Photographs with Location Sound

[LabRat]

Are sounds a higher or lower pitch at greater altitudes? I hiked everywhere as a kid, cannot remember; lost most of my hearing in the war and more later. I am skeptically exploring new-tech hearing aids - a total b*tch to tune. Just wondering if the difference is worthwhile pur$uing.

If the sounds are different I hope Coran pursues the realm.

Altitude no, distance yes... There is that Doppler effect thing where a distant train whistle increases in pitch as it gets nearer to you, and falls after it passes...

As for hearing aids, depends on you hearing (loss) pattern, as I understand you can become hypersensitive to other peaks you can still hear...

Steve K

[Jac@stafford.net]

As for hearing aids, depends on you hearing (loss) pattern, as I understand you can become hypersensitive to other peaks you can still hear...

I cannot hear little bird tweets, my wife, childrens' voices, the turn signal or warnings in my car, the shutter on any camera, my footsteps and much more. Am I blessed or what?

Before I retired my boss would occasionally complain that I was near deaf and my response was that if the company wanted me to hear they could spend the money to buy hearing aids. No go. It was better to retire happy.

[Corran]

Steve, I am out recording right now but I will have to email you later re: Ribbon mics. I have some that need work. I love ribbon mics but obviously not for outdoor recording!

[LabRat]

OK, I'll answer questions... Have the make & model # handy...

Contrary to popular belief, ribbon mics are fragile, but also strong at the same time IF USED CORRECTLY!!! That is, if they are not exposed to strong blasts of air directly from the front or back, like directly in front of a kick drum or bass cabinet, but if the mic was placed slightly off - axis so the wave blast would skim the front or rear, they would be fine... Even at 140 db for ours!!! Blowing into them brings bad news...

They can be used for outdoor recording, but they are a bit heavy and clunky, (and do need the pre-preamp) as long as you are not in strong wind... So quiet, calm nature can be ok...

Steve K

[Corran]

Can't control the wind so taking them outside is a bad proposition. And they need too much gain which induces too much noise in quiet environments. And the high-frequency fall-off makes them very colored. Not a good choice. But I used them all the time for music recordings, from guitar cabinets to symphony orchestras.

[LabRat]

Can't control the wind so taking them outside is a bad proposition. And they need too much gain which induces too much noise in quiet environments. And the high-frequency fall-off makes them very colored. Not a good choice. But I used them all the time for music recordings, from guitar cabinets to symphony orchestras.

A small condenser is fine for that, but the ones with the built-in FET preamp will sometimes have a noise floor on the most quiet recordings...

Steve K

[Corran]

Well apologies for all of the gear talk above. But I did make some more recordings today at Amicalola Falls, the tallest waterfall in GA. This park is just up the road from my place and I photograph there all the time, so I paired the recording with pictures from the last 3 years (120 and 4x5 film).

I tried to make recordings that had some unique elements in the foreground or left-to-right. As noted, the water sounds paired with the static images can be difficult to translate. I will continue experimenting here and next will try for more wind, leaves, etc. once my new wind screens come in.

[CreationBear]

A nice set of photos--I'd definitely like to see the stream/riparian vegetation shot again if you happen to have the link on LF.

Otherwise, I'll look forward to your amassing your sound library--I've spent an unconscionable amount of time waist-deep in streams here in the Southern Highlands, and for myself the charm of their "music" has always been that classic mix of repetition interspersed with novelty.

[Gary Beasley]

I noticed while listening with ear buds the sound is predominated by the high frequencies. Are the lowers harder to get a good record of? A good undertone of the lows can give more sense of power to water movement where appropriate.

[Corran]

Hi Gary! I won't go into all the intricacies of microphone design and frequency response but one of the things I noticed yesterday was that there wasn't that much low frequency to pick up. I didn't take a single photo yesterday, and focused on listening, and it was an interesting experience. I used to just sit in the woods and listen/meditate, but since starting photography I tend to focus on visual aspects rather than auditory. That's another reason I am doing this, to help re-focus my attention. Anyway, the flow of water at Amicalola had a preponderance of high frequency and the water really doesn't "pound" down. A consequence of the cascading falls, rather than hard drops.

A couple weeks ago I was out at a different falls and noticed the pounding of some sheer drops. I want to go back and record that. But I didn't want to "fake" it at Amicalola by boosting the bass artificially with EQ (and it still wouldn't sound the same).