naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Wren Wilstone Reservoir

Subject: Re: Wren Wilstone Reservoir
From: "Philip Tyler" macmang4125
Date: Thu Aug 2, 2007 11:48 pm ((PDT))
Hi Chris

Glad you enjoyed the recording.

The original recording was done 'flat' with no bass cut on the microphones.

Listening back to the recording I then used a 4 band equaliser and I first =
applied some filtering at the bottom end. From memory, as I am at work at t=
he moment, the shelf started at 90Hz and then gently sloped down from there=
. This to me helped remove the rumble of traffic and aircraft noise. Then l=
istening to it again I felt there was some lower mid band frequencies that =
were intruding. So I used a high 'Q' filter and adjusted the frequency unti=
l I got a result I was happy with and which to my ear 'helped' the recordin=
g.

I try and do as little as I can to any recording and if I do apply filterin=
g then I try to be as subtle as I can with it. But all the time I do compar=
isons with the original un-filtered recording and keep asking myself 'is wh=
at I am doing helping the recording or not?' As you can get carried away so=
 easily and I like to keep comparing what I have done to the original.

Sometimes I find I am happy with the recording as is, and so I then leave i=
t alone.

I don't think you can really lose the traffic noise at it is quite wide-ban=
d, you are best trying to make it less obtrusive.

Phil


----- Original Message ----
From: Chris Hails <>
To: 
Sent: Thursday, 2 August, 2007 7:52:29 PM
Subject: [Nature Recordists] Re: Wren Wilstone Reservoir

Phil, a bit late with my reply but wanted to say I enjoyed this mix,
the wren is at about the max level my system can sustain and I have
found that before. For a small bird they really produce the most
powerful piercing sounds (- have you ever tried slowing it down and
looking at what they really do ?). The photo on your page was a great
idea, I could really see the water lapping.

Your filtering worked well for me, and since I also live on several
flight paths I too suffer from aircraft noise, and sometime I would
love to know what "gentle filtering" means on this group. I use
something called Wavepad which gives me an adjustable equaliser which
can act as a filter. Some time ago Walter Knapp told us that several
passes with a "gentle hand" produced the best results, so I usually
do that, going for several passes with a 30% reduction below 1Khz (or
maybe 800Hz depending on the energy spectrum which I check first),
and can then back-up one step when it begins to sound too weird
(usually 2-3 steps is enough). Rob Danielson also said he keeps
anything below 40Hz in there, which I also follow to try and retain
some "mellowness" whilst removing the intrusion.

Any tips from anyone on the best way to remove traffic and aircraft
noise ?

Chris

--- In naturerecordists@ yahoogroups. com, "Phil Tyler"
<macmang4125@ ...> wrote:
>
> I recently made a recording at a local reservoir where the main
subject was a Wren, while
> nearby Mute Swans fed and grunted. There are also Coots, Moorhens,
Common Terns and
> Grey Herons amongst others in the background as well. I applied
some 'gentle' filtering to
> remove some of the unwanted sounds and to attempt to clean it up.
But in this part of
> England you are never very far away from a road or a flight path
sadly.
> I used a couple of K6/ME66's spaced on a stereo-bar and recorded it
onto a MZ-NH900
> mini-disc recorder.
> You can hear a 192Kb mp3 file of the recording here:
>
> http://www.astd59. dsl.pipex. com/naturewren. html
>
> I used Nvu to create the page and I have checked it using Safari on
a Mac and IE7 and Firefox
> 2.0.0.4 on a PC which all appear to work. Safari for the PC does
not seem to work correctly
> for this page.
>
> Phil
>





      ___________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up =
for
your free account today http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=3D44106/*http://uk.docs.=
yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html






<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU