This post is about the recent field recording session I had that will form supporting research part of my Honours Project. I will go into the planning behind it as well as the overall outcome as of now. This is my first time recording a vehicle for a field recording session so I might not be as well versed as others, but this blog is about my personal development and I will hopefully be able to compare the results with others I do in the future to show my skill progression.
The gear in the back of the car during the scouting of location 1
The field recording session in question involved me recording the family car. I chose this vehicle to record as it is the one I drive, I had easy access to it and it has over 100k miles so it definitely makes a few interesting noises. I wanted to record the engine as well as general Foley (doors and buttons etc). Issues quickly started to arise as the planning will show. Here is what I generally planned before undertaking the recording session.
Goals of the library:
To have useable and useful sounds recorded and made available for use in video games and other media
Loops of engine sounds, passbys, all kinds of foley (doors, buttons etc)
Recordings available in 16Bit 48kHz and recorded in 24Bit 96kHz
What I need:
Budget – Up to me
Time – Before April
Location - empty and open space
Equipment - Shotgun mic, field recorder, stands and cables etc
I knew that I wanted the sounds to be made available in a library from the beginning and that the recordings would need to be of a certain quality. As well as this, I wanted the recordings to be useful for video game use so loops would be needed too. The sounds will be made available in a library available for free soon on my website if you would like to hear and use them, they are for education purposes after all.
Going through the things I needed to organise before the recording took place, the budget was up to me. Since I had to scout locations and travel to collect equipment, there definitely were costs involved that I had not completely factored in but where essential to the overall success - lesson learned! I had to push back the deadline I had set for myself due to government restrictions, but as soon as I could get access to equipment and travel I did.
Location was a big issue to overcome which I want to focus on. Finding the ideal and perfect location for field recording is a big part of the guide I am writing. To find areas that were open and suitable for recording a vehicle I initially looked on Google Maps and used street view to find some areas that looked suitable. I found two main locations that appeared ideal but turned out not to be once I made the crucial step of actually scouting the area in person.
Location 1
The first location was a quiet road where I live that is far away from main roads and is fairly open. From what I could see on google maps, the area seemed fairly good for what I needed and from my own knowledge the only problems I might run into would be dog walkers or the occasional plane from the nearby airport. The issues became apparent once I went there in person to scout the location. Immediately I realised the area would not be as quiet as I had hoped as the surrounding trees did have a lot of birdsong emanating from them. This would be great if I were wanting to record that, something I'll keep in mind for the future.
Location 1 and the family car.
Location 2
The second location I looked at on google maps was an old unused airfield about a fifteen minute drive away from where the first location. At the airfield sat a museum that is currently closed due to government restrictions. It looked ideal to use for the field recordings as it was open, far away from traffic and if I could not use the airfield roads then the access roads would be ideal too. I thought I had found the perfect location, somewhere I could do this recording at as well as many others potentially. I thought that perhaps this could be my perfect and secret location that I know other field recordists love to find. However, issues again arose once I got there to scout the location in person. Firstly, a nearby housing estate that is by the old airfield had obviously grown significantly in size since the last google maps pictures were taken. Plus, it was still growing in size, meaning that in the day there could be construction noise constantly in the background.
An ever bigger issue with the location came once I got to where the museum access roads started. They were gated off, big signs saying the roads could not be accessed by the public. I did not lose hope and decided to get into contact with both the museum and the company who owned the housing estate to see if there was any way I could get access myself. Unfortunately my efforts were to no avail, meaning that until the museum reopens, this seemingly ideal recording location is not meant to be.
The museum with a Vulcan bomber aircraft on display.
The car, parked in front of the gates and next to the construction site.
Obviously, this caused issues or threw a spanner in the works as some might say. Since I had booked out equipment by the time I was scouting the locations I only had a couple days to do the recordings before the equipment had to go back. I did not want to have this venture and equipment booking go to waste but I could have rearranged to another time, letting me find more potential locations. I made the decision to use location 1 as the area I would record but to rectify the issue of birdsong I would go at night (creepy I know). I could also avoid the overhead plane sounds by checking flights with a real-time flight map to choose when would be best to record.
Once I had made this decision, I made preparations for the actual session. I made an equipment checklist as well as a shot or sound list. These helped organise the session and made sure I did not forget anything in particular.
Equipment list
Mic and blimp - Rode NTG1
H6 Field recorder - check recording quality
2 long XLR cables
Extra batteries
SD card - check the format
Stand
Tape
Headphones
Car
Umbrella
Biscuits
Sounds to record
In car Foley
Doors
Boot/Trunk
Engine on
Handbrake
Outside
Passbys - slow/fast
In car
Revs, gear changes
The actual recording session
One the day, I drove out to the first location in the dark with all my equipment ready. This is where the big unforeseen issue came. The road I wanted to use suddenly had a locked gate blocking my access, something I had not seen in the daytime, plus I had checked for private land signs and made sure that the actual road was a public road. I then had to find another location quick on the spot, I pulled up my phone and remembered another location I knew about that, in the day, had people using it for taking their dogs walking, but was unlit and should therefore not have anyone on it at night. I took the car to that location and sure enough it was quiet with no traffic or people around.
Now that I had found another location, I set up my equipment in the car, did tests to find the right levels and then recorded the in car sounds, going through the list one by one. Then, I set up the equipment outside of the car to get the rest of the recordings. Whilst it was not completely smooth road that I had hoped for, it still granted some good passbys that I believe are useful. The recording session therefore was finally successful.
One funny note to make is that once I had finished the recordings I started to pick up the gear and put it away in the car. As I did so, the wind picked up and I saw a car coming down the quiet road. Whilst I was spooked to see another car on such a quiet road at night, they must have been equally as spooked to see me hurriedly putting things back into my car as they drove past.
Outcome
What went well:
Got the main recordings I wanted to
Found a good location very last minute
Managed to not lose anything in the dark
No interruptions throughout
What did not go well:
Planning/scouting locations was not thorough enough
Was far more difficult to record at night
Road was not entirely suitable
Use of extra mics might make the library more useful
Lessons learned:
Scout all locations until you find a suitable one
Make sure to have a backup location
Have a good knowledge of the general area you are recording in
Try to do recordings in the daytime
Be prepared to think on the spot to change plans
Thanks for having a read through this post. Let me know if you have any questions, tips or tricks for field recordings, I'm happy to help and to learn.
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