We decided to summarize some details about field recording, suggesting some tips and tricks, showing people involved in this are, trying to encompass most of the tools and ideas used over the time.
The History of Sound Effects and Field Recording
We will begin talking about the history of sound effects and field recording. Sound effects have always played a major role in the making of Hollywood movies. Frankenstein was produced at Universal Studios in 1931 and was one of the first films to implement location field recording. The sound technician was William Hedgecock. He devised a way to power with a car battery a 16 mm magnetic audio film recorder in the back of an old pickup truck and drove to the top of Mount Baldy in Southern California, where he was able to capture those incredible thunderclap recordings that were used in many sequences throughout Frankenstein. Those thunderclaps remained in Universal Studios sound library and were reused on many other films throughout the years. The technology has advanced light years since those days that William Hedgecock recorded those thunderclaps for Frankenstein high in the mountains above Hollywood almost 90 years ago. The basic fundamentals of creative capturing and sound design have remained the same over time. Over the years ,professinals used a variety of different analog and digital devices to record sound out in the field, starting with the early Nagras and the Swiss-made Stellavox. Then in the early '80s, people started using a device from Sony that was called the PCM-F1. This stereo, battery-powered, portable, digital record revolutionized the way we did sound back then. Unlike the earlier Nagras and Stellavoxes that generated an analog tape hiss, the PCM-F1 gave a CD 16-bit 48 kHz auto quality. That digital signal was recorded right on to a portable video recorder. Those 500 pounds that were being so kindly detonated for me were all recorded with the first digital recorder, the Sony PCM-F1. Inspired by the director Leonard Nimoy, these powerful explosions, along with hundreds of other sound effects elements were all combined to create this spectacular special effects sequence for the destruction of the Enterprise in Star Trek 3, The Search for Spock. Shortly after the Sony DAT and MiniDisc technology revolution, field recordists discovered an audio company out of Japan called Zoom. At that time, Zoom was developing a 4-channel surround portable digital recorder that could fit in the palm of your hand. Later, they came out with a model called the H4, which had better microphones and 4 line and microphone inputs. Very versatile for its time, which enabled me to record literally thousands of surround sound effects. As a sound designer and field recordist, you really never know when these unique sound opportunities will present themselves. Just the fact that I had that handy recorder with me all the time really allowed me to record in a more versatile way. The costs widely vary when it comes to this type of professional sound recording equipment. To work on a Hollywood production today requires a substantial amount of investment in recording gear to even get started. The most widely-used professional field recording and production sound recording systems starts at the high end with the Zaxcom Deva, The Aaton Cantar X3, the sound Devices 6 series, the Roland R-88, the Tascam HS-P82, and now Zoom has introduced the new F8. All of these units record at the highest resolution possible, which is 24-bit 192 kHz, and capable of recording up to between 10 and 12 channels.
Here are some examples of affordable gear that can be used to start operating in the field:
Tascam DR05x
Tascam DR07x
Tascam DR40x
Tascam gear provides you with a professional range of battery powered microphones that can be used in a single track field recording setup. They all have phantom power incorporated, support SD cards, two built in microphones. Can be used solely, as well as linked, DR05 and 07 series have omnidirectional microphones, whilst DR40 have XY and AB alignment options. For XY pattern (also known as the coincident pattern), you will get the microphones position very close together, pointing one at another, giving your captured material a more mono compatible feature, but also when you try to record a moving target. For AB pattern, having microphones spread, getting them in a V or parallel position, allowing to record ambient sounds.
You can form your own rig for operating linked devices, as described in the following setup, using Zoom devices:
Take 2 Zoom F8s that synchronize them using the SMPTE timecode features, which will allow you to have up to 20 battery-powered channels out on the field. Both Zooms are linked to a Zoom FRC-8 companion mixer controller, which provides you extreme versatility over all your multi-track field recordings.
