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Field recording: initial trialsSubmitted by Damien on Sun, 2006-09-10 15:45.
As previously described by Stuart, the field recording set-up consists of Sony mic and Minidisc connected via a portable amp to two NXT ‘stick-on’ speakers. I have been testing the set-up to find the best way to experience the vibrations coming through the speakers; originally I planned to develop a kind of waist belt to carry the kit and to hold the speakers next to my thorax (you usually get good vibrations round the chest and lung area as the air in those spaces enhances resonance). However, this wasn’t as effective as I’d hoped, as the pressure of the belt damped the vibrations and muted them considerably, both in terms of intensity and sensitivity. I therefore worked out a jerry-rigged structure to feed the vibrations through on the backs of my hands, using foam board to build up the resonance and self-gripping Velcro cable tape to hold them on. This gave much clearer and more detailed vibration feedback, albeit in a controlled environment. The portable amp and MD can still be carried using a waist tool-belt type of set up. This week (9/9/06) we tested the recording set-up out at Two Tree Island. We arrived around 9.30 to take some photos for another project & started test recording around 10.15. Whilst the current set-up is pretty clunky and unsophisticated, it does work. As soon as the mic was switched on, I could feel the sound of the wind coming through the mic onto my hands (which is a different sensation to the actual feel of the wind on your face/hands). I was aware of the wind sound changing, becoming more intense (‘louder’ as you hearing types might describe it) and as we were testing in stereo I was getting different responses on my left and right hands. However, on a blowy day, pretty much all you get using a Sony MS 907 mic is the feel of the wind, fascinating for me, but not automatically the most exciting recorded sound ever. Mic recording is unselective (compared to human perception of sound) and whilst I was visually aware of other sounds (model plane) or knew others were happening because Stuart could tell me about them (boat engine in the distance), they weren’t being picked up by the mic. We tested this by e.g. getting the mic up close to the ground and Stuart walking past (crunching on stones – did not come through), scraping/banging the ground with another stone, (this was perceptible) and similar tests. Sounds close-up to the mic usually come through well, but more distant sounds were lost in the wind noise. The nxt speaker/hand arrangement also requires refining. At present the speakers are stuck to circles of foam board to enhance resonance and whilst this works, it needs to be tailored to my hands, which are quite small. The aim would be to have something that is secure but unobtrusive, both physically and visually (we got some funny looks from people out walking on the Island). Therefore the next stage for this aspect of the project needs to be - investigate windshield for the mic we have (something more effective than the standard foam job) |