Right you are, Stuart. The most difficult sounds to record are the
effects of wind, and water. Took ten years to figure out that because
of the limitations of microphone technology, wave sounds at the ocean
cannot be recorded in one pass with the expectation that the illusion
will be the same when reduced to a stereo and/or surround playback
system. To get the best illusion (all soundscapes are illusions from
good to bad) at the ocean, it is best to record examples of near
field, mid-field and far field, then mix them in post production.
Same goes for white water streams. To create a credible illusion of
water, you need a sense of space and detail.
Got my lardy butt nailed once in a Wall Street Journal interview
(mid-90s) when I admitted to the journalist that my first natural
sound recording experience for "In A Wild Sanctuary," our first album
for Warner Brothers (1970) and the first recording ever to use
natural sounds as a component of orchestration, I had been unable to
get a good natural stream sound and was reduced to recording the
trickle of water in my toilet to capture the illusion of a stream in
that one instance and for that one cut. The headline on the front
page read "The Stream on Your Nature CD Could Be The Sound of a
Toilet." I was devastated.
Bernie
>Nice recording. I wonder what it might sound like with the mic a bit
>further away? Have you access to Bernie's book Wild Soundscapes? He
>makes some comments about recording the sound of surf in the first
>three tracks of the CD.
>
>Cheers from Down Under. Stuart Fairbairn.
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>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
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--
Wild Sanctuary
P. O. Box 536
Glen Ellen, CA 95442
t. 707-996-6677
f. 707-996-0280
http://www.wildsanctuary.com
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