Martyn,
You underestimate your talent, mate! We don't all have that 35 years
of year-round experience coupled with natural ability, so we need
"Microphone placement for Dummies" a guide for the rest of us :)
To tell the truth, I have many, many hours of good, acceptable,
average recordings, but only a few that I consider really "great" or
artistic. Those are precious to me. I listen and ponder: What was
the difference, why are these so beautiful?
Some of the factors I come up with include:
- Interesting creatures or subjects - making great sounds
- Maybe something rare, but sometimes something common, recorded in a
perfect setting
- Pleasing placement of subjects in the stereo field, sometimes with
action or movement within the field (Drama!)
- Sound volume just right, not too loud, not too faint
- Appropriate habitat natural reverb
- Variety, to hold interest: interesting things going on (Story!)
- Absence of annoyances such as human-made sounds (usually, however I
can imagine situations where the humanity in a recording would play a
role)
- And Luck (which I believe can be 90% generated by research, talent,
and hard work)
I'll have to admit that some of my great recordings I owe to Lady
Luck. My goal is to examine and learn so she will spend more time at
my side.
Kevin
Oh, and regarding patience while recording; you and I know that
having patience isn't always easy. Some of the newer recordists may
not realize what can be involved. I know you've spent the days and
nights in mud, leeches, and flies. One of my beautiful recordings
was the Hermit Thrush in Katmai, Alaska at 2:30 AM in a rain
drizzle. I spent the night lying under a spruce in the wet moss in
the rain waiting for those sounds. I kept warm by shivering all
night. I loved it, felt privileged to be there. I sometimes feel
like Survivor Man. But I have more fun. The pain and misery
disappear as I monitor the sounds in my headphones.
On Sep 11, 2008, at 9:53 PM, Martyn Stewart wrote:
> In over 35 years of recording nature I still don't see how hard it can
> be to position microphones. Recording species or recording biomes
> takes and extreme amount of luck and if lady luck shines on you then
> you smell of roses. It was far easier to record natural sounds years
> ago than of today, one of the main reasons was there were fewer people
> about, we have over 6.5 billion people on the planet now competing for
> every available space. I agree with Kevin that observing the target
> will give you a head start but say you are on location for a week in
> some remote place and the weather changes for the worst? Imagine being
> on a schedule in Texas at the moment to record ambient sound? Great
> for wind and hurricane noises but what if you were there for something
> else at the time? Placing the microphones and sitting far away from
> them and being extremely quiet takes no skill, just a whole bunch of
> patience and you need a hell of a lot of that these days..
> 30 years ago I could record a pristine hour in around 4-5 hours, in
> todays environment it can take up to 2000 hours. On the Canning delta
> on the national wildlife refuge I could hear the oil rigs from Prudo
> bay. On Katmai national park there was constant noises from bush
> planes, generators and people. This is Alaska!!!! In Papua New Guinea
> the sounds of bush planes drone the soundscape like hornets.
> I liken nature recording these days to taking 500 shots with a camera,
> you would expect to get at least 3 or 4 extremely good pictures from
> 500, I rejoice if I get 30 seconds from 4 hours of the call of a
> species.
> I certainly doubt Gordon Hempton can record in environments without
> editing as he claims, it is basically impossible in todays environment
> unless you find an anechoic chamber somewhere full of animals!
>
> Martyn
> *************************************
> Martyn Stewart
> http://www.naturesound.org
>
> Redmond WA
> 425-898-0462
>
> Make every garden a wildlife habitat
> **************************************
> Listen to the Birds and the Bees at
> http://naturesound.libsyn.org/
> ------------------------------------------------
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>
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>
> http://naturesound.org/Copyright.html
>
> On Sep 11, 2008, at 9:17 AM, Kevin Colver wrote:
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