Hello Klas,
I found your message (quoted below) most interesting and
thought-provoking. Like every nature recordist I was surprised at my first
recording attempt to hear all the sounds that my brain had been filtering
out, and I find it fascinating that such noise seems more intrusive in a
mono recording than in a stereo one. Seems logical though, now that you
make me to think about it.
To date, I've mostly looked on background noise as something to avoid, and
if you can't avoid it, try to filter it out later. But you make an
important point that it is part of a particular scene, and there are times
when it should be faithfully recorded.
"A Robin" and "a Robin in a Trafalgar Square traffic jam" are both
legitimate recordings. I must henceforth keep that fundamental truth firmly
in mind. (Too much to hope for, I guess, that there should still be a
nightingale singing in Berkley Square.)
Klas, you are probably aware that among the members of the British Wildlife
Sound Recording Society there are a number of fans of Telinga equipment. (I
am one.) May I have your permission to suggest to the Society's editor,
that he include your message in the next issue of the Society's journal?
And likewise, for our local Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group's
journal.
Thanks for your posting.
Syd Curtis in Australia
PS And thanks Greg Winterflood, for provoking Klas into sharing his wisdom
with us.
> From: Klas Strandberg <>
> Reply-To:
> Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 13:20:50 +0200
> To:
> Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Brain Filters and the price of MDs
>
> In 1982 I made an experiment:
>
> I recorded a Redwing in AB stereo:
> In the background you could easily hear traffic sounds from the city and
> airplanes from the airport.
>
> When people were presented the recording in stereo, with headphones, they
> all looked happy, smiling, saying things like "it is so natural, how can you
> do this?"
> Nobody commented the traffic sounds.
>
> When presented the recording in mono (one of the omnis) people didn't look
> as happy, no smile, but they said things like "it is very good quality".
>
> When the recording was low frequency filtered, they all said things like "it
> is a pity that one can hear so much traffic noise.
>
> So, in mono, when filtered, people took more notice of the traffic. I
> concluded that mono doesn't trigger the "brain filters" good enough,
> especially not when you have manipulated the mono sound.
>
> In 1995, I made a stereo recording (Telinga PRO5 + stere DATmic) of a Robin
> sitting on a car antenna at Trafalgar Square, in the middle of London
> afternoon traffic.
> That is not a recording of a Robin, and should not be judged as a "very
> noisy recording of a Robin." It is a recording of "a Robin at Trafalgar
> Square traffic jam," and the traffic sounds are not noise, but part of the
> recording.
>
> Klas.
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