Field recording NY 2011 video

The first beach is Karamea, up the top of the West Coast of the South Island, near where the Heaphy Track starts. The second beach is by Granity (love the sound of the stones being dragged out by the outgoing wave) and the blowholes are Punakaiki. And a little explanation of the Sudden Sound at the end: the big inlet in the previous shot, known as the Devils Basin, has blowholes that go hundreds of metres up through the rock and exit through vents like the one in the flax by that sign. When you’re standing by that vent you can hear the distant wave crash followed by a huge rush of air being forced out through the vent. I couldn’t video the actual surges as I was using a boom with the CSS5 but its a fearsome sound!

15 Responses to Field recording NY 2011 video

Connor Walsh says:

January 9, 2011 at 9:56 pm

Very jealous here in Northern Hemisphere winter… anyway, to the point: the first place I heard that gravelly backwash sound was on Makara beach, not terribly far from Wellington. I was only there once but I’m told it’s regularly as blowy as that day, so it may be a handy enough spot – just for that particular sound, and some whistling wires as I remember it – for people based in Wellie! Certainly hardly any people, traffic or aircraft when I went there.

thomas m says:

January 10, 2011 at 1:58 am

I’ve never heard a beach (Granity) like that through microphones, sounds amazing.

Michael Raphael says:

January 10, 2011 at 5:11 am

Hey Tim,

Did you shoot that Video with the s95? Looks great.

Also, when I first read the subject in my RSS reader, I thought you had done some field recording in New York. Hah!

Beautiful stuff. Love the sound of the stones.

tim says:

January 10, 2011 at 7:10 am

yes it was shot on the Canon s95 – handheld although I have one of these to help:
http://store.zacuto.com/Point-n-Shoot-Pro.html

(i wish the s95 didnt auto-iris)

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Enos says:

January 10, 2011 at 9:04 am

Can’t you just slightly unscrew the lens from the camera body so it doesn’t get controlled by the camera and stays fixed? I know with the 5D and 7D people have got around automatic apertures by slightly unlocking the lens from the camera…all works fine but the iris stays open! Might work on the S95 too!

tim says:

January 10, 2011 at 9:09 am

the s95 is a little point & shoot camera – the lens is not detachable

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Enos says:

January 10, 2011 at 1:17 pm

Haha! Ok! Should have maybe checked out the model before posting :p

By the way, I’m looking to get a pair of lightweight stands for my field rig. I remember you posting (and can see from the pics) that you are using light stands which tend to be lighter than standard mic stands, right? Could I ask what kind of adaptor or such you have to screw the mics on?

tim says:

January 10, 2011 at 2:53 pm

hey Enos
they are Manfrotto lighting stands, the model is 5001B Nano – this one:

http://www.manfrotto.com/product/8373.16112.76935.0.0/5001B/_/NANO_BLACK_STAND

they didnt need any adaptor – the thread was right size for the rycote handles

I actually ordered a third one on friday, as I only had two so was using a normal small mic stand for the Sanken mic, but got very sick of it – it weighed more than the two Manfrotto stands combined!

thanks & kudos to Nathan at Noise Jockey re the stands, read more about them here:

http://www.noisejockey.net/blog/2009/07/07/lightweight-mic-stands-in-the-field/

they can actually go very high as well = 1.9m according to the specs!

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- max says:
  
  January 15, 2011 at 9:34 am
  
  Wow, the manfrotto stands really ARE amazing. I just bought two of those! Saw them in your pictures and wanted to ask but Enos had already done that for me… especially when they are set up and you lift them up it’s amazing how light they are!!
  
  Reply

Enos says:

January 10, 2011 at 3:06 pm

Thanks a lot Tim! I’ll order a pair this week then! 1KG sounds VERY light!

tim says:

January 10, 2011 at 3:12 pm

They are light & very stable too – I had my 816 & 70 on them quite high up in bush eg over 6 ft off the ground , and they seemed secure…. in a studio you could always sandbag them too i guess…

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Enos says:

January 10, 2011 at 3:37 pm

Sounds good! So far microphone stands are the heaviest and clumsiest part of my rig so will be good to lighten it up! Thanks again Tim! Just got back home from Spain (spending Christmas with family) and downloaded the Contact Mic stuff! Thanks for that too and happy New Year!