Ok heres a photo of the first door I’ve recorded for THE DOORS project – I recorded it while I was in Ngawi on my seal recording mission. I had thought I would record all the doors in the house I rented but you could hear the sea too much with any doors downstairs or near the front of the house… So I recorded this bedroom door upstairs..
And heres the set of files following the folder structure and file naming convention which everyone who is part of the project will be getting an email to confirm very soon. That email will also have the ftp details, and I’ll upload this set of door recordings there too so feel free to download if you want something as a reference. Not that its a startlingly interesting door, quite the opposite. I discovered the reverb in the stairway was a bit ringy & nasty, so apart from the wide recording I actually did the recording from inside the bedroom, rather than in the hallway….
Despite the record wishlist (in the email coming to participants) you’ll note I didnt record lock or knocks, the former because it didn’t have one and the latter because I forgot! Nevermind… Primarily its the front door or back door people knock on, although if someone more reliable than me can record door knocks on eg bathroom door, and bedroom door it would be good!
Anyway, for any participants please comment here if we need to discuss anything re my email, so that we can share the “wisdom of crowds” and so I can avoid getting 147 emails for each comment or mistake! And yes the little metadata tutorial is coming!
Thanks everyone! Happy door recording!
ps the email has been sent – if you have confirmed your inclusion in this project as per previous emails and haven’t received it please get in touch!
ps As I will be listening to all 1,000+ doors as I check & compile the library
I will give away a special prize to the most memorable, characterful door!
The prize will be real (ie not a download! You’ll already be getting those
once the library starts selling) but I can say this: it will include something
uniquely from New Zealand…
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Hi Tim
All my thumbs up to your dedication on this. This project could open up so much more of the same. So thanks you!
I have one question:
As I have mailed your earlier, Im one of them who has some trouble with exterior noise from cars, people working with different machinery etc. Its faint, but its there. I have thought about how you go through the process of saying that this or that recording simply isnt good enough?
Could I send a sample, or what do we do?
Best wishes,
Mikkel
Hey everyone. Hope the recording is going well
I hope its not to late to bring this up but I hope we can get interior and exterior recordings of exterior doors. Cheers!
good point!
Also if it warrants it, do not feel limited by the Record List
eg if a door has uniquely wonderful creaks, record 20 of them instead of 5!
If we have INT and EXT recordings of the same exterior door, should we include them together in the same folder. I assume so, as it’s one folder per door, but the folder name will have to omit INT or EXT, right?
In that case include INT and EXT in the folder name
So we are not recording medium perspectives of the soft and medium open and closing? Only for the slams?
get all the coverage for each door that you think is necessary!
Any thoughts on recording ranchsliders? I’ve got a few quite cool ones including a 3-panel one. The soft/medium/slam lends itself to slow/medium/fast.
Definitely good to record some ranchslider doors – I have 2 in my studio that I’ll be doing…. true re slow, medium, fast – also vary stereo image eg apart from a static stereo image it would be good to do some panning with the door sliding, so its constant close perspective…
Am also hoping people do:
- garage doors
- cupboards
- shed doors
- office doors
- factory doors
Cool. I should be able to get a couple of good garage and shed doors too.
Got some side and rear doors from vintage airplanes, and vintage ambulance cars (Chevrolet, Mercedes). Could these go too?
I wasn’t thinking of including car doors (maybe thats DOORS VOLUME II?)
but what do others think?
I’ve started recording only to realize the project is closed for further participants… no real problem, I’ll use the recorded sounds somehow
.
Though I found out something very concerning about recording doors to close. When they are closed, they generate so big subsonic energy that distorts any of my mics easily (condensers). In larger spaces it is easier to find a good spot, where there is a good chance this shockwave will have some kind of null at the microphone position, but in small rooms there is no way of getting away, even several meters and around the corner doesn’t really work. I’m talking about doors that are quite air-tight when closed.
I tried it with my neumann km76s and cmv563 and um57 with the same result. Doorslams worked only on the corridor for me, not in the room.
Maybe try moving the mic to a different position? When slamming doors, I found that the gust of air generated by quickly closing some doors would cause distortion on the mic if it was pointed toward the opening. For me, it was the air, not the low end. Point the mic towards the center or even the hinge side of the door…? Your results may vary…
It isn’t the blow of the wind, but the all room resonance. It isn’t something you can stop with pop-filter or fluffy fabric, it is resonance not one-way flow of air.
So it doesn’t really matter if you have the mic close to door or 5m away, it is the same (=overload). Maybe opening a window could do it.
Strangely I’ve never had this problem with window…
How would opening a window help, if its got nothing to do with the wind?
does it happen with every door?
I havent used those mics but I haven’t had this problem with my Sanken CSS5 stereo shotgun mic
Well, even when I close the doors slowly. It is funny though, because I know these handle kickdrums and loud amps quite well, but not this pressure shockwave.
As I said, it wasn’t a problem on the corridor (much bigger space)…
It is like being in the bottle when someone hits the hole with open palm.
i think its even important that everyone record some door closings with the latch / handle pulled down and in normal position. (you know what i mean?)
its a total different sound, and both is important…
what do you think?
as above, “get all the coverage for each door that you think is necessary!”
and why exactly do you want the MS to be decoded to stereo?
i really prefer to have a M and a S signal, because often the M signal is the only thing i need.
it has less reverb in it than just the R or L from a decoded MS..
submit M/S then, just make sure it is clearly labelled as such
just looking for a quick confirmation. your image above shows separate files for close and wide perspectives, but sometime earlier you mentioned putting both in the same file (with wide following after close). i’ve already finished editing my files down using the latter idea. it won’t be too much trouble to split them out, but i’m lazy.
any preferences?
leave it as is….
Hi Tim,
I need a confirmation…..wide perspective only for hard slam?
sure
& as above, “get all the coverage for each door that you think is necessary!”
Hey Tim, do you have a way to get to ProTools to reliably export the sync point information or do you use another program to embed this?
Cheers
James
I’ve never had a need to embed a sync point in a file so sorry james but I’m not sure!
back in the day I knew a few people who cursed the move from Sound Tools to ProTools as you used to be able to embed playlist/region info in the files when you exported, which was handy/fast way of playlisting a CD for mastering…. but that was back when 1GB drives cost $9000 and 16MB seemed like a huge amount….
What’s your purpose? If you explain a bit more why you need to export sync point I could maybe help?
You can define the timecode timestamp based on either the file start, or a sync point within the file – would that help at all?
In the past with SFX of single door actions I’ve wished I could have an embedded sync point on eg. the Close, so it’s a little faster finding the frame and snapping it there. I can’t figure out how to get ProTools to export the clips with the sync point attached – maybe it cant..
..I just had some sounds turn up the other day in which ProTools recognized an embedded sync point.. curses!
J