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Re: Re: Field recordings -> Environmental soundscape

Subject: Re: Re: Field recordings -> Environmental soundscape
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 22:41:33 -0500
From: tony baylis <>
> 
> At first reminded me of lots of recordings I have
> discarded as noisy, but got more interesting as it
> progressed.
> Tony Baylis.

This is a common experience. Most folks got into nature recording to 
record the calls of some animal, usually birdcalls. They get out and 
make a recording and it does not sound like they remember, there is all 
this extra noise. Only later do they realize that their minds had been 
filtering out the normal noise of the bird's environment and giving them 
the call pretty much without it's environment.

We talk about wind noise as if it's a contaminant, for instance. And it 
is if we look at the effects directly on the microphone. But all the 
wind noise through the vegetation is perfectly natural and belongs 
there. Our microphone has given us a true picture and our mind a 
filtered one.

In another sense I like to introduce folks to nature recording and have 
them discover all the extra noise. They become much more aware of the 
extent of noise pollution by recording. One can only hope more active in 
trying to do their part in curbing it.

The tricky bit is to make a recording that includes both those calls and 
their environment and still sounds "natural" to us. That's the sort of 
thing that makes ambient recording much more challenging than call 
recording.

Walt




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