Date: March 8, 2020

Time of Day: 5:30pm

Subject: None Planned

Location: Central Vancouver/False Creek

Distance Covered: 12km

Notes: Another quiet Sunday evening so I figured I’d roll around and see what I could gather. In False Creek there were some kids doing BMX tricks off of planters in this open park/courtyard area. Surprisingly aggressive freewheel sounds on those smaller bikes. Sparse walla with a few people milling about before a hockey game too.
Then rolled over to Science World where there was a pretty busy playground with lots of walla from children and their parents.
Nothing too crazy but happy with the stereo image from the stealth recording rig. I can turn this on now when I leave, and just let it record for my entire ride. Makes it easy to stop and just listen for a bit.

Date: February 9, 2020

Time of Day: 3:00pm

Subject: None Planned

Location: Central Vancouver/False Creek

Distance Covered: 15km

Notes: Quiet Sunday afternoon, and with no rain (not that I mind the rain at all), figured I’d go for a ride around town and see what I could record.
I noticed some roads were closed and found myself in a protest rally with a hundred people or so.
I got some applause from the crowd but with speeches and other sounds in the area it wasn’t ideal for anything other than listening and participating in the demonstration briefly.

I headed down to False Creek around Science World in particular, there’s always lots of people around and today was no exception. It’s a bit traffic heavy (sky train and sea planes included) but pretty authentic for Vancouver. Some kids smacking a metal statue behind me and the xylophone from a sound sculpture nearby add a bit of unique detail as well.

After heading along the seawall some more I came across some casual street soccer games. It’s too much in my wheel house for me to ignore getting some quality reference and just hearing how players and casual fans react. Fun watching for a bit and these players put on a show, definitely worth going down again just to hang out and watch.

Got some more traffic and other generic sounds, but overall not bad for a bit of unexpected stealth recording.

Date: February 2, 2020

Subject: Cardboard Box

Microphones: Cold Gold Contact Microphones

Purpose: Debris, gore, and just exploring

Notes: I assembled a stand for my bikes over the weekend, which came in a long narrow box. I knew it wouldn’t fit into the paper recycling and had to break it down. Well, if I’m going to break it down I might as well record it for the crowd source library and my just to see what I got.

I used tape to secure the contact microphones to different sides of the box and then tried cutting, ripping, tearing, and just doing whatever I could to get different sounds out of this thing.
The resonant qualities of the box made a lot of the tearing/cutting sound larger than life. This could easily sound like splintering wood, tearing up trees, monster footsteps or sweetener to debris sounds.

Date: February 1, 2020

Time of Day: 11:00am

Subject: Wind Gusts

Location: Upper Shinglebolt Trail, North Vancouver

Distance Covered: 18km (rig dropped at 6km)

Notes: Rain and snow finally went away for a bit, so I decided to see if I could get some of the wind that had picked up over the weekend.
Bit more foliage that I would’ve liked, but got some really nice clean gusts through the leaves.

Date: January 11, 2020

Time of Day: 5:00pm

Subject: No deliberate purpose, but really windy evening and with cold temperatures I figured it’d keep people away and allow for some better recordings.

Location: Kitsilano/Point Grey, Vancouver

Distance Covered: 15km (lots of stopping and recording)

Notes:
I’ve been having some good luck lately with the Micro Usi’s attached to the side of my backpack, it has mesh straps on the front and easily conceal the microphones on either side. After trying one evening riding around and recording (didn’t yield much), I though I’d try different microphone placement and still allowing for deliberate stopping and recording.
This is why my bag is propped up on my bike in the photo above, the microphones are pointed at the ocean. So in this instance, it’s a bit odd. But other locations where I’ll just sit down with my bag in front of my, it allows me to record discretely and with a consistent microphone setup.

There were wind warnings all over the coast this weekend and with high tide it made for some great quality wave crashes.
Made my way around Kits beach and over to Granville island, it was dark and pretty deserted on the streets but there were some workers pushing around carts and a bit of walla from people around. Hoping some of that will come in handy with some ambience prototying I’m working on in Unreal.

Field Recording

Capilano Pacific Trail

Date: January 5, 2020

Time of Day: 10:30am

Subject: Rain (Moderate/Heavy)

Location: Capilano Pacific Trail, North Vancouver

Distance Covered: 12km (Drop rig @ 3km)

Notes:
It was raining really heavy all morning, so I wanted to test out the drop rig in some proper rain.
By the time I got to a quiet spot on the trail it was basically torrential, setting up the drop rig in the rain isn’t the easiest, but worked out just fine. Ideally there’s be some way to cover/shelter the microphones naturally without affecting the sound of the environment I’m trying to capture. But a little “de-plosive” and some EQ cleans it up nicely.
Overall fidelity was good and was able to get both a heavy and a bit lighter/moderate rain samples as the rain subsided over about a half hour.

Date: December 30, 2019

Time of Day: 11:15am

Subject: Light rain in forest

Location: Upper Shinglebolt Trail, North Vancouver

Distance Covered: 15km (Drop rig @ 9km)

Notes:

North shore was wrapped in fog and rain was in the forecast, so I wanted to see what another drop rig would yield.
Unfortunately I missed the rain, I wanted to see how the MicroUsi’s hold up, but there was enough loose water in the trees that there was steady water hitting the foliage and leaves of small bushes and plants around the forest floor.
I dropped the rig several meters off the trail and attached the Usi’s to a small tree about 5ft off the ground. Far enough away from the dam that a HPF can take care of the rumble, and not too many planes or hikers.
Overall really like the fidelity and I think it turned out well.

Date: December 25, 2019

Time of Day: 11:30am

Subject: Pacific Northwest Ambience (single perspective)

Location: Capilano Pacific Trail, North Vancouver

Distance Covered: 12km (Drop Rig @ 4km)

Notes:

After the drop rig was successful last outing I wanted to give it another shot but without quite so much of a wash of white noise. The distant river in the last field recording ended up sounding too washy and non-distinct. So I aimed to get a bit farther away from the river, I came across a small stream in a clearing which provided some good context and set the drop rig up with the mics about 3ft apart on some downed trees.
This turned out much better, had great stereo localization because of the small stream serving as a focal point. Traffic and unwanted ambient sounds were much lower and it was just a better field recording overall.

Date: December 22, 2019

Time of Day: 11am

Subject: Pacific Northwest forest ambience (single perspective). Trying a dedicate “drop recording rig” while going on a trail run.

Location: Capilano Pacific Trail, North Vancouver

Distance Covered: 12km (Drop Rig @ 5km)

Notes:

I’ve tried balancing trail running and field recording before, but it has a few big drawbacks;

• The running suffers due to stopping and starting whenever an ideal sound source is located

• The recording suffers because someone nearby (no idea who) is breathing really heavily

• Additional safety risk. Trying to dress appropriately (especially in winter) for something that is suitable for running, but then sitting/standing for extended recording periods is near impossible.

So my intention was to head out on a trail run that was an out-and-back, so I would double back and return to where I came. Stash my recording rig along a trail head or somewhere early enough to maximize recording time. Then return and collect the recording rig on my way out.

George Vlad recently posted a great video detailing some of how he accomplishes his wonderful unattended field recordings (LINK). He uses a waterproof drop bag as a way to conceal and protect his recorder while leaving it unattended.

I opted for the same trail area as yesterday, I know it well and it would allow me the most confidence when leaving it.

Recorder was stashed around 5km into a 12km total run, which provided about 30 minutes of unattended recording time.

The rig and waterproof bag worked great, any issues with this recording were due to the time of day and location choice. Waters were still moving fast from the recent rainfall and with the dam still open it’s hard to avoid the sound of rushing water within the whole area. Random pass bys of the rig from hikers or runners had great localization and the frequency response of the recording was quality from overhead plane bys. But I feel it was a bit too washy for much use beyond experimentation.

Date: December 21, 2019

Time of Day: 8am

Subject: Pacific Northwest forest ambience (multiple perspectives). Could use some additional water recordings (streams, rivers, etc.)

Location: Cleveland Dam/Coho Trail, North Vancouver

Distance Covered: 5km

Notes:

Recent rain had made all waterways in the area really active. The dam was fully open and all rivers were fast moving. Rather than try and fight this I opted to make that the focus for the day. Recording the dam spillway from above and a overlook about halfway down. Then migrating to a river near the fish hatchery below and then some small waterfalls in the area.

Frequency response was good, some sources were best to just capture faithfully because the frequency response is best to preserve. The dam spillway was a good example of something that was best to capture naturally. While smaller waterfalls or elements that were near rivers were best with a more lopsided recording to try and gain additional details. A forest ambience recording that would’ve been a wash with a nearby river proved more useful by putting one side of the microphone pair closer to a smaller stream. It gives the recording more interest and gives context to the nearby river which might just sound like distant traffic without knowledge of the recording.

Field Notes

My aim with these posts are to catalogue techniques, processes, and thought process with regards to field recording and dedicated sound effect recording.
I wanted a place to document the various projects I work on outside of “work”. And hopefully through a more standard documentation process give myself a bit more active reflection to develop and grow further.

Hopefully, someone else will find these useful through either inspiration or direct reproduction of these sounds for themselves.

If you’re inspired to try more field recording just please remember:

• Safety first. Go with a friend (if you’re in Vancouver feel free to reach out).

• Go prepared. Water, snacks, extra layers, and check the forecast. Use common sense.

• Leave any trails cleaner than when you found it. Bring an extra bag and pick up what you can on the trails.

Any sounds from any of these posts will be added to my library, so if you hear a sample and you’re interested in the full length/high-quality version, just shoot me a message.