mijdog2000 wrote:
> Hi all
> I am new to the group and enjoy reading all the advice you "pros"
> give out.
> I have been recording bird song for maybe 15 years on all kinds of
> formats and have lived in Scotland, Spain and Australia. I now live
> in the USA and must admit it's a great place to get equipment but
> very short on real advice unless you play in a band or sing Rap!!!
> I have obviously had to learn my North American bird stuff and the
> various CD'S and tapes out there are great for starts, The Stokes
> series and the Petersons bird guides are excellent, I have been an
> admirer of Bernie Krause and Lang Elliot in their skills and have
> read most of what has been said in the group, Bernie's "Wild
> Soundscapes" book is very informative with some great tips and
> advice for all people, professional or not and Lang's recordings are
> terrific from the cd's, my question to you all is now in this
> computer age, what do you use for editing? Some of Lang's recordings
> have a somewhat "reverb" sound to them like the sound you get in the
> bathroom when singing (not rap)
> Is there also a way to cut out some of the low noise pollution from
> distant traffic etc? and is there a school you can go to that
> teaches you these fundamentals? It's a long day from cutting and
> splicing tapes!! I knew a bloke down in Australia who had the same
> kind of sounds Lang has and what he did with his final cut was just
> beautiful but unfortunately he moved on. Looking forward to your
> response
Before doing any filtering for keeps on the stuff for the Georgia Frog
CD, I spent over a month just playing with filters to work out various
ways I might process them. No school, no books, etc. Just jump in and try.
I use macs. My main general editing program is Bias' Peak. My main
filtering program is Spark XL. I burn CD's with Roxio's Jam. I use
Soundhack for dynamics filtering and sonograms. Spark XL also provides
sonograms. Spark XL will allow assembling a custom set of filters to run
simulataneously and you can audition the sound as you set up the
filters. You can also stick the sonogram in to watch what's happening as
well. Most major filtering I do involves a bunch of filters applied this
way, each filter applied lightly.
Primary filters I use are those that remove portions of the frequency
band, like cut filters, notch filters and so on. I also make use of a
trainable noise filter. And I use a filter that removes sections of the
dynamic range. I also use time filtering in the choice of exactly what
clip I use. For ID clips I will do a lot more than for clips where I
want the ambiance. In Id clips I may remove specific unwanted calls and
replace the time with some silence copied from somewhere else in the
recording.
Really the primary filter we use is in our choice of when and where to
record, our choice of especially good mics and so on. We work very hard
to get it right on the recording initially.
Some of the reverb you hear is quite real. A outdoor environment
contains all sorts of reflective surfaces, so most sound by the time it
get's to the mic has a lot of reverberation built in. Those used to the
sanitized recording of studios and so on will notice this a lot more
than those of us used to recording outdoors.
Cutting out traffic is mostly a matter of lots of patience. You pick out
the segments in between the traffic. Or you choose the least traffic
times, easier for frog people than bird people.
Airplane traffic is the worst as it's there as the plane goes from
horizon to horizon, which takes lots of time.
Walt
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