Thread for Sharing/talking about field recordings…the most I’ve done with field recordings is record sounds with my phone, play it through my phone and record it with my low quality laptop mocrophone…but hey at the time it did not occur to me to get peizo mics or conversely build my own/buy the fancy recording equipment…I made due with what I had available at the time…so what do you use for field recordings and if you wish feel free to share your field recordings…
Thread about/for field recordings aka foley
I’ll have a lot to share, once I sit down and cut stuff up. I never thought anybody would be interested in this sort of thing, but if anybody is, I’ll gladly wrap it up and upload it.
I use a cheap recorder, but honestly it has been way too much fun recording random shit and having to work a bit extra to clean everything up over the past few years. Even though lately I prefer synthesizing sounds from the ground up most of the time, I still have this massive collection of my own that still serves as a major source of inspiration. In the past I’ve made a bunch of dark ambient using only samples though, and it’s probably one of the more ‘limited’ and fun things you can do.
For anyone using their phones still, a $50-$100 recorder is still a pretty huge leap in quality. At least it was for me.
I make a lot of my ‘electronic’ percussion that way. I do have a little Zoom and agree with xFred that there is a quality improvement, but I’m mostly going for stuff I’m going to mangle in this way or that anyway.
My more normal use is probably not super noticeable in context. I just enjoy that type of sound design, but probably a 3rd of the percussion in this is made from field samples. There is also a prominent sorta tumbling block at the beginning. I don’t actually know what that is, but bandmate recorded ‘a toy’ and played with it in the Fieldscaper app.
Also, sneak preview! haven’t really shared this anywhere yet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmYCgfjzhB4
A more full on one here, washer and dryer. Cut up samples and Fieldscaper for the longer drone bits.
Artificer
#4
Tascam DR-40 or an iPhone, depending on whether I’m going out recording or just stumbling on something cool. I probably spend more time than most people just listening to things as I don’t do music while walking or driving, and I love being in a place and capturing the ambiance when I hear something that grabs me. I probably have a thousand or more hours of field recordings sitting around from 25 years of recording. A couple years ago I digitized boxes of tapes I had in storage, some of which had gone full Basinski, which was pretty cool.
I’m a big fan of contact mics. I just run bargain basement shipping container mics (foiled or dipped) into home build Alex Rice-style preamps and then straight into an interface. I like capturing both the piezo and a close mic at the same time - it’s amazing how different they can sound based on a single source.
I have, on occasion, stuffed a laptop, mics and recording interface in a bag and done more elaborate on-site recordings. Works ok, but it’s a bit of a production to move around and set up. Works well for capturing a space, especially if you have lots of stuff in it to play with.
MCE 85 is a pretty solid shotgun mic if you’re on a budget. I’ve made due with SM57s with homemade wind screens (don’t leave home without a windscreen). NT4 is a baller mic at baller prices; I sold mine because I didn’t use it enough, but it was great when I made use of it.
Also, induction coil mics, because the world is wired and I want to hear it.
st3aLth
#5
I have never done this. But I know a guy whom everyone did not understand, and then he created the genre of music.
When Brian Eno decided to make a type of music without drums and without much of a structure,
people thought he was crazy and very few people followed him (in the beginning). But he stayed his
path instead of being influenced by what was popular, or even what his fans expected of him. Now he
is considered a master of ambient music (among many other talents he has developed). He created his
own niche and he is considered the best in the world at what he does. It is now too late to be the best
in the world at making ambient music, just like it’s too late to be the best at dubstep or rock.
bbb
#6
@st3aLth Not to side track but I believe he popularized it more than created it.
And I work in a warehouse and used to record a bunch of stuff randomly. I need to put batteries in my tascam and see what I have on it.
I hope I have it recorded but would grab again. I take our forklift and pick up our empty dumpster. Park it and let the vibrations from the forklift motor rattle the dumpster. I know I’ve recorded it before but we will see.
PS - I hate buying batteries.
Reminds me of some things, not field recordings, but field recording, esque.
We did short bits between the main songs on this album. This one, we just hit record, 2 of us with drum sticks and banged things all around the studio. Credits included “walls/desk/shelves”
This one I found an old mono tape player with a little silly mic and recorded myself.
7asid
#9
I just ordered a matched pair of LOM Usi Pros, excited to do some stereo field recording with them