Indoor Location Recording

For the indoor recording we decided to do a Travis Barker interview. We recorded both with and without windshield in a small enclosed music practise room – D404, and an open corridor with a staircase in D1.

            For the first recording in D404, we did not use the windshield. There was no major background noise, the closest to background noise we had was movement of our feet or hands, which wasn’t very clear in the recording however still noticeable with it’s low frequency. The dialogue of the interview was very clear, however sounding dull with no echo due to the small enclosed room we were in. The only noticeable obtrusive noise in this recording was the removal of the windshield at the beginning of the recording.

            In the second recording, we used the windshield. There was very slight background noise of a nearby class in the middle of the recording, this noise isn’t entirely audible but still noticeable in a brief pause of the dialogue. The windshield made very little difference to the recording as there was no wind or major background noise to withstand, however noticeably the windshield did make the recording sound slightly more muffled than the recording without the windshield.

            After recording these, we tried another area – a corridor in D1 which gained the interview an echo, and made the dialogue seem to increase in frequency. In the first recording of this new area without a windshield, there was interference of a door opening which was subtle in the background, and a man walking down the staircase which became gradually louder as he came nearer the ZOOM H2 recording device, and quietened as he left the corridor. During these interferences the dialogue of the interview became slightly muffled behind these new noises. The second recording, with a windshield, the windshield drowned out the background noises as another door opened loudly with a higher frequency in comparison with the dialogue. There was also movement of our feet which echoed in the corridor but was muffled by the windshield, making the dialogue more prominent.

            The headphones used for the recording to monitor any interfering noises were useful as we were able to pick up on if there was any echo in the rooms we tried, what background noises there were and how it affected the recoding, and to decide before recording where the most suitable area in our locations for gaining different audible aspects would be.

            To conclude, the ZOOM H2 recording device picked up on different background noises of different clarity and frequencies throughout the recordings able to affect the clarity of the dialogue in the interview, the small enclosed area proved to be the best for clarity of dialogue as it had little to no space for audible echo. Whereas the more open area in the corridor proved to be more difficult to record clarity as there was more interference with a range of frequencies, often greatly affecting the recording dialogue. The windshield helped to counter the interferences as it muffled the background noise, making the dialogue more prominent in our recording.

Location Recording Analysis

For our location recordings we used the ZOOM H2 recording devices, these were very effective as they have a good radius for recording and produce high quality sound capturing. 

            We went to various different locations but unfortunately during rendering some of our recordings were lost, we were left with two recordings to upload and analyse.

            The first location we recorded at was a grass patch on the Deanfield site, a man was using a leaf blower, we used this for our loudest area recording.

            The main sound captured was the leaf blower, with a loud noise and prominent clarity. However in the background you could faintly make out the noise of wind with an average/equal frequency, and at the start of the first recording there is a very brief moment of a person talking, this stands out quite noticeably at the beginning as it is very clear to the microphone's recording.

            The second location we recorded was next to a fairly busy road at the Deanfield site, the most noticeable sounds are the people having a conversation within the recording and the passing by cars. The talking isn't very clear to the recording compared to the passing by cars, this is because they were to the left of the microphone, the microphone was pointed towards the road. As the cars pass by they have a fairly low frequency, and in the background of this recording you can hear faint sounds of things being loaded into vehicles, bags rustling, birds, wind blowing trees and people walking, these all noticeably had low frequencies except for the birds which had very little clarity but a reasonably high frequency.

            Throughout both recordings there was additional, unexpected sounds. The most noticeable of these would be the very far away sounds that were picked up such as footsteps, and the feedback from simply moving the ZOOM H2 recorder slightly.

            Background noise that was most obtrusive to any dialogue in our recordings would be the wind levels and passing by cars, these tended to drown out most of the dialogue in the recordings for a brief moment of time or quieten the volume of the dialogue, the dynamics of the dialogue.

            We noticed that as something is further away from the ZOOM H2 recording device, it will usually have a lower frequency and not be as clear to the recording as audible things that are closer to the device. For example, a car driving in the distance would be faintly heard on the recording in comparison to people speaking next to the device. We were also given headphones to use for our recordings to be able to monitor sound closely without interference, to be able to focus on what we were picking up on the recording devices, these were greatly efficient as it allowed us to judge where the best locations for recording different levels of sound would be, such as by a road, in a library or near the town centre.

            One of our lost recordings during rendering was our quietest location recording, the library. We stood in the library briefly for around a minute and recorded what was happening in our surroundings. From memory, we heard typing on the computers which was the most noticeable thing in the recording with absolute clarity and a low frequency, then secondly the footsteps as people walked about the library, which had good clarity especially as they walked in front of the recording device, and they also had a low frequency.

            Another lost location recording was in the a hallway outside a classroom, this was our 'middle sound level' recording. The device picked up the occasional sound from the classroom such as a lecturer speaking to the class or a student talking and people walking in the hallway which got from quiet, to loud and quiet again as they walked past the recording device. The sounds in this recording tended to be faint with the occasional loud sound (passers by), with a slight echo in the narrow hallway as sound was created. Most of the sounds in this recording had a low-mid frequency.

            A thing we noticed with sounds recorded indoor and outdoor was that with indoor recordings, more is picked up on the device as there is less space for sound to travel, it can bounce off walls and remain in a certain area, making it more audible to the device. Whereas sound outdoor isn't picked up so accurately, sound can go off in every direction and some of it is likely to be lost. With sound recordings outdoor you have the threat of wind more than you do indoor, this is easily taken care of with a wind-shield that is placed around the microphone, however it is still a problem that is more obstructive than indoor sound. Indoor sounds tend to be more audible, clearer to the device as there isn't as much space for the sound to travel.

            An improvement to the ZOOM H2 recording device I would make for a more professional set-up would be to add a feature that can raise or lower the levels of background noise to make for more focused audio, for example if I wanted to focus on the conversation of people next to a road, wanted to keep the sound of cars in the background but decided they were too loud, I'd use this feature to lower the dynamics of the background noise (the cars).

Simulated Acoustics

Simulated Acoustics

    Effects units

·         Reverberation –  An echo-like effect

·         Distortion – A distorted sound, sounding more grungy

·         Delay – A slightly timed delay of a note played

·         Wah-Wah – A funk/rock effect, often used to make notes sound unique to it’s accompaniment 

·         Echo – Similar to delay, sounding ‘spaced’, playing back what you have played fading in volume.

·         Overdrive – similar to distortion, giving sound more gain

·         Chorus – often used with keyboards, synthesizers and guitars, it’s used to give a more ‘swirling’ effect to notes.

·         Phaser - creates a sweeping effect by modulating a narrow notch signal filter.

·         Pitch shift – An effect that changes the pitch of a note played

References:

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213629,00.html