The 'Field Recording Exchange' Thread

[Ongelegen]

I notice more and more people on here are getting portable recorders and getting into recording random stuff. I though it would be a cool idea to have exchange thread where people can share their recordings. Quality is not an issue, a shitty recording better than no recording and can perhaps in some way inspire people. So if you don't own a portable recorder then just use your phone, dictaphone, build in PC mic etc.

If you're interested then grab your recorder and record a interesting, unique, messed up, weird or whatever type of sound you want and post it here. I was thinking of keeping this just to a single or few files a time to keep this thread rolling, but if you want to share more sounds or packs you're certainly welcome to do so. Upload it where it suits you: SC, file hosting sites, own hosting etc.

Archive

Ambience:
Airport Hall - Ongelegen
Rain & Thunder - deadly habit
Rain, Thunder & AIrplanes - Ongelegen
Fireworks - wormcode


Household:
Office Chair Creaks - Ongelegen
Random stuff in the Garage - Artie Fufkin
Matches Lighting & Extinguishing - Ongelegen
Glass - Hakala
Magazine Slaps - dubsteppe
Paper - Ongelegen

Industrial:
Hydraulics, Power Tools, Sheet Metal... - efence

Musical:
Snaps & Woodsblocks - dubsteppe
Bells - Ongelegen
Guitar String Scrapes - Ongelegen
Djembe - dubsteppe

Nature:
Branches & Twigs - wormcode

[wormcode]

We tried this before and it didn't go too well. Up for giving it another go though.

[dubesteppe]

Good Idea! heres my contribution of snaps and woodblock hitshttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/27509821/SNAP%2 ... AMPLES.rar
Also for convenience i think you should include in your description that one shots should be the preferred format. It makes it easier then chopping out individual hits.

[Ongelegen]

We tried this before and it didn't go too well. Up for giving it another go though.

Oops, dont remember

Good Idea! heres my contribution of snaps and woodblock hitshttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/27509821/SNAP%2 ... AMPLES.rar
Also for convenience i think you should include in your description that one shots should be the preferred format. It makes it easier then chopping out individual hits.

Will check it out tomorrow

Don't agree completely with the one shots, if there are only a few like the one I posted there is no problem, unless you are lazy

[dublerium]

I'm getting my field recorder next week hopefully and will defs make a contribution or two if I remember! Going for either the tasmcam dr-40 or the sony pcm m10

[dubesteppe]

Good Idea! heres my contribution of snaps and woodblock hitshttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/27509821/SNAP%2 ... AMPLES.rar
Also for convenience i think you should include in your description that one shots should be the preferred format. It makes it easier then chopping out individual hits.

Will check it out tomorrow

Don't agree completely with the one shots, if there are only a few like the one I posted there is no problem, unless you are lazy

Your ONGELEGEN sample packs are top notch! Have you ever thought of doing one of "organic sounds" ? Like recoding yourself tearing bark of trees, crunching dry leaves, breaking celery sticks, water slapping the pavement. Anything to get cool textures. I think that would be a great pack!

[dubesteppe]

I have another question for you if you don't mind.

I was listening to your sample packs and I noticed that there is no noise floor(room tone) in any of your samples. You will notice in one or two of my samples(that I uploaded) that there is a noticeable noise floor ( because the sample was initially very quiet, and i had to increase the volume which further amplified the noise floor.) Is there a good way to get rid of this? I have tried using noise removal plugins but they make the sample sound very thin afterwards. I have also tried applying a gate to the sample, but it tends to ruin any decay the sample has (note: the threshold was as low as I could possibly go without having the noise floor present.)

Also, I went on your website and saw your diy binaural mic setup you have. Its pretty neat! What was the cost of building the two mics? I'm intrigued to try this myself, but make a pocket sized recorder.

[Artie_Fufkin]

^^You could try duplicating your track and applying the noise removal to the duplicate and mixing in the affected track with the original. If you want to get the noise gate threshold lower, you could increase the level before the gate and then turn it back down after the gate if you don't have enough headroom, but that doesn't get rid of the noise throughout the recording... I have problems with noise as well, even if it's only audible after a lot of compression :p

This sounds like a great thread. I'll look around on my harddrive for some recordings and post em up later.

[Ongelegen]

Your ONGELEGEN sample packs are top notch! Have you ever thought of doing one of "organic sounds" ? Like recoding yourself tearing bark of trees, crunching dry leaves, breaking celery sticks, water slapping the pavement. Anything to get cool textures. I think that would be a great pack!

Thanks. Yeah I thought about it, but haven't done any 'messy' stuff yet as I record the stuff in my bedroom studio. Recording isolated sounds outside is hard with the binaural setup as the mics are omni. I have things like this on my list though so perhaps at some point I will do these.

Re the noise question: This is something I struggled with aswell when I first started to record things and was using a Zoom H1. Unless you use decent equipment there will be a noticable noise floor especially when recording quiet sources. Noise removal plugins are a bit of a hit or miss I find. And should only be applied subtly to slightly reduce the noise and not to completely remove it as they degrade the audio. It takes some time experimenting to know how the best use it and how much. I dont like using gates on sfx recordings, but they are great for vocals though. Generally you'd want to record as hot as possible (without clipping obviously) with the lowest possible gain to maximize the dynamic range between the peaks and the noise. Something I learned recently is that you don't need to bring up the sample to 0dBFS as you will never let it sit in the mix this loud, by normalizing it you're only bringing up the noise floor as you mentioned too. It really comes down to experimenting.

The complete dummy head build around €50. The other mics (same capsules) were like €35 for a pair. You can check out the DIY thread here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=174106 around the 4th page or so.

[Ongelegen]

A new one from me.

Soundcloud

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Mate your sounds are so cleanly recorded thanks for the download man.
Ill upload the one i recorded of me loading the dishwasher

[dubesteppe]

Your ONGELEGEN sample packs are top notch! Have you ever thought of doing one of "organic sounds" ? Like recoding yourself tearing bark of trees, crunching dry leaves, breaking celery sticks, water slapping the pavement. Anything to get cool textures. I think that would be a great pack!

Thanks. Yeah I thought about it, but haven't done any 'messy' stuff yet as I record the stuff in my bedroom studio. Recording isolated sounds outside is hard with the binaural setup as the mics are omni. I have things like this on my list though so perhaps at some point I will do these.

My friend and I recently found these leaves that were around 20 inches in diameter. We dried them out and recorded ourselves crunching them in my garage. This way we were able to record the messy sounds in a clean environment. If you have access to a garage you could do this as well.

Is there less of a noise floor on more expensive, higher bit rate mics?


BTW for anyone looking for some cool household percussion and organic field recordings check this out http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/sam ... les-533702

[Ongelegen]

Is there less of a noise floor on more expensive, higher bit rate mics?

Mics aren't tied to certain max bitrate, unless they are USB mics. You can record any bitrate your interface or recording device allows. But yes, expensive (better) mics have a higher S/N ratio. Also, don't forget the amp of the recording devices plays a huge role too. No point in using a high-end mic with a noisy amp. The other way around can help you get cleaner recordings though as you can turn up the gain of the amp without gaining too much off the mic noise, thus increasing the difference in dynamic range between the peaks and the noisefloor.

[Artie_Fufkin]

Did some recordings of random stuff in the garage. EX, are the noise levels in these okay?
http://www.mediafire.com/?ha73w1ps73faest

[Ongelegen]

Thanks for sharing. Yeah one can work with that, some of them have more noise than others, but most of them can be used in music productions i'd say. The subtle noise can be masked by other elements within a tune. Hell the noise might even add to the vibe of the tune

Some have a nasty AC buzz in them, I don't know what equipment you used but it sounds like interference from other electronic devices, maybe it's the device it self, don't know. A gentle lowpass can help to get rid of this.

Some of them are clipping, i'm guessing this happened during recording. Digital clipping should be avoided. It's best to do a couple of test performances (if possible) to check where you're peaking and adjust your gain accordingly.

Bucket 7 to 11 are the cleanest, this is what you should be aiming for. They are pretty loud sources so it may not be possible to achieve this on recordings of quiet sources.



PS: I'm no professional so please do not take my advice/info on recording, not necessarily this post & thread, as the gospel truth on the matter

[Ongelegen]

Good Idea! heres my contribution of snaps and woodblock hitshttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/27509821/SNAP%2 ... AMPLES.rar
Also for convenience i think you should include in your description that one shots should be the preferred format. It makes it easier then chopping out individual hits.

Will check it out tomorrow

Forgot to check these earlier. There is some nice stuff in there, especially the snaps and block hits

[dubesteppe]

Good Idea! heres my contribution of snaps and woodblock hitshttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/27509821/SNAP%2 ... AMPLES.rar
Also for convenience i think you should include in your description that one shots should be the preferred format. It makes it easier then chopping out individual hits.

Will check it out tomorrow

Forgot to check these earlier. There is some nice stuff in there, especially the snaps and block hits

thanks! i'm about to record some crackly organic sounds. ill post em when im done

[wormcode]

Here's some hits of I recorded of me destroying tree branches. Sometimes I process sounds through tape reels and such, I forget what I did to these though but they probably got sent through tape (I love noise). I like layering them with snares/claps.

Soundcloud

[Ongelegen]

Those are some snappy hits, nice. Noise definitely has it's place.

[dubesteppe]

Here's some hits of I recorded of me destroying tree branches. Sometimes I process sounds through tape reels and such, I forget what I did to these though but they probably got sent through tape (I love noise). I like layering them with snares/claps.

Soundcloud

I like these!