The Recordist High Definition Sound Effects Libraries
Back in November 2011 I had to opportunity to record my neighbors saw mill. I was doing something outside and I heard the mill off in the distance, it was really quiet that day for some reason. The mill is on top of the mountain behind my ranch and I always wanted to get some recordings so I called him up and asked if it would be alright to come on up and record. I don't know how he heard his phone ring but somehow he did because when I arrived … [Read more...]
For the last 3 weeks I have never left the ranch without my MKH-8040ST recording rig and today I was thankful that I brought them on a simple errand run into town. Just my luck that there was a tain traffic jam in the City of Sandpoint Idaho. Three trains were attempting to pass through on the same set of tracks at the same time and there was some maintenance going on as well. I heard the train horn as I was at the bank this morning and it was … [Read more...]
Here is a sound from December 12, 2011. Late in the day I drove out to one of my favorite locations to record trains (and to enjoy the West view). I had attempted to record 2 stopped trains earlier in the day and was only seconds late after chasing them around town for a while. I did not want the day to be a complete waste so I took a chance that a few more trains would rumble in and stop. Well, they did not stop but a few trains were hauling … [Read more...]
Train Rail Cars Slack Action 2012 On the morning of January 4th, 2012 as I was driving into town across the Long Bridge into Sandpoint I noticed a stopped train on the other side of the lake. The best part was that I also saw a railroad maintenance truck on the tracks headed toward the parked freight train from the opposite direction. I knew what this meant... no other train would be passing the parked train as it departed. Golden!I turned my … [Read more...]
This month I plan on blogging about more of the crazy stupid sounds I've gathered during my recording sessions in North Idaho and other places around the universe. This week I want to share a few ice and water sounds that are a little bit different. Here are some sound effects from a session back in mid November at a small pond in the North Idaho mountains. I used a Sennheiser MKH-8040 and a SD-702 at 24-Bit 96K to record tossing small and … [Read more...]
November 29, 2011 During a simple grocery run into town I noticed a train stopped on a bridge over the highway. I guessed it might be leaving soon and I knew where to go to get close to it and changed my route. Once I got there I noticed another train was also waiting next to the one I saw on the bridge. I knew I did not have a lot of time before they started moving so I quickly grabbed my Sony D-50 out of the center console of my SUV and ran … [Read more...]
Back in March of 2011 I started a two year project to record as many trains as possible from North Idaho. I've lived here for many years and never really took the time to go out and record the beasts as they roared through the Panhandle of Idaho. I recorded some back in 1995 before I moved here and those are good but they are only CD quality. Now that I am recording everything in HD I thought it was time to record some brand new material for an … [Read more...]
Here are some very close train passes recorded with a matched stereo pair of MKH-8040 microphones set in XY at 110 degrees. The microphones were placed less than 2 meters from the fast moving freight train. Five 24-Bit 96K train takes were shortened and edited together... each train takes 3 minutes to completely pass by. The location was in front of the Sandpoint Idaho train station. There is a new freeway opening soon right behind the station … [Read more...]
I was having my first cup of morning coffee on a cold, quiet Saturday morning and the light of day was beginning and I noticed a strange V shaped pattern in the distant sky over the lake. At first, I flashed back to the day when I recorded a B-2 Stealth bomber in Seattle because thats what it looked like. I knew what was approaching and I stepped outside and had a listen. They were geese flying in formation over the lake and heading directly … [Read more...]
M60 Machine Gun Microphone Comparisons M60 Machine Gun Microphone Comparison 1 This video cycles through the microphones used during the first recording session for this gun. This first session was for capturing the medium close and distant perspectives and the second session was primarily for the close up sound. Recorded at 24-Bit 96kHz/192kHz to 2 Sound Devices SD-702 recorders, Fostex FR-2, Sony PCM-D1 with XLR-1 Microphone Preamp and a … [Read more...]
As a sound recordist, one of the best things about living in a small town in the middle of nowhere besides fresh air, clean water and quiet is sometimes you get to record things that would be very difficult or impossible to record anywhere else. Some of those things are recording a M-60 machine gun in someones back yard or getting the powerful sounds of a building being ripped apart by an excavator. Well, that has been my life experience for the … [Read more...]
I've always wanted to record explosions and while I was recording a few guns recently I had my chance. Explosions are not something you can record everyday. I takes some planning, a good location that allows this kind of loud stuff and a very good shot. Since I have the gear all I needed was the above. It all came together after months of planning with the local gun shop. After recording a bunch of guns it was time to set off the Tannerite. If … [Read more...]
Here is a quick blog post about my experience recording some big guns. There is a lot more to tell but I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts, video and pictures from the session. The shoot was arranged very quickly because the weather here in North Idaho was about to turn nasty and I wanted to get some gun sounds before the end of the year. Rain was forecast for the days after the shoot but the day of the shoot there was only a 30% … [Read more...]
You Are Recording What? I've been asked a few times, "You're recording leaves? Why?" My short answer was because they are there. The long answer is because I've always needed some leaf-type sounds in my video game work. Whether it was for a fantasy forest ambient track sweetener, a tree monster, or a spaceship roaring low over trees, leaves come in very handy. So now the question is: What do I record and where do I record it? In this article I … [Read more...]
Snort... Snot... danger signal... Call it what you want One of the sounds a deer makes when it senses danger is snorting. I have been trying to get a decent recording of this nose blow for years. Sometimes when I'm out recording in the yard I will startle one of them out in the forest and they blow snot out their nose. Sometimes it's very loud and startles me. If there are a few of them hanging out in the woods they all go running when the boss … [Read more...]
