Music of Sound

 

As I’ve mentioned a few times I recently added a Telinga flexible dish and universal mic mounting kit to my recording setup – the universal kit lets you use whatever mic you like, and I’ve added an MKH8020 with the MZF filter for this purpose…. So what’s it like? Well yesterday I went for a drive over the road from Upper Hutt to Waikanae, crossing the Akatawera range, with the hope of getting away from traffic, to do some test recording. It was only when I got over to the Kapiti side of the hills that the cicadas started to become less diffuse, so I found a place to stop where I could hear individual cicadas scattered through the bush and had a listen, as per the photo above….

Before you have a listen bear in mind that the first cicada I recorded would be approx 20m away from me, up a tree. It was completely still, there was no wind but there was plenty of other activity (birds, other insects) going on around me. The thing that first struck me was predictably the directionality of the dish – I know thats the whole point of it but its only when you’re holding it and slowly moving it that you realise just how narrow its beam is. I will shoot some video to demonstrate this at some stage (I didn’t have a second tripod with me yesterday to do this effectively) but basically the cicada you hear below was on mic, but if I changed the angle of the dish by 1-2mm it was off mic, to the point of being very distant. The localisation is unreal! The other aspect that struck me was just how close sound becomes – with my eyes closed it felt like I could just reach out & flick that cicada off the tree 20m away! Anyway have a listen, first at real speed, then half speed, then quarter speed…

I walked up the road a bit & recorded this cicada, which was further away and in a tree with other cicadas – so it is less isolated…

 

Next I headed in a valley following signs to the Kapiti 4×4 Adventure company to Maungakotuktuku Scenic Reserve. The road into this valley winds it way up the side of quite a large hill, with the bush dropping away off the side of road. So I figured this might be an interesting location to try, and it served to teach me a valuable lesson with the Telinga, which I already knew from my MKH70s but it bears repeating. Directional mics such as these basically compress distance and the have a very long depth of field (the opposite to a camera lens with shallow depth of field) so if you are aiming to record object A at a distance, then it is important what is in the same line of sight/hearing in a straight line from your mic to object A and beyond. So this next recording I was on a steep hillside pointing down into the immediate bush on the side of the road, aiming to record insects, but it also captured distant birds, a very distant dog and a very, very distant chainsaw. And when i saw very distant I’d guess the chainsaw was 10-20km away!

The effect of compressing distance is something to be aware of, as simply changing your location by a few metres and your angle of attack can eliminate unwanted background action to a degree… On a slight side tangent, another thing to always be aware of when using directional shotgun mics is their polar response pattern – a typical shotgun mic is below:

Note that a side effect of the front narrow directionality is the rear sensitivity. So for example if you are recording from above pointing down at an object and there are a lot of birds above you, then that rear lobe may well pick them up more than what you would like, and booming from under pointing up with the rear of the mic pointed at the ground may create better isolation. Same goes for recording in the city and trying to minimise traffic behind you. Heres the MKH70 polar pattern, but you should check what each of your mics polar response is so you know if its an issue you should be aware of….

The last recording I’ll post is a short bit of an insect I recorded & what blew me away was that when I took off my headphones I could not hear the insect at all! Its a short recording as a vehicle came past & the insect stopped & didn’t start again….. But it illustrates what a fascinating new microscopic world of sound that I’ve been given access to – I wish I bought a Telinga dish years ago! And re the PNG trip, I’m used to hearing most insects in New Zealand, I just hope I don’t have any panic attacks when in PNG and hear very strange insects via the dish like they are inside my head!

 

Ok, pending the Kickstarter project that sends Frank and Michael and I to Russia to record this madness, I’d have to say that THIS is the most worthy Kickstarter project yet – if you are American, have a heart & love film that is!

I’ve ranted about the experience of working on sound design for the film BOY before and apart from it being a beautiful, funny, emotionally engaging film one additional aspect that makes the kickstarter project worth supporting is that the film was shot on 35mm film, AND graded on film, AND neg matched and output to film. It seems almost by default now that films get a DI and digital grade, but as any DOP will readily admit, film is not digital and vice versa. So if you live in the U.S of A this is your chance to see a beautiful film, on film, in a picture theatre…. Support BOY!

1. What?
I’m off on Wednesday for a field trip for ten days or so….

 

 

2. Why?
To collect ambiences & sound effects for the film Mr Pip directed and adapted by Andrew Adamson from the award winning novel by Lloyd Jones and starring Hugh Laurie

 

 

 

3. Where?
The ultimate destination is a village called Pidia, which is where the film is set and most of it was filmed. Pidia is on the island of Bougainville, up in the Solomon Islands. Here is a description of getting there:

- Fly Wellington to Brisbane: 3 hours 7min
- Fly Brisbane to Port Moresby: 2 hours 36min
- Fly Port Moresby to Buka Island: 1 hour 40min
- Boat trip across to Bouganville Island: 10min
- 4WD trek to Arawa: 4-5 hours with 11 river crossings (!)
- Boat trip to Pidia: 30min

We’ll be staying in the town of Arawa most of the time (which has power for charging batteries) but I will be spending at least 3 days/2 nights in Pidia Village with no access to power, hence all the batteries in my gear list below…

 

 

 

 

4. How?

On every major field trip my field recording setup has evolved, and as this trip is more difficult and more remote than any previous trips, I am very thankful for the experience I gained from my two trips last year to Samoa, when working on THE ORATOR. I evolved my record kit a lot, especially on the second trip, removing things that were unnecessary & reducing my excess baggage charges to a mere NZ$25.

For this trip I have managed to evolve my microphone collection significantly, although I have also had to strategise packing a little differently, as the flight from Port Moresby to Buka Island is on a small plane where the carry on baggage is far more restrictive in size than a normal international flight. Accordingly I will have to check both my hard suitcase (with the big mics & stands in it) as well as check my LowePro PhotoTrekker AWII backpack and will take a smaller backpack with the breakable essentials (recorders, cameras, laptop, drives, essential mics.) Th carry on bag is also my mission critical gear – if all my checked baggage was lost I could still function… plus I need to record ambiences in both the planes and in an Australian airport for the film…. I’ve also been doing a bunch of things to make life easier

 

 

Tim’s Field Kit v3

mics: 5.0 + Telinga

Same backpack + mic bag as Samoa (checked in a hard case)

 

 

 

There will be rain (but it won’t be cold!)

 

 

Gear List:

Recorders+Preamp:
- Sound Devices 744
- Sound Devices 722
- Sound Devices 302
- Zoom H2 + Rycote

Mics:
- Sennheiser MKH8040 x2
- Sennheiser MKH8050
- Sennheiser MKH8020 with MZF Filter
- Sennheiser MKH70 x2
- DPA 4060 x2

Stands/rigs:
- Rycote + Wind Protection x5
- Telinga Dish + Universal Mount
- Slik camera tripod

Cables:
- 8m mic cable x3
- 5m mic cable x6
- 3m mic cable x3

Headphones:
- Sennheiser HD25 MkII
- Sennheiser PX200 MkII

Batteries:
- F960 6000mAh x 10
- F960 Chargers x 4
- AA x50

Cameras:
- Canon 7D with 10-22mm and 60-200mm lens
- Canon s95

Rain cover:
- Travel umbrella x2
- Hat umbrella x1
- Petrol Rain Poncho x1
- 15″ Fotosharp rain cover x3
- 30″ Fotosharp rain cover x2
- Rain cover ex Kathmandu for mic/stand bag
- LowePro PhotoTrekker AWII has rain cover built into the base
- Pelican desiccant silica gel packs x2

Backup:
- Laptop + PT10 ilok
- 3 x 250GB drives

Random stuff:
- iPod Touch
- Sun Protection
- Anti Mosquito spray
- Anti-Maleria pills
- LED Torches: head lamp & lamps built into recorder bag
- Water bottles

Books:
- A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
- Ghost Written by David Mitchell

 

5. How with what?
Tomorrow I’m going to head out & do a test recording with the full rig, so I’ll write a seperate blog post about how and why I’ve made the mic choices I have, plus I’ll post a copy of a ProTools sessions with some of the recordings for you to have a listen. The Telinga with the 8020 in it has particularly fascinating potential; the combination of focus & isolation of the dish with the extended frequency response of the 8020 should make for some unreal insect recording in PNG! The cicadas and crickets in NZ are singing on a sunny day, so presuming tomorrows forecast is right I should have some tests with it for you to check out too…

 

6. Meanwhile…

Apparently internet access is dial-up speed (remember that?) at best in Arawa, so I won’t be blogging much at all until I get back. In my absence, rather than total blog silence I wondered if you are up for a challenge? I had an idea about creating a set of FIELD RECORDING TIPS – no matter your experience, field recording is an endless learning curve & some of the best field recording tips are often simple ones – things that you may not have otherwise have thought about until you are in a certain situation. A simple example; the best field recording tip I have read recently was in issue 335 (January 2012) of THE WIRE & was written by Chris Watson, where he eloquently describes setting up his mics and then sealing his recorder in a waterproof bag, “leaving my equipment to the mercy of the ever-present mosquitos, leeches and inquisitive macaques. I retreat back down the trail for fresh mango and coffee and anticipate rewinding the results…”

So I’ll make a section for tips about recording in adverse conditions such as this – nothing ruins a beautiful field recording like the slap of the recordist fighting off maleria-carrying mosquitos!! But the same goes for weather, and of course, personal safety must always be at the top of that list… I’ll structure the tips as a timeline, since all field recording requires preparation of days & often weeks, so any tips you want to contribute can be tagged to the timeline… I know I often remember gems of ideas when I am not in front of a computer so hopefully it is a post you might contribute to while I am away…

 

 

Lastly a few beautiful glimpses of Papua New Guinea:

 

 

 

 

 

> it’s easy to confuse “work” and “labor”

 

> David Dunn: “All of the sound we hear is only a fraction of all the vibrating going on in our universe” including the water beetles of Pollardstown Fen

 

> if this then that

 

 

> How large is an atom of music? (David Gleasons comments are interesting)

 

> Give your listeners some place to go

 

 

> sound art from 1969?

 

 

Sorry for the lack of posts, but this is very likely my modus operandi for the first 8 months of 2012…. Two very good, very creatively demanding films back-to-back equates to not a lot of free time to indulge too many of my other projects… And prioritizing means the films take first priority ALWAYS, HISSandaROAR gets first dibs on ‘free’ time (Tortured Cymbal Library release next week, hopefully!) while one of my 2012 new year resolutions is to release a DUB45 every month (first one for 2012 is very near ready for mastering) and that takes second priority… Then its a dead heat for about a dozen projects for third place, so this post is one of them: some recordings I made last week when the gale force northerly winds that we love & loathe here in Wellington visited for about 16 hours!

Maybe its because I grew up on a farm, but I always check the weather forecast, every morning. I have a distinct childhood memory of my Dad tapping the barometer in the hall (the rhythm of the taps, the reverb, the light in the hall..) so he could know what to plan for work tomorrow when his barometer predictions came true… I autotap a tab in my browser & get similar results, so I knew this Northerly was due & would be literally Gale Force, but I didn’t really plan to record it…. until I heard the roof blow off the warehouse next door….

 

 

Of course I’m being overly dramatic – the entire roof didn’t blow off the warehouse. I was working away in my studio & could hear the wind howling outside, but slowly became aware of a synchronous beating every time there was a big gust. And some of these gusts were over 130kmph = white knuckles if, god/jah/buddha forbid you happen to be in a plane landing at the time… The beating kept getting louder until I had to go investigate & in the big warehouse next door used by FUSE CIRCUS it soon became apparent that three sheets of clear corruguated roofing had broken loose & sooner or later were going to break completely free… Back to the studio, grab my brand new pair of MKH8040 mics and my trusty pair of MKH70s, cable them to my 744 & hit record…. These are the first sounds I recorded with the 8040s – what a way to christen them!!!

 

 

I love recording multiple perspectives – nothing beats standing listening to some action and acoustically jumping backwards & forwards by 20 metres, at the flick of a monitoring switch! Despite all the soothsaying about the MKH80X0 mics having sub frequency overload issues this was a great test, as the pressure vectors of the huge wind gusts hitting the building & broken roof were a good test. Similarly taking the 8040s in their new tiny Rycotes outdoors later that night proved how amazingly stable they actually are, when tucked amongst the shelter of bushes & shrubs that are taking a beating from these winds…

But before you listen, imagine an alternate reality: look at the waveform of this first phrase & instead of 130kmph northerly gusts, imagine the source of these sounds are a large group of taiko drummers standing on the roof next door, quietly waiting for their cue…

 

 

Gale Force Wind INT Warehouse 01 by timprebble

 

Gale Force Wind INT Warehouse 02 by timprebble

 

And yes, the best parts of the 2+ hours I recorded in quad will be going into a HISSandaROAR library at some stage, along with some wicked wind in wires I recorded late that night, and ungodly shrieks I recorded even later in a deserted boatyard…. The energy involved in creating these sounds is unimaginable in human scale and people joke about the wind in Wellington but if you live here its a bit like a monster occasionally visits… a monster capable of pulling the roof off!

And its not every day you get to record sounds such as these, but despite them being inanimate objects I figure my new mics just knew they had found their new home, when this was the first sounds they got to listen to…

UPDATE: Apparently winds in the Wairarapa (over the hill from Wellington) hit 159kmh last night!!