[Written by Tim Nielsen]

My name is Tim Nielsen, and I’m a micaholic. It has been four months since my last microphone purchase, an adorable little Neumann XY set in a Mono Rycote. I bought them from a friend, because when I saw them I just had to have them. Trust me. They’re really cute. You’d want them too.

I probably won’t be writing a lot of technical articles here on Designing Sound. There seem to be plenty of those already. I don’t have much interest in sharing endless plugin settings, or even mastering chains. I don’t much care about fade file type preferences, or your scheme for color coding tracks. I have those too, but explaining mine in depth won’t really do you much good.

But maybe with regards to recording sound effects, I might have some advice that some might find useful. So today I want to write about microphones.

I bought my first microphones from one of my professors while still at USC film school. It was a Schoeps MS Rig, two CMC4 T-Powered bodies, with an MK41 mid capsule, and an MK6 side capsule. By the time I bought them, they were already 15 years old or more. Over the years I swapped out the T-Powered bodies for phantom powered ones. About three months ago I finally parted with them, selling them to a friend at Skywalker for her first rig. That’s the first thing about recording equipment, and in particular microphones. Buy good ones, as they will last you a long time. Plugins, software, computers, will all become obsolete very fast. But a good recording rig should last you a long time. I have no doubt those Schoeps mics have another 20 years in them.

So this in article, I thought I would give a run-down of the mics in my personal arsenal. It’s a bit of a running joke around the ranch, my mic collection. I’m sure Charles Maynes has beat by a long shot! :) But the truth is, every one of these mics has a purpose, even if they’re not used all that much. So here it is, a list of the mics that are currently in my possession:

• Schoeps MS Rig: CMC6XT Bodies with MK41 Mid and MK8 Side
• Sennheiser MS Rig: MKH50 Mid with MKH30 Side.
• Sennheiser MKH416 Shotgun
• Schoeps CMIT-5U Shotgun
• Sennheiser MKH816 Super-Shotgun (x2)
• Neuman XY Rig: KM00 Bodies with AK40 Capsules
• Schoeps CMC6XT with MK2 Omni (x2)
• Sennheiser MKH8020 Omni (x2)
• Telinga Stereo DAT Parabolic
• DPA 8011 Hydrophone
• Sennheiser MKH800
• Rode NT1A (x2)
• C-Ducer Ribbon Contact Mic (x2)
• AKG C411pp Contact Mic (x2)
• Sennheiser MK421 Mark II (x2)
• Countryman E3 Lavalier (x2)
• Crown SASS Mk. II

MS Rigs:

My preferred and go-to rig is always an MS rig. If I had to choose only one set of microphones from the list above, it would still be the ones I started with, a Schoeps MS Rig. Most of my friends have one. I have two MS Rigs, one based on the Schoeps and one on Sennheiser mics. Either of these would make a great single rig for a person starting out (although both are quite expensive for someone just starting out). I realized as I started to write a bit about MS that it really needs it’s own article, the part two to this one, so please check back for something more in depth about MS and some tips and tricks I’ve found.

Shotguns and Super-Shotguns:

Back when I was starting out at USC, the main rig we had at our disposal was a Nagra 4.2 and a Sennheiser 416. It was really the first high quality microphone I had a chance to play with. It’s an amazingly versatile mic, and in many way would also be a very good first microphone purchase. It’s durable, has a great sound, a narrow pickup pattern, and the design hasn’t changed in decades. It’s a very versatile go-to microphone for almost any FX work, from animal recording, doors, machines, impacts, cars, even guns. The other shotgun that I own, the Schoeps CMIT-5U is very similar in pickup pattern, but is lighter and more clinical sounding. The 816s I admit don’t get used much. They’re cumbersome, and I actually don’t much like the sound of such a long shotgun. The off axis pickup sounds bad, and these days, if I want a super narrow field, I’m more likely to grab my parabolic. The 816s do look cool though, I’ll give them points for that. And one I bought very cheap years ago, and the other I traded for a Mackie Mixer. So I didn’t spend much on them, nor wood I. I know Tim Prebble in New Zealand records with them and has gotten some amazing stuff. For me I just don’t like the sound of them so much.

But a single good medium length shotgun like the 416, the Rode NT1G, Neumann KMR81, any of these would be a nice addition to any microphone collection. But the MK41 capsule in my Schoeps MS rig, or the MKH50 in the Sennheiser rig, is already a ‘short’ shotgun, being a hyper-cardiod, and for most uses, it’s reach is enough. That’s another reason I find the MS rigs so versatile, you’re already carrying a mono FX mic as part of the MS rig.

Neumann XY Rig:

Until I bought the little Neumann KM140/AK40 combo from my friend, I had never owned an XY rig. This is simply because with two MS rigs, I found no need. MS decoded is basically XY, the sound of them is very similar. David Farmer and I did a test in New Zealand between his Schoeps XY rig, and my Schoeps MS rig, and for the most part, it was hard to tell the difference.

But XY is a versatile recording method as well, very useful for backgrounds and general stereo work. The normal downside is that because the microphones are angled (where in MS the microphones line up on top of each other) it can be cumbersome. But XY has a fairly smooth stereo image, and in the case of my XY rig, is using cardiod capsules for a fairly even stereo field. In the case of the Schoeps XY mic, or the Neumanns I have, where the bodies are separated from the capsules, it’s still possible to get both microphones into a single Rycote zeppelin. I’ll buy the AK20 figure eight capsule for this rig soon, which will allow me to quickly convert the XY rig into an MS rig by swapping out one cardiod capsule for a figure 8. This should be the ultimate travel microphone set, allowing me to record MS or XY in a tiny package.

Spaced Omnis:

Spaced omni recording is a technique that can provide a very nice stereo image, particularly for things like backgrounds. It consists exactly of what it says, two or more omni-directional microphones, spaced some distance apart, anywhere from 30 inches or so, to up to 20 feet or more. There are few rules, so really just adjust the distance between them to taste. Omnidirectional microphones have a couple of very desirable qualities. First, they tend to have very low self noise. So this technique can be used to record very quiet sounds, even the simplest of room tones, where something like an MS rig might have too much self-noise. Second, omnidirectional microphones tend to have very flat frequency responses, especially in the low end, and they often go noticeably lower than other microphones. The downside is that you need two mic stands, at some distance apart, so it’s not ideal to a run-and-gun style of recording. Because the microphones are not coincident (their capsules are not aligned vertically) there are potential phase problems if the two sides are summed to mono. It’s advisable to use a phase meter when mastering spaced omni recordings to check for phase issues.

I have two sets of omnidirectional microphones, some Schoeps CMC6XT bodies with MK2 capsules, and a pair of Sennheiser MKH8020s, which are tiny and awesome, and are exceptionally wide in their frequency response, going from 10Hz to almost 60kHz. They all sound gorgeous, very flat in their responses, very low self-noise, very natural.

A variant of the spaced omni method is to use a boundary layer in between them, for example a Jecklin Disc or a Schneider Disc (http://core-sound.com/jecklin/1.php). I have one of these, and it’s a way to get a wider stereo image without having to move the microphones so far. It’s quasi binaural recording, as the disc simulates the spaces of the human ears, and the effects on the sound that a human head has. I find I don’t use it much, as if I’m recording with spaced omnis, I prefer an even wider image than I tend to get with the disc.

Teling Stereo DAT Parabolic:

Of the fairly specialized microphones in my collection, I love this microphone the most. I’ve owned it now quite a few years, and it still amazes me how useful it is. Most people think of a parabolic for bird recording, and it is quite useful for that. But it’s also amazingly useful for other things. I remember standing in a field in Minnesota, late one summer night, recording insects with it. The incredibly narrow field of it allowed me to get very different sounding insect beds by simply moving the microphone a few inches at a time. I could single out individual crickets even. The parabolic I have is made by Telinga, and it’s actually a stereo parabolic, and so is also incredibly useful for quiet backgrounds. Because of the acoustic gain of the dish itself, the microphone is very quiet, with very low self noise. So for simple airs, winds, I find it very useful.

It’s not a cheap microphone, but honestly it’s been one of my favorite purchases, and of all the mics that my friends ask to borrow, this one is probably the the most asked for.

DAP 8011 Hydrophone:

OK, I have to admit, that this microphone, the DPA 8011 Hydrophone, doesn’t see a lot of use. And it was expensive. And yes, you can easily wrap a microphone in a condom, or buy or build some cheap hydrophones. But I wanted this one for a few other reasons. First it’s pretty much impervious to chemicals and cold. It can be frozen in a block of ice (which I did). The problem with hydrophones seems to be, no matter what you think you’re going to get, you end up with something different. Because it is a contact mic, it has to be touching something other than air to pickup any sound. In the case of freezing it in a block of ice, as soon as the ice started to melt, air formed around the microphone and it didn’t pick up any sound. I still got some interesting material by adding water back in. Some of the best recordings I’ve gotten with it were in a Jacuzzi, moving the microphone around the jets of water. I’m not sure I could advise anyone to spend the money for the DPA, the amount of really useful stuff I’ve gotten with it probably wasn’t worth it.

Sennheiser MKH800:

This is a mono studio microphone that I use mainly for recording on the Foley stage. It’s a very quiet microphone with variable pickup patterns. But the really nice feature of this microphone is that it has an extended frequency range. It is relatively flat up to about 50kHz. For recording at 96k, and with the right source material, it preserves and captures some really high end harmonics, that when pitching sound down, can keep the sound from sounding muted. Mind you, most of what you record will not have any sounds that high. But for recording metal, even human vocals, and a variety of sounds, having that extended reach can be useful. It’s not ideal for use in the field, it’s a side-address microphone, and I’ve never bothered mounting it into a zeppelin. But for War Horse, the recordists borrowed it, put it quite a ways downstream and recorded some amazing artillery bys with it. It’s the most expensive single microphone I own. Someday if I win the lottery I’ll buy another one to do some stereo recording with it.

Rode NT1A Pair:

I bought these microphones years ago for two reasons. First, they’re very inexpensive, I think $199 each. Second, they have the lowest self-noise of any microphones I own, coming in around 5dBA I think. I bought them for recording the quietest types of sounds. They don’t sound brilliant, but they’re still useful sometimes for super quiet sounds, or when I want to put a microphone in harms way without worrying too much about the cost should it get destroyed. It’s a large diaphragm studio mic though, so they’re cumbersome to use out in the field.

C-Ducer Ribbon Contact Mic Pair:

These were the first contact microphones I bought, but I wouldn’t recommend them. They sound fine, but since they were designed to install in a lid of the piano, they just don’t work well in the field. The problem is that they’re a tape / ribbon type, which I thought would be great for wrapping around things, etc. And it’s true, it works. Sort of. The problem is that the adhesive slowly lets them microphones pull away from the thing it’s touching, and you get a recording full of tiny ticks and pops any time you try and use them, unless you hold them very very tight. The AKG contact mics below were a much better purchase.

AKG C411pp Contact Mic Pair:

These are much smaller point source style contact microphones, and I find them very useful. For those who don’t know, a contact microphone (of which a Hydrophone is also an example) only pick up sound through vibration, through contact. In the air, they’re pretty much silent. But touch them to something, and they pickup the sound. And it needed be anything visibly vibrating, they’ll gladly record doors, cars, just about anything, as long as you’re touching it. This can yield some pretty interesting things. Contact mics are mostly fun because you just never know what you’re going to get. The main problem is that recordings from them are very dry sounding, unnaturally so. But for gathering sound design source material they are very useful. Glass, metal, equipment, trains, anything moving, rolling, vibrating can give you some quite interesting sounds.

Sennheiser MK421 Mark II Pair:

These are cardiod dynamic microphones that are useful mainly for very loud sounds, as they’ll handle a very high SPL. They were probably originally designed to record kick-drums. We’ve used them on guns mostly, although they’re nice sounding microphones, and would work well on anything loud, crashes, impacts, etc. They’re also not so expensive, so are another set of microphones I don’t mind letting get into harms way. Great for crashes or anything that might overload a condenser microphone.

Countryman E3 Lavalier Pair:

Having a pair of lavalier microphones in your bag can be very useful. For miking up cars, even guns. They’re also tiny and can fit into very small places, giving you interesting perspectives. They handle very high SPL, making them useful for guns, explosions, anything loud. They also tend to break easily, the wires getting ripped out. DPA makes some of the best omni lavaliers, but they’re very expensive, and I’m not sure the extra price is worth it. I know people who have built super tiny recording packages with just a pair of DPA Omnis though, and they string them up anywhere they can, using them in a spaced-omni setup. I find the E3 to be a good blend of decent quality and low price. And when someone closes the car door on them, severing the cable, I won’t be too upset. If you intend to record cars, a very common technique is to place one tapes to the underside of the hood (close it gently) and the other rigged up near the tail pipe (sometimes inside a wheel well for a back tire). Then by mixing them together you can get a nice blend of engine and exhaust.

Crown SASS Mk. II:

This is a microphone I bought on a whim. It was for sale on eBay cheap, and needed some work. $200 and a trip back to Crown saw the mic restored, and it’s been a fun mic to have around. It’s in a way similar to set of omnis in a Jecklin disc, it’s a variant of a spaced omni boundary microphone. But the mic elements are piezzo elements, and they’re placed right up against the flat surface of the microphone. While not the quietest, in fact the self noise is fairly prominent, on loud or even medium-loud sounds, it can be useful. It has a very smooth stereo image, and we’ve found it great on a variety of material, especially crowds and louder ambiences.

Next up a bit more about MS, about MS rigs, MS recording, and MS mastering, for anyone interested in learning more about it. But at the moment these are the microphones I have. Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments field below.

Recording in the field is like camping: you only have the supplies you take with you! When you go camping, you are separating yourself from your daily amenities. For me, I think camping is a little funny. Most people want to ‘get away from it all’, but when they go camping, they bring it all with them. Why? They need their creature comforts!

Nothing can spoil a camping trip like forgetting the right supplies. For example, you can spend all day searching for the perfect campsite, but that trip can quickly turn into a nightmare if you forgot your tent! So, it’s important to plan ahead and pack accordingly.

Smart campers will air-out their camping gear. When they get ready to pack, they’ll line everything up outside of their storage bins and work a checklist to make sure that everything is accounted for. Experienced campers will even return from a camping trip and make a list of things they forgot to bring or didn’t even think about bringing until they went into the woods.

Here’s a list of ten things that I recommend you take into the field when you head out to record.

1. Mic Stand

A microphone stand is a very useful tool when recording in the field. If you are recording alone, you can use the stand to hold your microphone for you while you perform with the item you want to record. It can also be helpful when recording long ambience tracks. During long takes, your arm will get tired, especially if the bulk of your day is dedicated to ambience recording. A mic stand will give your arm a break and will also make sure the mic doesn’t move or pick up any handling noise. Don’t forget mic thread adaptors if you plan on mounting a pistol grip or blimp on your mic stand. These items have special threads for a boom pole that will not fit standard mic threads.

2. Boom Pole

A boom pole is basically a handheld mic stand that can put your mic closer to the sound. This can be useful for miking birds up in a tree, extending your mic towards a basketball net or following someone on ice skates as they pass by. There are two types of boom poles to choose from: cabled and uncabled. A cabled boom pole provides the convenience of having a coiled mic cable mounted through the inside of the pole. This allows the pole to be extended and retracted with the cable. The catch is, if the pole moves too abruptly, the mic cable bounces against the sides of the pole introducing handling noise into the mic. An uncabled pole reduces this problem because you wrap the cable on the outside of the pole. You loose the convenience of simply extending the pole at will because you have to wrap the cable each time. Wearing gloves can help reduce handling noise when working with a boom pole. Newer boom poles eliminate this problem by providing foam handles on the end of the pole.

3. Gaffer’s Tape

This heavy duty, non-stick adhesive is the Porsche version of duct tape. It’s found on every film set, theatrical stage and television studio the world over. Gaffer’s tape (a.k.a. movie tape or g-tape) can help quiet objects, mark out action areas (e.g. drop that television set right… here), and of course, hold things together. I always carry a roll with me and I even leave little strips on gear so that if I forget the roll, I still have something to work with. It comes in many colors, but trust me black is the best!

4. Leatherman / Multipurpose Tool

These little lifesavers are great for repairing gear, loosening stubborn mic stand adaptors and tightening or loosing objects to get that perfect squeak to record. The Leatherman brand claims to be indestructible, but I’m already on my third pair (the first one broke and the second one is… well, I can’t remember). Keep in mind, they have a knife inside, so don’t try to bring one on a plane or in a courtroom.

5. Extra Batteries

Back in 2000, I was working with MSNBC traveling around with Al Gore while he was campaigning to be president. I had packed everything I would ever need for the trip, including cases of batteries. At one event, literally minutes before Al Gore took the stage, the batteries in my field mixer died. I was shocked. These were brand new batteries that I just checked five minutes before hand. So, I grabbed a new set of batteries from a brand new case. The new ones were dead too! Two more sets later, I realized that I had been sold a case of dead batteries, despite a valid expiration date. A fellow sound mixer noticed my plight and gave me a fresh set.

I always tell that story to new interns who come to work at the Chop Shop. Just last week, we were packing for a location that was an hour drive to the middle of nowhere. I asked if he had extra batteries. He didn’t. I grumbled a little bit and grabbed an extra case of batteries for him. He politely protested, telling me that he had enough batteries. Sure enough, we got on location and his ‘fresh’ batteries died within twenty minutes! Had I not packed enough, we would have been screwed. The point is, bring extra batteries!

6. Extra Media

Media, like compact flash cards, is less likely to randomly die on you. You should bring extra media for two reasons. One, it’s cheap but priceless if you need another hour’s worth of record time. You never know when you’ll hit pay dirt with a location and need to extend your session. Two, if something happens to your media the show can still go on. For example, you accidentally drop your media in water, the card craps out for some strange reason, or gets confiscated by border patrol (which happened to a Chop Shop crew once).

7. Extra Mic Cables

Okay, so I’m going a little heavy on the “extra” factor, but unfortunately, this is because I’ve learned the hard way! I’ve had brand new cables that shorted out on me. I’ve had cables get cut by falling objects, sharp corners and even by a mindless stage hand once at a Limp Bizkit concert that resulted in Fred Durst calling me nasty things from the stage (long story…). The point is, without a cable, your microphone is useless. And of all the gear you have, the mic cable is the most likely candidate for failure. Think of an extra cable as a $20 insurance policy.

8. Cell Phone

Insert random “Ric’s an old fart” joke here. Okay, you youngsters! I’m fully aware that everyone has a cell phone nowadays. I didn’t see my first cell phone until years after college when the bass player of my band bought one. And yes, he was rich.

Ok, so everyone’s got one, including your Grandma who insists on texting you every Saturday to ask why you won’t come over to visit. Why would I suggest one? Well, because cell phones are basically really tiny laptops that carry very useful apps that you can use during your recording sessions. You can use map and GPS apps to find places to record or places to avoid. There are notepads to help log interesting things that take place during your sessions. And, of course, the camera!

Taking pictures of everything I record was a pipedream when I first got started. Today, I take pictures of just about everything, including useful information like model numbers of electric tools and motors that I’m unfamiliar with. This gives me a reference to Google later so I can give the sound file the proper description. Plus, you can take pics of your gear in action and post them on the Sound Effects Bible Facebook page!

9. Quiet Clothes

A few weeks back, I was recording some ambiences out in the snow. The snow turned into sleet and suddenly, my mic started to short out. My perfect forest ambiences were littered with this high pitched crackle noise. I headed back to my truck to see what was wrong with the mic. Surprisingly, the crackle went away once I got into the truck. What? I stepped back outside. There it was again! A few seconds later, I realized that the leather coat I had on was giving the sleet a hard surface to land on, thus creating the crackle noise.

Wearing soft and quiet clothes is important when recording. Most of the time, you want to avoid moving and creating the sound yourself. In the case of the sleet, my clothes became a surface that was creating the extraneous noise. When choosing clothes to wear remember that you might have to move your arms during a take. This is especially true if you are performing the sounds in front of the mic. So, pick something that gives you a little flexibility to move without making noise.

10. Creativity!

Gear is useless if you don’t know what you’re doing. But, knowing what you’re doing is useless if you’re not creative. Bring your thinking cap! Choose a quiet one, though.

(Play inspirational military music while reading this next paragraph.)

In the field, you will face challenges. You will be forced to think outside the headphones. Things will go wrong and gear will break. But, you can still bring home useful recordings if you use your creativity.

(End musical cue.)

More times than not, I’ll leave a location with a ton of material that I didn’t plan on recording. A few weeks back, we went to a YMCA to record fitness sounds and came back with an hour’s worth of mechanical motors from a large maintenance room that we were given access to. Survey the location with your ears, not your eyes. Your eyes can quickly discourage you from choosing a good location. Your imagination and creativity is the most important thing you can take with you in the field.

I’m always amazed at how much R&D goes into visual effects (VFX). Teams can be on for years developing new technology for a single film. It’s easy for we sound folks to feel a bit left out here. No production ever puts out the money or the interest in developing new sound technology for their film. We get hired in much smaller numbers, and are on for shorter periods of time. Where a VFX person can be on the gig for months and only do a handful of shots, the sound team is expected to cover the entire film, with many layers of sound, with only a handful of people. It’s almost assumed that we have a sound or approach handy for any possible scenario. It’s amazing that a production can tell you “We want this to sound like nothing we’ve ever heard before” (even when it looks like something we’ve seem a thousand times, or is just another version of the same old story), and then look at you sideways, and nickel and dime you when you bring up a field recording budget.

I’ve pondered this a lot over the years, and the truth is, we probably wouldn’t benefit that much from attempting new technologies on a per-project basis. (Game engines are another animal altogether though. There is more development there, but I won’t go into that here.) Entire companies have sunk loads of R&D into trying to improve things as simple as pitching, and progress has been slow. The fact remains, we can only twist sound so far before it becomes unnatural and unusable. For things we recognize, like speech for example, the ear is very unforgiving. You can’t process things very far if you want to maintain the integrity. If you’re going for sci-fi or robotic, then that’s much easier to accomplish. Most of the time we’re trying to avoid sounding robotic, and even minor processing winds up as robotic pretty quickly.

Therefore our approach to sound design is often rooted in a simpler approach. And this brings up the flip-side of the VFX vs SFX relationship. For instance in LOTR, there were dozens of people involved in the scenes with the Watcher (the big squid/octopus). There were many shots involved in that sequence, and must have taken them months. I on the other hand, spend $6 on a toilet plunger, and recorded it thrashing around in a creek by my house. And that was the primary element used for the tentacles thrashing in the water. ($6 is misleading, since my recording rig cost about $5000, but that gets re-used.) Tim Nielsen and I also recorded the rubber floor mats from our cars for the flapping, and there other elements too, but you get my point.

So I wanted to take a moment to ponder some of the advancements we HAVE seen. Some of them are new, and some are things we’ve just gotten used to but take for granted. There are more than I have time to mention, but here are some of the things that still make me go “Wow this is cool!”

Altiverb – “….. because you can’t fake THIS!!!!”, I said in the most prophetic & grandiose tone I could muster. The behind the scenes crew were taping us in the Wright’s Tunnels near Wellington. We were worldizing (playing sounds back over a speaker and recording what it sounds like in that space) sword hits, the Cave Troll & Balrog vocals, and doing some other straight up recording in there, all to get that massive reverb tail that those tunnels have. I said that before Altiverb was available. I think it actually was in development, but I didn’t start using it until The Two Towers. The truth is, now you CAN fake that.

There are other convolution reverbs, but I pick Altiverb because from the beginning, they made it possible to create your own impulse response reverbs. So naturally we went back to the tunnels, and made our own reverbs that we could use again & again, without having to haul speakers & record gear back to the tunnels. Altiverb has been instrumental in re-creating authentic environments. And from a design standpoint, you can treat other sounds as reverbs, and get some pretty crazy results. One of my favorites is to use a modified lightning strike as an impulse, and the results are pretty interesting. I usually like to record outside, as those early-order reflections are really pleasing to the ear. With Altiverb, you can record something in a dead room & then fake it as if it were recorded outside. It wouldn’t call it seamless, as exterior impulse responses have proven very difficult to get right. But you can get very close.

Izotope RX - This is worth it for the “Spectral Repair” feature alone. I use this every single day. Where I used to make edits to remove unwanted sounds, now I use Spectral Repair to “repair” unwanted sounds, and I don’t lose any length of the original sound. I usually use this in stand-alone mode as opposed to plug-in, since it’s so much easier to hear what you’re working with, and the interface is easier to work with.

I also pull this out first instead of an EQ these days. EQ’s affect the entire length of a sound, where I can use Spectral Repair on specific spots & leave the rest of the sound untouched. This has changed forever the way I look at my source sounds. Things I couldn’t use before, have become useful. I recorded some wolves for the Wargs in Rings, and there was a lot of chain-link fence movement & also chains in the recordings. I couldn’t use a lot of that material before, but now I can minimize the parts I don’t want to hear, and get a lot more source out of those recordings.

The broadband noise reduction in Izotope RX is also very very good. Using the “C” algorithm, these days I’m perfectly happy saving over the original file. Up until I started using Izotope, I’d keep a copy of the sound before it was de-noised, since there were too many artifacts in the processed sound.

Soundminer – A database that allows searching, auditioning, and VST plug-in processing. This has been a major part of my workflow ever since I discovered it. Very few of the people I know use the VST plug-in feature, but it’s a major part of my approach. Soundminer 4 has 10 slots for plug-ins, with the ability to save preset racks complete with the plug-in settings, and bypass state. Many of the major plug-ins are available in VST, including Waves & Altiverb. You can pitch sounds around & hear them through the plug-in rack, so you can find just the right pitch that’s going to sound nice processed, and send it through the plug-in rack on it’s way into Pro Tools (or Nuendo). You have to be a bit ballsy to commit a process into Pro Tools, but I’ve been working this way for nearly 10 years now. I still do some processing in Pro Tools, but easily 50%+ is done before the sound even makes it into my session.

Pocket Recorders - A sound unrecorded does me no good, and these little gizmos are just great! I have a Zoom H2, Yamaha Pocketrak 2G, and a Sony M10. The one I prefer to use is the M10, because it’s the cleanest of the three. Both the Zoom & the Yamaha, I need to do some broadband noise reduction, but the Sony can get by without it most of the time. I call these my “bird in the hand” recorders. You know the saying “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”? Well that’s how I feel about these. My main field recording setup is a Sound Devices 722 with a Schoeps MS mic, and I’ve had very good results with that. It’s not always practical to take out the bigger rig. I’m much more likely to record something (especially if it’s something quick) if the entire procedure is hassle-free. If there were significant audio benefits to using the 722 & Schoeps, I’d certainly do it more often, but the M10 sounds amazingly good for most things. Some of the benefits are:

• One-hand operation.
• USB Bus-powered for downloading the files.
• Small – I take it more places.
• Inconspicuous design (less people interrupting “hey what is that?”).
• Price – they’re pretty much disposable recorders. I’m not afraid of damaging them.
• Off-the-shelf batteries with exceptional battery life.

I simply wind up with more sounds because of these. I was recently on a trip, and had the Yamaha 2G in my pocket (so small I can barely notice it’s there), when I found myself at a fireworks show. I recorded quite a bit of the show, and the file was incredible. I was standing in a great spot, but even compared to a fireworks show Tim Nielsen and I recorded, where we both had our Schoeps rigs & 722′s linked together for a quad recording, this pocket recording was better! The explos were simply massive, and I even had it set to record in MP3 mode. The MP3 mode was accidental, but the recording came out amazing and I’ve had no problem using those sounds.

Many of the pocket recorders record at 96k 24-bit, but IMO that’s less of a benefit than being tapeless. Of course this also applies to a 722 or 744 or Cantor, etc.. Ever since I started field recording, I was hankering for a pre-record buffer, which DAT never had. Let me tell you, countless hours were wasted recording on DAT for Rings. I spent day after day after day at the SF Zoo trying to get animal sounds. And I had to be IN RECORD, the entire time, just in case something happened. Then I’d have to come back, and digitize those tapes in real-time, THEN go back & hunt for sounds. Let me tell you I don’t miss DAT one bit – good riddance to tape! How many hours would I have gotten back if I’d had the 722 then. It would have been weeks of time – no doubt about it. The first show I had the 722 for was King Kong and it was amazing, even if only for the time saved not having to load tapes in real-time.

But back to the pre-record buffer. Many of you know what this is, but for non-soundies, this is a bit of memory that sound is always feeding into, but isn’t being saved until you press record. For example, the Sony M10 has 5 seconds of pre-record buffer. So lets say I’m sitting at a bus station, and there’s nothing interesting happening. I’m in record-pause. Nothing is being recorded yet, BUT once I press record, the previous 5 seconds gets saved at the start of the file and recording simply continues. So I can wait until something like an air brake release happens, THEN press record, and I have still captured that air release. So all those hours at the zoo, I could have waited until after I heard something, pressed record, and still captured the sound, instead of recording hours & hours of nothing between events. Its worth pointing out that the little Sony M10 ($200) has a 5 second pre-record buffer even at 96k, where the Sound Devices 722 ($2500) only has 2 seconds. 2 seconds is not enough for me.

To get the files off the recorder, I just pop it onto USB, then use Synchronize Pro to MOVE the files to a “Files to Sort” folder on my library drive. “MOVING” means it deletes the file from the recorders memory once it’s copied, so I don’t even need to delete the files from the recorder. Pretty slick.

Back when I was a student, I paid $700 for the first line of DAT Walkmen (I think it was the D3), and a box of DAT tapes that were $17 each. An M10 cost me $200 plus about $30 for a 16GB Micro SD card. I’d call that pretty major progress.

Elastic Audio - I’ve been using this a lot the past year or so. I plan to do a video capture at some point this month on how I use it. Music people use it a lot, but it hasn’t caught on to most SFX people yet. It’s far from perfect, but I feel it’s really going places. And it’s very usable in it’s current state.

Pro Tools - I know this seems obvious right? I feel it’s worth a mention because we’ve come to take it for granted. Not only because of it’s features and price point, but it’s market saturation. This has made it possible for people to work & be compatible with nearly everyone else. It’s no small feat that I can be working at my house, and do stage fixes for a project that is mixing in LA. I really should include internet speed in that equation, but having a consistent workstation platform is major.

Digital Video – Here’s another one we take for granted. I arrived on the scene as editing on film was on it’s way out, so never had that pleasure. But I certainly don’t miss rewinding 3/4″ video to build SFX to picture, or printing to 3324′s or 3348′s.

Data Storage - Hard drive space has reached disposable prices. Everyone has hard drive price stories, and I won’t even go all the way back to my beginning to where it was REALLY insane. Even as recently as LOTR though, everyone was impressed with my 3-75G Club Mac Firewire drives. Yep, a whopping 225GB in 3 cases! And firewire! I was really pushing the envelope there actually. Firewire was untested and was failing a lot on many systems with Pro Tools. I got lucky that the drivers that came with those drives actually worked with Pro Tools.

That 225GB set me back $2100, and now you can get 2TB drives for $100. For a while there, storage was increasing at a decent rate, and we could keep more & more of our libraries online. Now, it’s outpaced me. Even recording at 96k 24-bit, I can’t fill up the space I have available. And this is a very good thing, especially for keeping backups. You do back up your work right? RIGHT????!?

Written by David Farmer for Designing Sound

The Deva-5 is the best type of recorder to use wherever possible, the recording quality and technical specifications are very good, however, when recording something that may be dangerous or difficult to get to it’s better to use a Zoom H4 handheld recorder. I also use a Korg MR-100 recorder.

The Mics I like to work with are three Neumann 190i’s and two Neumann 191 is which I use mostly for multiple recordist shoots.

This works best for car shoots where I prefer to have mic #1 a stereo car interior, mic #2 center perspective, corner mic #3 and corner mic #4 (u-turn away).
If there is a fourth recordist it’s good to have mic #5 as a second center mic about twenty-five feet from mic #1.

Other shoots may require multiple perspectives: close, medium, and distant. In the case of surround style recordings, I try to separate the Neumann mics as much as possible to create the greatest depth of field between a quad or six channel recording.

Separation by length (long cables) to me sounds much better than microphones such as the Holophone that have its mics inches away from each other pointed in different directions. I don’t think these recordings translate as well to a movie theater as separation by length with multiple stereo mics.
I should add that the Neumann 190i is older, heavier, and has more low-end frequency response than the 191i which seems to have a clearer more detailed stereo image.

Other main mics are two Sennheiser MKH-60’s which provide very low inherent noise, are highly directional, can handle high SPL, and have excellent bass response. I also use this microphone for ADR recoding, the MKH-60 has three toggle switches for -10 db attenuation, low roll off, and a high gain that I use when shooting ADR.

I recently got a Schoeps CMIT-5 which is similar to the MKH-60, it seems to be a little brighter and more directional, but I haven’t done enough recording with it to be certain.
I also use a Neumann QM-69 (of only fifty ever made!). This true quadraphonic single point microphone has four U67 capsules. The QM-69 could be used to record ambiences like a Holophone mic (as mentioned above) but my main goal is to use the QM-69 to record loop group in quad sound. The actors perform around the microphone and give your loop group track greater definition than traditional mono loop group recordings. Specifics though, should be recorded mono (MKH-60 or similar) for placement by the re-recording mixer.

For low-end powerful sounds I am working on beefing up my-low end by using the AKG C-3000B and am looking at acquiring an EV RE-20. A large diaphragm condenser can handle a lot of SPL, accentuates low frequency response and retains reasonably high frequency response. There are many L.D.C. microphones to choose from and I am still looking for the perfect monster low end mic.

Other good mics are three Sanken CUB-01 boundary microphones. These small microphones fit into small places like the nooks and crannies under a car or in the engine compartment. I wrap them in wind socks to protect from wind and also try to block or draft away from the wind when placing these small mics. I like the CUB-01 mics because they can handle a lot of SPL and have a decent retention of low frequency considering how small they are. For example the two Countryman lavaliere microphones I use have little low-end and are only good for recording flywheels or alternators in a car, where you are specifically recording a high frequency sound.

For Hydrophones I use two DPA 9611’s which capture sounds well, however they don’t handle brisk water movement well, and five SQ26-08 Hydrophones designed for whale recording.
Hydrophones are designed for drag (moving through water) and fidelity, so it is best to find the right one for your purpose.
I believe that using hydrophones in an array is the best way to build underwater sounds, using only one hydrophone produces a thin short recording. Sound propagates underwater faster than in air, so when underwater the sound passes by the hydrophone super fast. Using an array allows you to build a thicker, longer sound from the array of hydrophones.

When you need to go wireless, I like to work with four Lectronics Digital Hydrid with Sony mic capsules. These are great for recording ice skates and horse hooves, sounds that can’t have wires dangling around the performer.
It’s very important to learn how to setup the transmitter and receiver to minimize wireless noise, these transmitters and receivers are not perfect but they allow you to record sounds that you normally can’t run a cable to.

Mics that I mostly use as contact microphones or onboard microphones are six Sennheiser 835S. These can handle a lot of SPL (sound pressure levels) and they retain a decent dynamic bandwidth and dynamics, unlike PZM Mics which can squash a sound. It seems like the more SPL a mic can handle the less dynamics and frequency response it has.

My gear wish list is: Sony MD-1 handheld recorder (brilliant stereo recordings from a handheld recorder), EV RE-20, U87 (don’t we all want this microphone?), and better hydrophones.

It’s important to remember that recording the right sound or selecting the thing to record is more important than the microphone. Technique and microphone selection enhances a good sound.

Written by Rob Nokes for Sounddogs Blog and Designing Sound

Sound recordists are a special breed. On a recent trip to Zambia, the safari guides were very interested in the sound I recorded of the animals and villager’s ceremonial drumming. Apparently no one ever records sounds there. Here are 11 general tips from my experience field recording for film, games, music and fun.

1) Put together a really great rig.

Building your rig is an ongoing process, and includes a whole lot more than just a recorder and a mic. If you do enough recording you’ll eventually need stuff like walkie talkies, a high quality battery charger, tools, wind protection, mic mounts, tape, zip ties and cases to carry it all. I have 5 plastic bins and 2 hard shell waterproof cases that I can load up pretty quickly. I usually don’t need everything, but on really involved sessions like cars and guns I do. Its nice knowing I’ve got everything I’m likely to need in the ‘rig’.

2) Buy a cheap handy recorder.

You can get terrific results with cheap handheld recorders like the Zoom H2. No, they are not going to knock your socks off with fidelity, but tuck this little thing in your bag and grab all those great door creaks, printer paper jams, and car alarms happening in your world. I use stuff I’ve recorded on mine all the time in my sound design. Have you ever heard an airplane toilet flush…awesome!

3) Stay Lean and Mean

Field recording is all about thinking on your feet. When recording, I like to work with as little gear as possible. I even use really short mic cables because I don’t like carrying around the extra bulk. Also, by simplifying as much as possible you are reducing the likelihood of things going wrong and focuses your attention on what matters.

4) Keep the process in perspective.

It is helpful to keep in mind the relative importance of factors to good sound recording.

Sound Source > Environment > Mic Placement > Mic type > Mic Quality > Mic Preamps > Recording Resolution

So in other words, you wouldn’t get the full benefit of your 24bit / 192khz recording if you are recording in a noisy environment. My point is that you can optimize your recordings by paying attention to the things that matter the most. Recording sessions can get pretty hectic, and its easy to get caught up in changing mic position and not realize that the wind is picking up.

5) Give midrange microphones a try.

I love my Neumanns, but they’re not the best mics for every situation. I have a number of mid range mics from Audio Technica and Shure that sound great and have useful features. Overall, mid grade mics tend to be more rugged and able to withstand tough environments. Also, you won’t cry as much if it ends up in the water or run over by a car.

6) Keep an arsenal of mics.

To be fully equipped, I recommend a small diaphragm condenser stereo pair, a stereo shotgun and a few dynamic mics. Having contact mics, PZMs, hydrophones, and omni capsule mics on hand can also be interesting for experimenting. Having an assortment of mics available can be useful when you’re going for a unique sound.

7) Rent

There are a number rental houses with really sweet mics available. If you have an important shoot that you’re gearing up for, renting is a great way to keep your costs down and quality high. This is also a great way to try out new gear.

8) Ship your gear instead of flying with it.

You have to pay for extra luggage these days anyway. Plus you get better insurance and you don’t have to lug it around. Plus, mics and pistol grips tend to alert the screeners…and when they swab your gear…are they gonna find some gun powder residue from that firearm recording session you just did? Avoid the hassle.

9) Master it immediately

The memory fades quickly. The entries into your library will be better if you remember all the circumstances of a recorded take. Speaking of 7 gigs of Zambian safari recordings to master.

10) Noise Reduction

Buy a program restoration program like Izotope’s RX. I’ve rescued a number of contaminated takes using RX. If a sound is useable don’t mess with it until you actually need the sound for something. Unusable takes on the other hand can often be rescued and added to the library.

11) Practice make Proficient.

Field recording can be a humbling experience. In-climate weather, demons in the gear and mute animals can yield a wasted day. Experience will teach you to watch the weather, troubleshoot the gear and research mating of season of alligators before you fly to Florida to record them.

Good sound hunting.

Written by Andrew Lackey for Designing Sound

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The deadline for questions is until 25 November and the answers will be published on the final post of the special, along with several tips and recommendations for sound designers. Rob will choose and answer any questions that he want. Note that all questions will be considered, but not all will have to be answered.

What are you waiting for? Make your contribution now!

As the Oscar hype machine keeps rollin’ I am glad to see coverage on almost all the nominees. Though its hard to keep up with all of it, so if I miss anything of note, please feel free to email me links!

(David Giammarco)

THE WATER HORSE

• Has two videos covering James Newton Howard’s work on the film that I missed.

1. 1. Tracking at Abbey Road.
   2. Collaborating with “The Chieftains”.

THE WELLAND TRIBUNE

• Stops re-recording mixer David Giammarco in his tracks to talk about his work on “3:10 to Yuma”.
  

MIRAMAX

• On January 27th Miramax helped bring together the sound team for “No Country For Old Men” to the Harmony Gold Theater in Hollywood. After showing a few clips from the film, moderator Spike Jonze asked Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Craig Berkey, and Peter F. Kurland along with The Coen’s about their work. In addition to talk about the role thats score had in the film, the filmmakers reveled the shot on-set the voice-over by Tommy Lee Jones was favored in the mix over any of the looped reads. Read more HERE.

• A few film critics and bloggers (though a little off the mark about how much music was actually in the film) get and A for effort discussing the sound for “No Country” in THIS PODCAST.
  

(click below to listen to an excerpt)

PARAMOUNT VANTAGE

• On Feb 2nd seven time Oscar winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom, currently a director at Pixar Animation Studios, hosted a screening of “There Will Be Blood” with former Skywalker Sound protégés. Sadly, all I have from the screening is this picture, please send any coverage my way!

THE FILM EXPERIENCE

• “Transformers” effects re-recording mixer Greg Russell talks about working with director John Waters and of course giant robots.

(click below to listen to an excerpt)