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Field recordings: patience and impatience, and some implications.

So you have purchased your portable recorder, and want to do some recordings in he field. There are certain useful things about field recordings you will learn anyway, but if you know them first - you will know what to expect, and why it happens. And how to avoid disappointments.

Section 1.

Realize, that your portable recorder is 'hearing' differently than you. Your device captures things different than you hear, or - captures things you hear - in a different way than you perceive them. What does it means in practice?

When you begin to work with field recordings, one of the first issues is "opening up" of your perception. You begin to be aware of your real sonic environment, things that you usually don't pay attention to (which your brain eliminates from your consciousness). In the beginning - sometimes you may feel overwhelmed by the sonic details around you, and the level of environmental noise. You may even have some difficulties to recognize the distance of various sounds, perceiving them as "equally close". Perception opening is connected to attention increase; you open your perception by allowing ("stretching", and focus your attention on everything at once (attentiveness), going deep into what you perceive. That why you hear various sounds as "equally close". Sea of singing birds ringing in your head.

Solution is simple, and will not take too much time to learn. This part of the art of hearing and listening is called "controlled regulation". You will learn to regulate the level of your focus according to your needs. How? By listening to your recordings, and adjusting your understanding of what you heard (what you remember) to what you have recorded. If you are attentive enough, you will realize, that in time - during your sessions you hear/perceive in similar way as your recorder does.

Section 2.

On one hand, your portable recorder is very sensitive device, but on the other hand - is not sound selective as your hearing perception. Also - if you are not using "dummy head" for binaural recordings - your device is somewhat more directional than your ears.

From time to time, when I do the field recordings, I realize that I hear some sounds behind me or on my side, sounds that are coming from certain distance, and have certain loudness. My first concern is - "will my recorder catch up this mess too?". Having Zoom H2, which is not comparable to Sony PCM-D50, I know that not everything I hear behind or from a side - will be recorded; sometimes I gently change the angle and cover the space (between unwanted sounds an the recorder) with my body. I don't know if this works, but a good advice would be: even if you hear some unwanted sounds - don't stop your session. Unwanted sounds can be not audible to your recorder or just temporary; you can fix it later, offline.

Sometimes, I feel not satisfied with what I hear with my ears. But paradoxically, pretty often - the best field recordings come from most difficult settings. Your "live" participation in your environment can make the dynamics difficult and nasty, but on the other hand - sonic dynamics is the only thing, tht makes the recordings alive. An example. Recently, I was taking snapshots of a tree, shaking on the wind. Since we have winter, the leaves are hard and dry, and the rustle rather harsh. When I was standing close to a branch, I heard some nasty leaf scratching, and I thought "gee, what a horrible noise". But I decided to record anyway, and to ignore my live impressions. Listening to recordings later - it appeared, that this one was the most well-balanced part of my session. I was selective to one leaf, my recorder - not.

Section 3.

"How long should I record the environment, to be satisfied with my recording?" From my experience, usual "short" takes should be longer than 5-6 minutes, and if you are not recording the whole weather - less than 10-15 minutes would be enough. About 5-10 minutes is the threshold of initial fatigue of your muscles.

Pretty often when I'm in the field, from time to time I hear something unusual, that I'd like to immortalize, like on a photo. If you forget, that you hear your environment in visual and emotional context, you probably get your recorder, take a snapshot 10-30 seconds (one wave or two) long, and... after some time will be disappointed. Sonic events exist in a sonic context. If you feel, that there is a right time to record, then do it. But give yourself some time. Your selective focus has only a glimpse of what s going on. Your recorder will get the rest of it.

A small catch. The more attentive and focused you become, the slower the time seems to go. Have a watch with you, or see your real time display. 30 intensely focused seconds might feel as several minutes. Patience and impatience. Learn stillness. Practice it. During your session, if you are holding your recorder in your hands - be aware that each of your movements and adjustments - produces sonic artifacts that you will have to fix later. I was very surprised, when in the beginning - I realized how much I was moving my body, seeking for the "best view", every few seconds. Now I just stand still, and trust.

Section 4.

Experiment with your offline recordings.
You can improve them significantly.
But this is yet another story.

Thanks for good article,

I always try not to move my setup while recording. If I want to adjust position, I stop the recorder and resume in the new position so that I have two different clean takes.

Thanks for the college ayamahambho.

Patience and a good set of headphones (not expensive, but closed) are important to me.
And! Keep an audio recording that looks as failed for a month or two and listen to it than again. It may be a surprise for you.
Good for rainy, boring day.

:wink: