Re: Suggestion for a good book for novice recordist

["Sudipto Roy" sudiptoroy17]

Thanks to both of you for taking the time out to reply to me. Here are my r=
eplies

a. Bernie Krause is one of the reasons and inspirations for me to try and r=
ecord nature's sounds. His radio interviews, Ted talk etc (whatever that is=
 available through google) are staple diet for me virtually on a daily basi=
s. And somehow I am very confident that sometime in future I will meet him =
at least once. We are indeed all extremely lucky that he is here and finds =
the time to reply to even novices like me.
b. I fully agree that the recordist or the photographer has to reproduce fo=
r his audience what he heard or saw in the field and not just reproduce wha=
t he recorded with the camera or recorder. To do that he might need to edit=
 it and only he can truthfully edit it because he is the one who saw/heard =
it. By, "I don't want to tamper with the recording" what I meant is that I =
am not a foley artist and I am not doing it for any particular effect that =
a film director is trying to create on the screen for his story etc. I am d=
oing it for my personal archiving purpose. My recordings will remain a trut=
hful sonic memory for me (or anyone else who might be interested) of a part=
icular place at a particular time. However, I still think that unless the c=
aptured raw material is good, not much can be enhanced in post processing. =
And I need to know both the techniques - capture and edit.
c. I will spend some time on the link that you have provided David. Thanks =
a lot for that and your point of view. I really appreciate the effort you t=
ook to explain. After going through your link I might ask you some question=
s to clear my doubts.
d. I still don't have the name of a book (apart from Bernie's) to start und=
erstanding the concepts :-)

Regards and thanks for your time
Sudipto

--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 10/30/14, Bernie Krause  [naturerecordists] =
<> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Suggestion for a good book for novice rec=
ordist
 To: 
Date: Thursday, October 30, 2014, 9:18 PM


 =C2=A0









       Once, while at a soundscape conference at LucasFilm
 (Skywalker Ranch) in the late 1980s, someone raised the
 question for John Cage about the issue of recordists who
 were claiming that their recordings were =E2=80=9Cpure,=E2=80=9D meaning
 that because they were unedited, they were somehow more
 authentic then what others were producing. After some
 discussion amongst various pros in attendance (Randy Thom,
 Ben Burtt, Walter Murch, Andy Wiskes, Hildegard Westerkamp,
 etc) it was generally agreed that all recording was, at
 best, an illusion and that =E2=80=9Cedits=E2=80=9D didn=E2=80=99t necessar=
ily
 mean a break in the continuity of time; they also refer to
 choice of mic(s) and recorder, location of equipment at a
 site, time(s) chosen to record, material chosen during
 playback. Finally, at the end of the discussion Cage thought
 for moment and said this: =E2=80=9CFound art,=E2=80=9D he sniffed.
 =E2=80=9CThat=E2=80=99s because all true artists know that germane to
 their respective crafts is transformation =E2=80=93 the inspired
 conversion of sound or image from one medium to another, or
 ideas from mind to page =E2=80=93 ultimate expressions far more
 resounding than the resources from which they spring. It
 =C2=A0is through the process of insurgency that art in any
 medium obliges insight into the numinous and improbably.
 Transformation is the key to life and (its expression
 through) art, the real mystery of creative nature. Attempts
 to replicate or capture aspects of the natural world without
 amendment speak clearly to a vision of paralysis and
 death.=E2=80=9D
 Bernie


 On Oct 30, 2014, at 5:48 AM, 
 [naturerecordists] <>
 wrote:
 I want to understand the
 basics of the various technologies that are working in the
 background - albeit now in a palm sized machine and also
 learn the dos and don'ts of field craft. =C2=A0

 I understand that Bernie
 Krause has a very good book on the subject (which I am in
 the process of acquiring.

 Sudipto,

 Bernie is the master and he is on this email
 list which is fortunate for us
 when he has
 time to write.

 Not that I want to tamper with the sound or
 change it in any way but I am sure there is more to post
 processing than just push up the volume a bit.

 "Tamper" is the wrong word to use.
 Recording is an artificial process like
 photography, and the aim is to present the
 recording in a "packaged" form
 just as we do with a photograph. You can't
 just present the sound as you
 hear it, but
 you have to do some interpretation to make it sound
 "real"
 starting of course by
 deciding on the beginning and end, avoiding passing
 aircraft and so on.

 As an example, recording thunder can be
 disappointing, but this is a special
 case.
 The way to make it sound "real" is to let it
 overload on the loudest
 bits, but most
 digital recorders won't let you do this and a limiter
 kicks
 in. My pet hate is limiters and
 compressors which always sound artificial
 and make the background sounds "pump"
 down and up. The trick is to record
 low and
 to distort the peaks in post editing.

 With wildlife sounds, you need to avoid
 distorting them by recording low.
 How low
 you record depends on your system, but as long as the
 recorder noise
 is below the background and
 mic hiss, you are losing nothing. In the days of
 tape recording, we were fighting tape hiss and
 kept recording levels high,
 but the joy of
 digital recording is that you can often record
 peaking as low as -18dB and lose nothing. It is
 worth testing this out with
 your setup.

 The general rule is to present
 the edited recording as close as possible to
 what you heard with your ears. This is often
 not easy but it is the art of
 recording.
 For instance on playback, there may be a low frequency
 background
 which interferes with the
 wildlife sound or is distracting. In this case, I
 use my judgement to make the recording sound
 more like what my ears heard,
 giving
 prominence to the wildlife sounds. This is similar to
 framing a
 photograph or adjusting its tone
 values in order to reproduce what you saw
 with your eyes.

 I have occasionally used a gentle noise
 reduction in the Audacity editor to
 reduce
 mic hiss in very quiet recordings. With this I use a HPF
 filter on
 the noise sample. The
 justification is that I dind't hear mic hiss with my
 ears in the original location and provided that
 the wildlife sounds remain
 intact, I am
 reproducing the original sound experience. Another example
 is
 occasionally using a narrow notch filter
 to reduce a whine from a grain mill
 about a
 kilometre away from my woods. Also, with birdsong, I make no
 apology
 for using a gentle bass roll-off,
 again to match the recording with reality.

 For anyone with Audacity, I
 have many filter definitions on:
 http://www.stowford.org/sounds/eqcurvesadd.txt


 David Brinicombe




 ------------------------------------
From: 
 ------------------------------------

 "While a picture is worth
 a thousand words, a
 sound is worth a
 thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie
 Krause.


 ------------------------------------

 Yahoo Groups Links


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 Sanctuary
 POB 536
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 Ellen, CA 95442
 707-996-6677
 http://www.wildsanctuary.com
 
 SKYPE:
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