Bought pack of four Corona bottles - in retrospect maybe I should have bought something cheaper, though maybe the quality of the beer may reflect on the sound of the bottle.
EQUIPMENT
My housemate didn't have a C1000, but offered me a pair of Rode NT-5s, so I decided to use them instead of going back into uni to the Studio Help Desk to see if any had been returned. I also borrowed a mic stand, XLR, and a small Phonic mixer for phantom power.
I didn't have the sufficient cables to connect the output of the mixer to the input of the MiniDisc (MD) recorder, so my housemate lent me a Rode NT-3, which has takes a 9V battery. After looking through the menus on the MD, I discovered that it has phantom power which can be switched on and off, so I reverted back to the NT-5. Usefully, I made this discovery before I had started recording anything.
SETUP
I set up the mic over a stone workbench in my basement. I chose the basement because I was less likely to get noise from my housemates and also the room has a good resonance, which I felt would add character to the sound of the bottle.
- When listening to the mic through my headphones I found there was a lot more noise in the room than I had originally anticipated.
- I managed to lessen it by turning off the heating and then turning down the recording level on the MD and emphasising the sounds to get a good level and increase the signal-to-noise ratio. This meant I had to re-record some of the earlier sounds.
- When editing the samples I made need to apply some noise reduction to some of them.
SOUNDS
- All of the sounds I recorded last night were done without the bottle being opened i.e. with beer still inside and with the lid still sealed. This afternoon and this evening I am going to record sounds with open and empty bottles as well as sounds of the bottles being opened, poured etc.
- The bottles have quite a wide dynamic range - the sound of the bottle hitting anything or being hit are quite loud, whereas the sound of the beer moving inside is very quiet. Although this meant I had to keep checking and changing the recording level on the MD, it will give me a good range of sounds for the map.
TIME
I did most of this recording at night between 11pm and 12:45am. Had I stayed up working for another 15 minutes I probably would have recorded the sound of the earthquake.
No comments:
Post a Comment