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How To Prep For Location Music Recording

A chance to get out of the studio, have a change of scenery, record in some exciting and different spaces, and explore a new acoustic – there are many reasons why recording music on location can be rewarding and great fun. Whether it’s a live concert or an album recording in a venue chosen specifically for its marvelous acoustics or unusual character, it’s never more important to be well-prepared. There’s nothing worse than driving for an hour, arriving and unpacking all your equipment at the venue only to discover that you left behind that essential little piece of metal that connects two other essential pieces of metal, and without it, all your equipment is essentially useless!

Location recording is very common in genres such as classical music, where good acoustics are vital. More and more, artists of all genres are wanting to capture their live performances in both audio and video. Here are some things to think about when planning a location recording, particularly if you’re working solo and bringing your own gear (larger-scale productions may have more variables, more equipment, a team of people, and more detailed planning). Here we’ll focus on stand-alone recordings rather than recording an amplified concert (of course many live sound engineers also capture recordings to be mixed later, which requires a different set of equipment).

Pre-Production

Recording at a different location than your usual studio or workplace means you’ll need to be flexible and ready to deal with possible unpredictable factors or situations. Find out as much information about the production/concert and the venue as you can beforehand. Make sure you agree on a reasonable schedule that gives you enough time to comfortably set up and account for unplanned delays, such as traffic.

A gear checklist is essential, and we’ll go over this in more detail later on. If there’s a chance to go and scout out the venue beforehand, this could be extremely useful for testing out the acoustics, deciding how the musicians and instruments might be placed in the space, checking for traffic and other noises, and determining the quietest time of day to record, and for other practical matters such as power outlet locations and figuring out an appropriate spot to set up your recording station.

Questions To Ask Beforehand

These are some things to think about, research, or ask the artists or venue directly:

Basic Gear Checklist

Additional useful bits and pieces: multi-tool, string, scissors, measuring tape, spare batteries, pen/pencil/highlighter, coloured tape for marking positions, torch/lamp, XLR and jack turnaround adaptors, headphone adaptors, mic stand thread adaptors.

Why Get Into Location Music Recording?

What makes recording music on location so enjoyable is the variety of projects and music you can work on, the thrill of capturing a live concert, the chance to explore new and interesting spaces, and the challenge of working out how to best capture music in an unfamiliar acoustic. You’ll learn how to problem-solve, you’ll likely never be bored from repetition, and you’ll have memorable recording sessions in beautiful, epic, and quirky spaces.

The Importance of Field Recording

Throughout the past few years, I’ve been networking with people in the sound community. I’ve met and spoken with so many amazing people in the film, television, and video game industry who have been nothing less than helpful and hopeful. One tip that gets brought up the most is sound libraries. Any sound designer knows those sound libraries are very important to have. That includes the ones you’ve recorded and the ones you’ve bought. Of course, not buying all the sound libraries at once but little by little over time.

An important part of your journey as a sound designer is also learning to record sounds, yourself. You don’t even need the fanciest or most expensive equipment in the world to do it. I, myself, own a Zoom H1, Zoom H4n, and Zoom H6 with a Sennheiser MKH 416. Learning to work with what you have is also a valuable skill. Of course, you’re not going to have access to everything you want to record for a film. But, a good practice is recording things around your home. I try to go on a walk every day and carry a Zoom H1 in a fanny pack. You never know what interesting sound you’ll find out in the world of your neighborhood. Plus, the sunshine and air are great for your mental health and overall health. Stepping away from your computer is a nice reset from work, too. If you can record it at a higher sample rate, you have so much more freedom to work with the audio versus what you get in a library. But, be prepared to have enough hard drive space to hold all the sounds you want. This also can be helpful in learning how to clean up the audio. Not everything you record out in the field will be clean and this can be a helpful experience with that.

If you’re into ASMR videos on YouTube like myself, there are interesting sounds in just tapping a glass or candle holder. Watching other people record sounds is also helpful on your sonic journey. I didn’t know cactus needles can sound like rain falling! Watching others record different sounds can help give you ideas and maybe, that’s the sound you’ve been looking for on a project you’ve been working on. We had some storms and wind a month ago here in Sacramento so I opted to record some rain on my metal awning and some wind through my window for wind howls. Always be careful and make sure your equipment is safe as well. You wouldn’t want rain getting into it. For wind, a good windscreen or blimp are great options to capture wind better.

Field recording shouldn’t feel like a chore or job, either. You never know what kind of sounds are near you or right outside your house. Just the other day I recorded my weekly garbage pickup. The truck has some nice squeaky brakes as well. Always be aware of what’s around, always keep listening, and don’t be afraid to experiment. So go out there and explore your world sonically!

 

 

Impulse Response Testing and Field Recording 

The Mine 

One of the things that piqued my interest with sound design was all of the magical tools and abilities sound designers have at their disposal. As a young sound designer, I am still surprised and excited by all of this.

I go to school in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, at Michigan Technological University. The area is called the Keweenaw Peninsula and is at the very top of the Upper Peninsula. The northern woods and waterfalls are both beautiful and great for field recording, but one part of the Keweenaw that goes relatively unexplored by sound enthusiasts, are the mines. Mining was a large part of the economy during the 19th and early 20th century and was still at large into the 1970s and ’80s. Abandoned mines dot the Keweenaw peninsula, but one mine, in particular, has been reopened and repurposed.

The Adventure Mining Company of Greenland Michigan seemed to appreciate my enthusiasm for their mine. Through a connection formed by one of my professors, and the owner of the mine, I was able to go and see the mine for myself. Early last fall, I drove down to take a small tour of the mine and to see what sights, and more importantly, sounds could be found within. It was a fun-filled day, but I was eager to come back with recording equipment.

Before coming back, I established some goals for this recording session. The most important goal was to record impulse responses of the many different chambers of the mine. I knew this would take the majority of my time, but I also wanted to do some field recording inside and outside of the mine.

My second trip to The Adventure Mine was a bit wetter. Fortunately, I had been careful to not bring moisture-sensitive equipment as working in these kinds of environments can be both damp and rough. The company was also kind enough to lend me an old metal wagon that I stored most of my recording equipment into pull around the many chambers. The gear that I brought with me was a laptop running Logic, an RME Babyface Pro interface, and an Earthworks condenser microphone. I also included a Zoom H5 with a mid-side capsule for any ambient recording that I might have time for. To generate the impulses, I used balloons and a pin to pop them. I decided upon this method because the mine was so far from any power source, which meant I could not generate a sine sweep from a speaker for my impulses. I used the entire pack of 25 balloons, and the whole recording process took nearly five hours, but it was well worth the physical and mental exhaustion.

Processing the impulses was relatively simple in the end as I simply trimmed the tracks to the balloon pin strike and uploaded the files into Logic’s Space Designer reverb plugin. There are many helpful articles and videos for this process online. Audio Ease’s Altiverb is also capable of processing custom IR samples, and they have some useful information on their website as well.

Since this project, I have been intrigued by acoustics and the unique sound of spaces and rooms.  I live in a fairly isolated part of the world with many unusual spots, some that you can easily access. Some may ask, why bother? Not only is the experience of trekking into a dark mine for your job exciting and unique, but in many ways, that hard work translates into the work you do as a designer. I now have many impressive, and unique reverbs that I can use in my designs.

Safety for yourself and your equipment is imperative though, so keep that in mind. I would also like to share the fruits of my labor and invite all to my website, where you will be able to download two of my impulse responses from this project for free. It has been such a fantastic experience, and I hope to inspire other sound designers and recordists with my work.

 

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