Sound Out Media

Today I’m listening to hours and hours of field recordings to collect my best sound effects. I have a large sound library of sounds I’ve collected that I use in documentaries, art pieces and soundscape slideshows.

Today I’m listening to recordings I did when I was living in the mountains of southwest Virginia back in 2000-2002. I have a whole range of sounds, and I am hearing them quite differently now than I did when I was living with them every day.

In future episodes of The Roaming Ear, I’ll be doing a piece about my time in Appalachia. Right now for this blog, I’ll share some of my tips for gathering good sound effects:

a) don’t turn your recorder on and off — keep it going for long stretches of time. That way, you won’t accidentally cut the sound off at the beginning or the end. Let it roll.
b) wear headphones. That way, you’ll hear how your recording is being reproduced through your mike. And you’ll hear wind noise, cables banging, so you can remind yourself not to do that.
c) if you’re outside, watch the wind. You can find sheltered spots if a breeze comes up .. like behind a pillar. Or you can use your jacket as a windbreak. I bring an umbrella in my kit .. it cuts the wind noise if you put it in front of your mike.
d) don’t take your dog with you. My constant companion on my mountain soundwalks was BlindDog Wilbur. The sound of Wilbur padding along in the long grass was ever-present. (that’s why my other dog, Ursala, is tied up on the front porch .. by the time she came along, I’d learned my lesson) On the plus side, soundwalking with the pooch gets you great dog sounds.

In future posts, I’ll write about how I archive and store my sounds for easy retrieval when I want to use them.