BEYOND MUSIC
In over 20 years of working as a location recordist and sound designer, I have recorded and produced audio for interactive media, sound libraries, movie trailers, film, virtual reality and augmented reality. Yes, that is as fun as it sounds! In doing so, I’ve discovered that each of these formats has different needs and requires a different approach to creating the content. In this article, I’m going to share what I’ve learnt.
CAPTURE
The most important thing when recording is to capture a great sound; we have to hunt down those rare and interesting sound opportunities like a photographer chasing the perfect sunset. Location recording is much more than just pointing a microphone at something noisy – it is about discovering a world so rich with incredible sound sources that we will never run out of things to record.
“The process of laying out tracks and building up sonic worlds allows for lots of creativity, but the underlying consideration is communicating with the audience about things seen and unseen.”
The source sound is everything, and whatever can capture that sound becomes the best tool at the time. I’ve had people laugh when they learn that I sometimes use a Zoom H1, and I chuckle back knowing that my H1 recordings are in the official Captain Marvel movie trailer. Remember, Academy Award-winning Hollywood sound designer Ben Burtt (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc.) did some of his best work with analogue tape and razor blades...
The core consideration is to start with clean usable sounds, and I’ve always strived to achieve this while recording. Our recording skills are critical
