This is a short “Technical Notes” article that I wrote for the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group’s Journal, AudioWings, a couple of years ago. It is intended as an introduction to what phase or polarity is in the context of nature sound recording. Thanks to Sue Gould, the editor of the journal at the time … Read more Understanding Ø/Phase
Around 2 years ago I needed to record some atmos/SFX for a scene for a feature film which featured some driving in a van. To cover it adequately for a 5.1 surround mix I used 6 microphones and did some takes or passes where I was using audio cues in headphones to “perform” the driving … Read more Multitrack Recording Van/Vehicle Sound Effects
At the Schoeps MikroForum 2018, Hyunkook Lee (Senior Lecturer in Music Technology and the Leader of the Applied Psychoacoustics Lab (APL) at the University of Huddersfield, UK) gave a presentation discussing psychoacoustics in a 3D sound context which included some fascinating information about vertical localisation for 3D and immersive sound recording formats. A key note … Read more Psychoacoustics of 3D sound recording techniques
It is sometimes useful to refer to a chart that shows some common decibel levels of sounds as a reference, and a simple chart with some examples every 10dB or so usually suffices, but today I came across a really details chart put together by Paul Virostek on his Creative Field Recording blog/site that details … Read more Decibel Sound Level Chart
DPA have some fantastic information in their Mic University and their page discussing microphone set-ups for surround sound and immersive audio formats is a really great primer covering some of the common approaches: https://www.dpamicrophones.com/mic-university/immersive-sound-object-based-audio-and-microphones I’ve recorded using various multi-channel/surround techniques, but my most common approach for ambiences is using an IRT Cross. Although the technique … Read more Immersive Microphone Set-ups
I’ve been a member of the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group (AWSRG) since early 2019 and as part of the group’s way of adapting to the current COVID times the AWSRG will be presenting some monthly seminars over Zoom. I have the honour of presenting the first one on 20 October which will be about … Read more AWSRG Online Seminar
Back in March I made a series of videos that discuss different approaches and techniques to field recording. The videos tie in with a sound design task that uses these sounds, but the sound design specific videos are for my students at Canberra Institute of Technology only. The field recording videos are aimed at people … Read more Intro to Field Recording Techniques Videos
More information has been made public about the update to the Universal Category System for sound effects libraries that I mentioned in a post recently. The Universal Category System (UCS) is a public domain initiative and details can be accessed on the initiative’s website: https://universalcategorysystem.com/
Sunday 5 May was International Dawn Chorus Day 2020, and I did an audio livestream from my place near Collector (just outside Canberra) for 90 minutes around dawn to capture and share the sounds of the dawn chorus with others around the world. I have been aware of International Dawn Chorus Day for a number … Read more Streaming Audio for International Dawn Chorus Day 2020
Rode recently released a free (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0) sound library comprising ambisonics recordings from all around the world. The attribution thing might make it a non-starter for a lot of commercial projects, but it could be a useful resource for student projects or for people learning about ambisonics or wanting to have a play … Read more Creative Commons Soundfield Ambisonics Library