grass and mud. i kinda liked the sounds but they felt to humanly constructed. the other earth thing i did was trying to get the sound of stones. i got some from the river, set the mic up and dropped them on each other, they were good stones by the river as their was lots of diffrent sizes but the issue was there was too much background noise of the river. i needed the sounds to be seperate. the other earth thing i did was fall dirt of a upturned tree. this gave a nice sound of light dirt falling down a surface.
for water i recorded the river in diffrent locations
i kept the tripod on the stones and stood far away so not to give any false vibrations
i difered the distrance from the water to change the sound.
there was alot of birds out becuase it was spring so i decided to incoparate that more into the theme, however i didnt want them overpowering the water so i put the mic as close as i could and lowered the gain
my sound assistant
after trying and failing to get the sound of wind; there was no wind and the birds were to loud i decided i had to improvise and create my own. i first went on the internet to see what they said was the best idea for creating wind.
http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/
this site told me to use a bike but after trying it, it didnt sound right. i improvise and created a set up using a fan. the main issue was the constant metallic sound of the fan. but when i put the mic very close that sound was lost.
i also used a piece of paper and a brance to replicate the wind passing through things.
i also created myself a wind tunnel. set the gain to the perfect level and stood at the other end with a towel to make the sound less constant by flapping it in front.
the fan was very powerful which was both good and bad. it did mean that i had to do alot in post to make the wind sound right but using EQ to remove tones i didnt want.
close to the fan
my makeshift wind tunnel
then after reviewing the sounds i realised i wanted the earth bits to feel a bit more powerfull and constant. i decided i would have to use bought dirt and stones. i went to homebase and bought to big bags.
firstly i set up the mic so it was in a big barrel and poored the soil into it. i had to review and change the levels as i couldnt do pouring dirt and that at the same time. i reliased quickly it was way to noisiy outside (this is where i wished i had a sound room) but i managed to find the quietest place in the house and record the pooring into a barrel. i had to take it out of the bag first as it created a plastic ruffle.
i had to keep the mic far away as the rocks knocking it caused the sound to clip.
I then moved on to recording music the next day
when writing the music i decided to do something carm and tranquil to fit with the natural sounds i had recorded.
I decieded to record in my garage as it was very quiet in there. i also used the sm58 mic as it picked up the music the nicest and didnt take lots of directional background noise.
i started with the guitar. i placed the mic near the sound hole and played i ajusted the levels in relation to reviewing the recording and changed the mic to not get to much straching sound from my hand.
it sounded really clean and nice. i did have to mute the other instruments like the drum in the room as it was causing slight resonance on certain notes.
i did a similar thing for the flute being aware to keep the mic away from my mouth to get the smoothest sound. i decided that i would do lots of indivudaul sounds and put them together in post so it sounded more fluid.
finally i recorded the drums. as i said in my intial idea i wanted to record this a certain way but i was nervous in doing so as i had recorded everything in mono so far and the introducion of using two mics was worrying. the drums ended up sounding good in post any using some post production skills but i would of liked to have had two stands and maybe a diffrent recorder to do the drums as films students told me that they aways recorded in mono on the merance.
the final thing i recorded was the piano in my family house. i had to make sure everything was sillent. tv on mute ect. the i position the mic facing the piano. i first faced it at the knee panal and then the top pannal but i found the best sound came from point it at the keys. i then recorded lots of diffrent piano tunes so i could decided which one to use in post.
No comments:
Post a Comment