Curt Olson, you wrote:
>One of my earliest and strongest impressions of nature recording was
>that of being blown away by the extreme amount of low end my recording
>gear was picking up and amplifying into the headphones. This sounded
>absolutely unnatural to me compared to the way these environments
>sounded to the "naked" ear. Some low frequency cutting seemed to help
>restore the tonal balance I was hearing naturally, so I figured maybe
>that's how I should record it.
I suggest that that effect is simply a demonstration of the
Fletcher-Munson loudness curve. When we listen to a low level
ambience, our ears are very insensitive to the low frequency energy
that's there. When it's turned up 20dB or more, all of a sudden we
can hear it.
So sure, rolling off the low end can make it sound more natural when
you're listening at an unnatural level. And boosting ambient levels
is one of the fun parts of nature recording--my partner Sharon calls
it "listening with bionic ears."
I think it's preferable to do the filtering in post, unless the
rumble is getting in the way of recording. More options that way.
-Dan Dugan
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