Peter,
I don't think a separate noise sample with a different mic would
help. If you were using noise reduction software you need to take
your sample from the recorded noise. Any variation to that and you
would get a lot of artifacts from the mis-matched sounds.
ALWAYS keep your original unfiltered recording and archive it, along
with anything that has been filtered. Who knows, in the future it
might be much easier to filter out noise, and you are right, we need
to have a record of what noise we hear in the era in which we live.
By definition, nature recording would tend to want to exclude man-
made sounds and noise, but there are plenty of other recording
scenarios where man-made sounds can be fascinating, e.g. those heard
on The London Sound Survey per SoundCloud.
Vicki
On 03/07/2012, at 9:38 AM, Peter Shute wrote:
> Would it be helpful when trying to remove such noise to have a
> purer sample of it, say recorded simultaneously with a shotgun mic?
>
> And is it a good thing to totally avoid noisy recordings? How are
> the public going to become aware of the problem if all we ever
> produce are noise free recordings? Obviously for some purposes
> noise is unacceptable, but the stuff we put on Soundcloud, etc,
> should be ok.
>
> Peter Shute
>
>
> From:
> On Behalf Of vickipowys
> Sent: Tuesday, 3 July 2012 9:04 AM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] the frustrations of engine noise
>
>
>
> Hi John,
>
> For jet plane noise, if they are high flying, you can try a low pass
> filter EQ (a simple procedure). Or to completely remove the jet
> noise you can try a brick wall filtering approach, i.e. completely
> remove all frequencies below, say, 1000 Hz, and replace that section
> with audio from a quiet location, just the section below 1000 Hz.
> For chainsaws and motorbikes their noise is worse because it goes up
> and down in pitch. Maybe the newer version of Izotope may be able to
> track the noise and remove it? I only have the older version of RX.
>
> Don't give up recording! Perhaps take your next holidays at a remote
> location :-)
>
> cheers,
>
> Vicki
>
> On 02/07/2012, at 10:57 PM, John Crockett wrote:
>
>> Greetings all,
>>
>> Trying to record soundscapes around southern Vermont has become a
>> very frustrating experience. I have hours of recordings, and only a
>> few minutes without some kind of engine noise: mostly jets, but
>> also prop planes, chainsaws, atvs, cars and trucks and motorcycles,
>> skidders, and who knows what else. It appears that we are in a
>> direct flight path for Logan airport in Boston, so that accounts
>> for a lot of it. These are sounds I have effectively screened out
>> in a lifetime of living here. I have always thought of this place
>> as quiet. But turn on the recorder and suddenly all that engine
>> noise comes to the fore. Not quiet at all.
>>
>> It makes no sense to me to get in my own noisy car and drive all
>> over the countryside trying to find quiet places. How contradictory
>> is that! I'm not having any luck finding quiet places anyway. This
>> noise has become such a frustration that I am sorely tempted to
>> give up recording altogether, having only barely begun.
>>
>> How have others dealt with this frustration? How have you worked
>> around it? Anybody have an airplane noise canceling microphone?!
>> Should we be hoping the price of oil goes through the roof?
>>
>> best wishes,
>>
>> John
>>
>> John Crockett
>> Westminster, VT
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