How can YOUR acoustic environment affect YOUR recorded sound?
Whether you are indoors or outdoors your acoustic environment could affect the sound you are recording, how is this possible you may be asking yourself but continue to read and you will soon find out.
When recording your sound inside, you may find that the area you are using produces echoes, this is because of reflective surfaces, and this causes the sound to bounce around uncontrollably, allowing the sound to become louder or echo. Studios are used so that when recordings are taking place all sound is kept in between the walls and the echoes do not occur. Studio acoustics allow fine tuning sound quality to take place, the settings require strategic placement so that the sound may be absorbed to control effects such as reverb and diffusion, and the acoustic materials that are used in the enclosed space are usually fibreglass and cotton. When music is being recorded live, instead of using a studio they will use a live room, this is acoustically absorbent and partly reflective, which allows a varied sound, it is particularly suited to record instruments such as drums. A room with a lot of sound absorbing is called a dead room this has a high frequency, and no reverberation.
Indoor acoustics
The principles of sound and acoustics;
Sound and acoustics have many principles, such as all properties have some sort of acoustic material inside them, which is likely to absorb, reflect, or transmit the sound. Acoustic material is designed for the purpose of absorbing sound. The studying of sound can be divided into three section, production; transmission; reception. All of these principles are needed to allow sound to occur. Acoustic principles are now used a lot in concert halls and auditoriums.
Studio-based acoustics;
When using a studio base to record the acoustics are clear, this is because the surroundings have a low frequency and are designed to block out surroundings sounds that are not in the studio. Recording in a studio is the opposite to recording in a location such as a hall, when recording it is said that the studio would be ‘dead’ as no other sounds can come in contact with the recording system other than the sounds purposely made within the studio.
live room; insitu.recording;
The live rooms or insitu recording have a minimum use of sound absorbing material, live rooms have usual surroundings of stone or wood. By using a live room you achieve a more intimate sound,
Surface types and properties
Many different surface types have different reflective and absorbative properties, for example carpet is greatly absorbant when it comes to sound proofing. Alternatively a very reflective surface for sound proofing would be plastic.
Reverberation
Reverberation is similar to echo in the sense that it
re-creates an echo of sound that sounds like a ‘humming’ tone of the just played note(s). It is often found in modern day music such as Rock and Electro; it is the most commonly used sound effect in music.
Sound Proofing
Soundproofing is used to keep sound encased. It is often used in recording studios and cinemas as a means of keeping the ouside area quieter. Common materials used for soundproofing a room are
Screening
Acoustic screening allows the sound to be reduced, during the working process and with enviromental facilities, usually built using a large steel construction with an acoustic panel infill. The materials used for screening have to be: heavy, flexible, portable and robust.
Outdoor Acoustics.
Sound bites
This is a short sound clip of speech or music, taken from a larger piece of audio, a sound bite usually lasts between 15-30 seconds, sound bites where
introduced in the 1930’s.
Background atmosphere
when creating the sounds you want minimal background atmosphere, this is the background sound that you have behind the audio or soundtrack, by using a controled room you can control the amount of
background sound that is then on the track, you can also get rid of it.
Unwanted noise
The unwanted noise is the noise behind the track which can be hiden by editing the sound on software such as cubase or reason, if recording outside the level of background noise will be higher as there will be more unwaited noise such as cars or wind. Editing in the studio is the main way to get rid of these sounds or you can use the wind shield on the microphone.
Unwanted ambience
During recording outside the likeliness of having abient sounds such as birds or cars is very likey, to make sure that there is only a small amount of ambient sounding you must use the microphone wind shield when recording this makes these sound quiter and harder for the audience to hear on the recording.
Wind noise
When recording with a microphone the use of the wind shield is very important if the wind is high, this is because without the shield you will have the sound of wind in the back of the audio sound track, most mkicrophones for this are called boom mics.
Simulated acoustics.
Effects units.
Many different effects can be used when creating music such as:
Distortion, Which creates a warm, fuzzy , dirty sounds by compressing aand adding overtones.
Delay, Which records an input signal to an audio storagemedium and then plays it back after a period of time.
Wah-Wah, this is produced by closing and opening the bell of an insturment such as the trombone, or trumpet.
Reverberation, this is produced when a sound is created in an enclosed space using a large number of echoes built up and then slowely decay.
Echo, Repetition of the sound by reflection of soundwaves from an acoustic surface.
Phaser, this is an electronic sound processor, it creates a sweeping effect.
compression and limiting
These are the automatic volume controls, by changing the signal volume, you will be making the levels more even. As the process is turned down, there becomes peaks in the signal, the overall level is raised to maximise the dynamic range.
computer-based software
This is the software that is used on the computers so that editing of sound and video can take place, there are many different programmes and software that can be used, the most popular programmes to use are Cubase and Reason.
surround sound
This is a technique by sound reproduction and audio channels, by using additional and discrete speakers. Surround sound is created by a listening location where the audio works best, and creates a forward perspective in the sound field.
Mono
This means one sound, so it could mean one speaker or one source of sound.
Stereo
This means using two or more audio channels and two or more loudspeakers, creating an effect that makes the sound heard from several different directions.
Multi-channel
This is the effect of things such as the stereophonic sound and surrounds sound, as well as ambisonics which is a series of live recordings using a mixing technology, this can also be used in the studio.
A phase
This is an electronic sound processor that creates a sweeping effect by modulating a narrow notch signal filter.
Pitch
This is the ordering of sounds related on a frequency scale, you can have a high pitch and a low pitch, high pitch means very rapid sound and low pitch means a slower sound.
Delay
This is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time.
Indirect recording
This is when a soundtrack is recorded through a microphone but not directly onto a computer software system, the sound is recorded onto a system such as the H2 zoom, this is then connected to the computer via USB port and the sound is then copied onto the system, it is then edited on a system such as Cubase.
Outdoor recording
Outdoor recording
Recording one
Our first recording was produced in the town centre of Henley-on-Thames, the area was very busy with cars and other vehicles and therefore made the perfect spot to record the sound of a moving vehicle, we were surrounded by several different roads which made the car sound even louder.
Although we were in an enclosed area and were surrounded by different roads full of vehicles, their where still some people around, the sound of the vehicles are the high frequency sounds however there are many background sounds of people talking and movement for example walking, however the car sounds were quite load and therefore made a loader sound than of the people passing us.
The difference between the sounds that are far away and the noise’s that are up close are that, the ones that are close which in this case are the cars are loader and clearer to hear whereas the further away sounds or background sounds are very faint and are not as easy to hear, the background sound is quieter as it is not the sound that we have mainly focused on.
The background sounds that are more intrusive are the sounds of the people, this is because the sound of the voice was picked up by the microphone as the people were speaking louder because of the passing cars, other sounds did pick up clearly on the microphone however where not as intrusive as the voice of the passing people.
The H2 picked up many different sounds including wind, which was not as strong as we used the wind protector because we knew the task was set mainly outside, no mechanical sound was picked up on this recording as we were close to the object.
We recorded the sound of the car in several place and then merged them together however by doing this there was a risk of different sounds for example if the area we had moved to from before had more of an echo, in some cases this did occur but the sound difference was very dear and hardly noticeable, the only slight adjustment that would have to be made is the background noise being louder in certain areas.
The headphones came in very useful during this recording as when we could hear the sound of passing people or echo’s from certain angles we could pause the H2 and move to a more suitable are. We could monitor the sound without interference and in this case it was very useful.
Recording two
Our second recording was taken near a building site in Henley-on-Thames, we recorded the sound of someone banging a nail into some wood, this noise was very load and therefore we got a clear and listenable sound with a small amount of background noise.
On this recording there was minimal background sound, however there was a small amount of talking from the builders that were working on the site, this however was very quiet and you could only here if the recording was played at a very loud tone. In this case the banging had a high frequency.
The difference between the close sound and the background sound is that the close sound is very clear whereas the background sound is very muffled and hard to make out what it is, both close sounds and the background sound have a high frequency and stand out if listened to carefully, otherwise the main sound is the close sound.
The background sound that was most intrusive on this recording was the talking of the builders, however this was very faint and hard to hear, so was only a little intrusive and would only be heard if the recording was played at a loud level.
During the recording of this sound the wind was louder than in other recording’s this meant that the sound was less clear and many could struggle with to hear some of it due to the strong winds that occurred during the recording. There was also a small clicking sound coming from the H2 during this recording.
For this recording we stayed in the same area and with minimal movement throughout the process, by doing this it meant that the sound was the same; in this case there was no sound difference throughout the recording.
During this recording we did not use the headphones as the only background noise that would have occurred was the talking builders, therefore we thought of it as unnecessary to use the headphone gear.
Recording three
Our third sound was the wind against the railings, for this one we went up to the bus section by Henley collage and put the microphone up close to the railings. There was many people around and cars going past so the railing sound is unclear in certain patches.
In this recording the background sound was very clear, the background sound consisted of people talking and cars going past, although the sound of the cars did make the sound of the rattling railing louder, the background sound is faint in some places and sometimes gets louder depending on the activity occurring.
The H2 was placed right next to the railings to make this sound seem louder and all background noise was the same distance away, the sounds that were closer in this case the railings where a lot louder and clearer and the sounds that were further away for example the speech was faint but could still be heard, just not as clear as the main sound.
During the process of this recording the wind was very loud and was caught clearly on the recorder, the wind helped create the rattling sound of the metal bars, so in this case wind was necessary for the sound.
During the recording of this sound we were not near any buildings so the sound was unable to change, however the sound did change depending on whether someone was walking past the railings, a car was passing or the strength of the wind died down and became quieter.
During this recording we did use headphones, it helped us to monitor when the recording needed to be paused and when the wind or sound of the cars and people became too strong.
Improvements
If I was to produce recordings like this for a high class company by using a H2 I would firstly use a stand for my H2 by doing this there would be less movement and therefore less of a windy sound, I would also use a thicker wind shield because the one we were currently using was not thick enough to protect the sounds from the strong winds, I would also use a preamp by doing this I would be able to control the sounds that the H2 was picking up.
Another thing that I would commence would be to stand further away from the microphone so that sounds such as hearing were not caught during the recording process; I would also clear the area so that the background was minimal and very faint. I would make sure in future that the recordings that I make are longer so that not only will I be able to discover what the recording is of, I would also be able to adjust and fix the recording with edits if it happened to go wrong therefore I would not lose any sounds I would just have lots of edits that I would have to put together myself, and create a longer version of my recorded sounds.
Indoor recording
Describe the location.
Our location for the indoor location recording was in the empty corridor of D6, this location has a long pathway with few objects and is slightly echoed, we chose this location because it is very quiet and has a few amount of people coming through, we realised that during recording the area was echoed and therefore made the recording louder than originally planned.
Level of background noise. What sounds were captured more than others. for example low frequence (bassy sounds) or high frequency sounds?
There was a small amount of background noise at a low frequency. The only background noise that was noticeable on the recording was the opening and closing of the doors and a small amount of talking from people inside another room, this meant that the background noise was very quiet and so that the place we chose to conduct the interview was well placed and was suitable for the task that we were to obtain.
Descibe the difference between close sounds and sounds far away. Make reference to frequency and clarity.
The difference to the sounds that were far away or background sounds and the close sounds or main sound is that the background sound is very quiet and faint however in silent parts of the interview you can hear the rattling sound that occurs from the back of the track, the background sound has a high frequency upon it. The main sound also known as the close sound is the main sound that you hear and is the one that the audience is focusing on, it has few rustles and is very clear but at times gets interrupted by the background sound.
What background sounds were the most obtrusive to dialogue?
The background sounds that occurred were the opening and closing of the door into D6 and the speaking of the people who were in the room next to us, the most intrusive sound was the door opening and closing this is because it was closer to us during the recording than the people speaking were, the sound did not make an huge effect on the recording however did make the interview less bold than it has been throughout the recording this would be because it the voice recorder has picked up 2 sounds and has shared the volume between them as the interviewee and the door were at similar distances from the recorder.
Did you notice any wind noise, mechanical noise from holding the H2?
As this was an indoor recording there was minimal wind sound however there was a slight wind sound when the door opened and closed as the wind was pushed through, there was however a little mechanical sound from the H2 and that made an interruption during the playback of our recording from an inside location.
Did the sound change when near buildings?
The sound changed depending on what we had become closer to during the recording, for example when we came closer to the door or the window the sound from the recording became quitter and when we came closer to the wall or the floor it got louder, this is because of the echo’s that occurred and the way in which we help the microphone or H2, the recording sounded better when we placed it nearer to the wall or to the floor this is because there was more of an echo and less of the background noise so it made the recording louder and more clear.
Were the headphones efficient? Could you monitor the recorded sound without interference?
During the recording we used the headphones and we found them very useful and easy to use, without the use of the headphones we would have been unaware to move ourselves away from background noise and more towards a quitter more echoed place. We were able to monitor the sound without interference and move quickly and easily when interferences seemed to occur. The headphones also allowed us to control the sound and monitor when it needs to be quieter or louder for certain parts of the interview.
What improvements to equipment and technique would you consider for a professional setup.
Improvements that could have been made would be:
· Use the windshield this would make the opening and closing of the door quieter and easier to edit.
· I would use the stand so that the movement of passing between the interviewer and interviewee did not interrupt the interview.
· A longer and more interesting interview.
