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Re: Thunder and bullets

Subject: Re: Thunder and bullets
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2003 14:38:15 -0400
Dan Dugan wrote:
> Bill Mueller wrote,
> 
> 
>>I suspect that gunshots are as difficult
>> >to record and recreate as thunder and surf.
> 
> 
> My understanding from the film recordists I work with is that the 
> successful way to record gunshots and door slams is to let the 
> impulse saturate the hell out of the tape, so that the early 
> reflections and reverberation are really what's faithfully recorded. 
> This only works with analog tape.
> 
> <codger mode> I was doing theatrical sound design in the 60s. Mercury 
> Records came out with a great mono 1812 Overture, which had a 
> documentary of recording the cannon and bells on the B side. That 
> cannon was a godsend for sound design, much better than the available 
> sound effects LPs. It was heard in a lot of shows!
> 
> At some point, Mercury re-recorded the piece in stereo, and published 
> it in the same format. I ran right out to get it, but I was very 
> disappointed in the sound of the new cannon recording. It was a puny 
> crack. I suspect the engineers didn't know the old saturation trick, 
> and recorded the cannon "properly" so the impluse didn't distort. 
> That put the reflections and reverb probably 20 dB down... </codger 
> mode>
> 
> -Dan Dugan

I wonder if the opto-electric limiting used in the Sound Devices MP2 
might be a good substitute for the analog tape. It saturates in a 
similar way. I've not really gotten into trying that limiter on thunder.

It is something I miss about analog tape, you could use that saturation 
all over the place as a form of limiter. As long as you understood what 
you were doing it was useful.

Walt




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