Hi David,
An interesting question and one which recently brought home t=
he reality of recording. I was in Portugal last week recording dunes and su=
rf with a binaural rig and also a pair of boundary mics in a blimp - in all=
over 9 hours of material. Some of this is useable as is, but perhaps 40% i=
s spoiled by a generator din (when the mic was placed in between rocks the =
lf is was amplified due to resonance) - also very distant night club low fr=
equency bass, thumm thumm thumm. One take from the dunes to the surf was ne=
ar perfect, no anthrophony except my gentle wading in the sea to reach the =
crashing waves - at this point some one with a powered parachute decided to=
zip along the beach... Arrrrrhg
- reset, walk back to the start and do it all again.... To really answer y=
ou need to get your feet wet...
While reading further enjoy a one take and busy recording from my recent va=
cation:-
This was a proof of concept for further binaural recordings. Im using a pai=
r of 35 dollar Shure MX391 Omni boundary mics via ebay as mentioned a while=
ago by John H. (and I can't thank him enough!) together with the Sony D50=
recorder in a plastic waterpoof bag, feet wet in the surf...
http://soundcloud.com/urlme/monte-gordo-beach-portugal
Reaper setup (showing the sequence):
http://urlme.net/audio/montegordo-setup.tiff
> I am curious how each of you deals with the sounds of man and machine
> in your recording practice.
>
> Do you edit it out?
If its present and Im the cause and part of the recording no, otherwise I r=
e-take the recording and move slower :)
> Do you minimize it through EQ?
I recently brought RX2 for this purpose but found it to be pretty hopeless =
both from a GUI usability point of view and technically very poor at displa=
ying enough spectral resolution to see the offending tones. (a generator ru=
nning on the beach in this case, 11dB above the noise floor of the recorde)=
- RX2 liked to crash rather a lot and also consume cpu cycles.
> Do you practice extreme patience and wait out the sounds of man
yes wake up at astronomical twilight, enjoy the transitioning dawn and reti=
re for a few hours afterwards.
> looking for tiny slivers of "quiet"?
depends on the location.
> Do you reconstruct a scene from fragments?
No, re-take or at minimum remove the offending section if it happens to be =
a powered parachute zipping along the beach at 8am in the morning. (inserts=
penny to swear jar)
> Do you leave it in?
occasionally if the noise is not too offensive and its way in the backgroun=
d.
>
> In my own recordings I typically try to seek out places where
> anthrophony is minimal, and the sounds of non-man are dominant. This
> is not nature for nature's sake, but rather to get sound scenes that I
> find interesting to listen to. For me, an area with a wash of traffic
> noise is not particularly easy on the ears and I have not yet been
> particularly interested in recording the sounds of man and machine.
> But whether we like it or not, the sounds of motor vehicles,
> airplanes, boats, and general human schenanigans are pervasive, not
> only in North America, but almost everywhere on the planet.
> Anthrophony is a part of our soundscape and natural environment.
> Giving it a first class position in Soundscape Ecology recognizes this
> implicitly. Sometimes anthrophony is pollution, disrupting breeding
> populations. Other times it is completely benign. But whatever it's
> affect in any given situation, there it is.
>
> So my general aesthetic currently is to leave it in, although I do
> minimize sections where the anthrophony is particularly annoying. I
> also happen to do this with sections that have been blown out by wind
> or with birds that are just way too close to a microphones. They just
> get edited out. This is not to say that my recordings are littered
> with airplanes and cars, but often I find that the process of editing
> a soundscape for anthrophony destroys something about the soundscape
> itself. Sometimes hours of continuity (place) can be lost waiting for
> a completely "quiet" moment. This can be particularly acute during
> light transitions.
>
> I have another concern though regarding editing/waiting out
> anthrophony. The documents we create through patience and careful
> editing portray a world that does not exist (or exist in incredibly
> limited quantities - and perhaps herein lies the value). Arguably, all
> recordings are biased anyway and there is no way to avoid creating a
> fantasy. We often lament the growing noise in the world, environmental
> destruction, and devastating losses of species and habitats, but by
> and large the recordings we create show a world untouched by man. I do
> not want consumers of "nature sound" to be disappointed by presence of
> anthrophony that sometimes appears in my recordings, however I am
> concerned about the message sent when soundscapes are redacted to
> exclude anthrophony.
Sadly that world exists only in the editing studio. Unless you really do fi=
nd a quiet
location, when you do - don't tell anyone. :)
Kind Regards,
Mike.
>
> This of course is just my opinion, so I wonder your collective
> feelings on this topic.
>
> Sincerely
> David
>
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