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Re: Suggestion for a good book for novice recordist

Subject: Re: Suggestion for a good book for novice recordist
From: "Nick Dando" =
ld.com
Date: Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:32 pm ((PDT))

There is this book, which I've bought, but not yet read.

In The Field: The Art of Field Recording

http://www.amazon.co.uk/In-The-Field-Art-Recording/dp/0956855962

Nick
On 30 Oct 2014, at 16:37, Sudipto Roy  [naturerecordi=
sts] wrote:

> Thanks to both of you for taking the time out to reply to me. Here are my=
 replies
>
> a. Bernie Krause is one of the reasons and inspirations for me to try and=
 record nature's sounds. His radio interviews, Ted talk etc (whatever that =
is available through google) are staple diet for me virtually on a daily ba=
sis. And somehow I am very confident that sometime in future I will meet hi=
m at least once. We are indeed all extremely lucky that he is here and find=
s the time to reply to even novices like me.
> b. I fully agree that the recordist or the photographer has to reproduce =
for his audience what he heard or saw in the field and not just reproduce w=
hat he recorded with the camera or recorder. To do that he might need to ed=
it it and only he can truthfully edit it because he is the one who saw/hear=
d 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 tha=
t a film director is trying to create on the screen for his story etc. I am=
 doing it for my personal archiving purpose. My recordings will remain a tr=
uthful sonic memory for me (or anyone else who might be interested) of a pa=
rticular place at a particular time. However, I still think that unless the=
 captured 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. Thank=
s a lot for that and your point of view. I really appreciate the effort you=
 took to explain. After going through your link I might ask you some questi=
ons to clear my doubts.
> d. I still don't have the name of a book (apart from Bernie's) to start u=
nderstanding 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 re=
cordist
> To: 
> Date: Thursday, October 30, 2014, 9:18 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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 =93pure,=94 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 =93edits=94 didn=92t necessarily
> 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: =93Found art,=94 he sniffed.
> =93That=92s because all true artists know that germane to
> their respective crafts is transformation =96 the inspired
> conversion of sound or image from one medium to another, or
> ideas from mind to page =96 ultimate expressions far more
> resounding than the resources from which they spring. It
>  is 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.=94
> 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.
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
> Posted by: 
> ------------------------------------
>
> "While a picture is worth
> a thousand words, a
> sound is worth a
> thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie
> Krause.
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo Groups Links
>
>
> Traditional
>
>    (Yahoo! ID required)
>
>    
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Wild
> Sanctuary
> POB 536
> Glen
> Ellen, CA 95442
> 707-996-6677
> http://www.wildsanctuary.com
> 
> SKYPE:
> biophony
> FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/BernieKrauseAuthorTED
> Global
> talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/bernie_krause_the_voice_of_the_natural_wor=
ld.html
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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