Sound Recording
In media, sound recording is crucial towards the quality of your product. Sound used is across almost all types of media such as music and film - and so it's important to focus on how the sound changes your product.
What is the overall term used to describe the sound of a room?
Usually, when you first go into a church or a grand hall - you may describe it as being echoey. In media, this wouldn't be professional as there are special technical terms used to describe what you are hearing. Such as, the overall term to describe the sound of a room is acoustics.
There are both good acoustics and bad acoustics when working with sound. There are some steps that you can take in order to give yourself good acoustics, one of them being background noise.
When recording, you will want to have as little background noise as possible (although you may want it for ambience). Think about whether or not the background noise in your audio is going to bother your audience and whether they can focus on the sound you intentionally recorded or if they are distracted by the background.
Another way you can improve the acoustics is by using an appropriate sound level. This may seem straight forward, but your sound level will affect your audience's experience. For example, if your sound is to quite - the audience may become frustrated and may not understand what you have recorded (such as a voice). However, if the sound is too loud - you could potentially damage someones ear drums or loose your audience
.Reverb and Dry/Dead Environments
When you create sound, it will reflect of of surfaces around the room or it will get absorbed by them. Depending on the surfaces or other elements in a room - you end up creating either reverberant or dry/dead environments.
Reverb is where a sound is reflected, causing a large number of reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is absorbed by objects in the room. These objects could be people, furniture and air. To simplify reverberance, you could say the sound is echoey - however the proper terminology in media is reverb and never echoey.
A dry/dead room is where their a small amount of reverb in the room.
Sound Recording Equipment
When recording audio for anything, your going to need professional equipment in order to get the best quality sound. However, there are a number of sound recorders that could be used. Which would be the best option to choose?
The first recorder is a stand-alone recording called Zoom H1N. This recorder is useful for capturing ambient sounds along with your desired audio. The design of the H1N is small enough to fit in your pocket - making it easier to carry around compared to the boom mic.
Compared to other recorders, the zoom H1N isn't as sensitive to background noises - and leaves the audio crisp and clear. With this recorder, you also get a lot of recording versatility. It also has a built in speaker, which will allow you to instantly playback your recording so you can check if everything sounds fine.
One negative about this recorder is that only 32 GB SD cards will work. But even if you can't store too much audio on the film, overall the zoom H1N is a great recorder which will give you excellent quality audio.
The next microphone is called the lavalier. This microphone can clip onto your clothes, right near the subjects mouth. Because it is so close to the mouth, the audio that is recorded will sound very crisp and clear - almost no other noises can be picked up other than the persons own voice. The lavalier is normally used more in interviews and talk shows - as there is more than one camera and so the audience will be able to see any boom mics hanging above. It also means you don't have to go back and forth with a handheld microphone either.
One negative thing about the lavalier is that since it is attached to your clothes, you may forget about it and could potentially touch it and pick up terrible noises in the recording. The microphone is also very sensitive and will pick up the rustling of clothes - making your speech very difficult to listen to.
Another microphone, the Zoom H4/H4N, is also used in interview scenarios. The H4N comes with a fixed microphone, where you hold it up to yourself or the person you want to record. This is good for a fixed interview and you don't need to hold the microphone, but it can't be moved around. The stand itself could also get in the way of your filming, making it difficult to record.
What else could you use a Zoom H4 with? Well, if you were moving about at a location and wanted clear sound - the boom mic is a great option. The boom microphone is commonly used on the news and for filming professional films. The boom mic is a long pole that has to be held up above the subject so that it doesn't appear in frame - creating a kind of immersion or the audience. Holding this could become very tiring, but the best way to relieve stress in the arms is too try and hold it on your shoulders.
Studio Sound Recording
When recording something professionally, you may want to record in a nice secluded place where you aren't likely to pick up background noise in your recording. Your best option for this would be to record in a sound recording studio, because of all the different elements that make the room perfect for recording good quality audio.
The first being acoustic treatment. This is the process of making a room sound better by absorbing unwanted ambience and frequencies. We do this by covering the room in foam panels, which are 'porous' converting sound energy into heat, creating a 'dead' room. These foam panels are called acoustic tiling, which is made up of different shapes that break up the sound waves in order to reduce any reverb. Overall, you are not making the room soundproof - but making it sound better.
Another way to reduce reverb in your room is by having thick walls. Of course, you may not have control over the width of your walls - but if you find a room with thick walls, the room will sound dry compared to a regular room.
Another important element in a sound recording studio is soundproofing. The purpose of soundproofing a room is to stop any sound from outside the studio from leaking in. This could be cars, weather or people making unwanted noise that you can't control - and so soundproofing is the compromise between you and the crying child outside your window. It's also important to remember that soundproofing stops not only outside noise from getting in, but also the noise you create inside the studio from getting out. While recording its good to be mindful about the amount of noise you create while recording. After all, that baby may not want to hear your voice either.
The last element that makes a sound recording studio great for your own recordings is the equipment. Studio equipment is suited for recording singing, voice-overs and podcasts (to name a few).
The first piece of equipment is typically the microphone. For example, some studios use a Rode NT1-A Condenser Microphone. This microphone may cost a lot, but the quality of the audio you would be able to record is amazing. Along with your microphone, it would also be smart to get a pop filter/spit guard - which will protect the microphone from spit and can filter sibilant sounds.
The next piece of equipment is called an acoustic microphone shield. This is used to block unwanted sounds from entering your microphone, so that the microphone only focuses on the sounds you want to record.
Another piece of equipment is the soundcard. The soundcard has several functions; improves recording quality into computer, gives professional XLR inputs and provides control over the input and output level.
Lastly, we have the headphone amplifier/splitter. The purpose of this equipment is to allow up to four people to use headphones by plugging them into the soundcard. It can also be used for using multiple microphones if you wanted to record a live conversation with someone.
Reflection
Overall, I have learnt about how the kind of room I record in can either make or break a recording. The thing I didn't know about sound before starting this course was reverberation. I knew that an echoey room didn't sound great when recording, but I didn't know the correct term to use was reverb (or that a quite room was called dry/dead). I also didn't know anything about sound equipment - assmuming that they must all do the same thing, but I was amazed to see all the different outcomes of audio quality you can get from all these different sound recorders.