nature recording

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bleyrad

New member
i'm looking into getting very serious about recording nature. my only experience with it thus far has been recording the birds and deer etc. in the forest in my back yard, but i've loved every second of it (minus the nearby highway growl... i can only really record in the middle of the night)

first off, let me state my intention: i'd love to look into doing this sort of thing for a living, at least for a while. i'm 18 years old so i've got plenty of time to get started. i know that there are animal researchers, nature programs and magazines, and travel programs that hire people to do this sort of thing.
what's a good way to get into this? any schooling you'd recommend, or organizations to get in touch with?

secondly, regardless of the "career" side of things, what sort of equipment would be good for this - even as a hobby? i'm thinking very quiet microphones, low-noise battery powered pre-amps, and a battery powered DAT recorder or something. any recommendations?

my dream is to some day be holding an array of mics on a post in the middle of an elephant herd in africa. imagine mixing a live herd in 5.1 :)

thoughts?
 
Whenever these threads pop up there usually aren't too many recomendations for gear because not too many people here do high quality mobile work. You might try searching for some film audio and sound effects forums because they are more into that type of gear. You're on the right track with the types of pieces you will need.

If you really want to be marketable as a pro then get a Nagra deck. They make digital and analog portable recorders and are pretty standard in the film industry. They also have built in pres on some of their decks and the high end versions will record a track with SMPTE time code which is crucial for a lot of film and video work.

The best places to start doing that type of audio work will be colleges with film schools. You can put up a flyer and try to find some gigs that way.

I wouldn't count on making a living. It's hard enough making a living doing popular music and film audio not to mention obscure ambient sound recordings ;)
 
yes, but there are also a lot fewer people trying to do it, as far as i can tell. EVERYBODY wants to be a studio engineer these days. that's been my dream for a while too, but quite frankly, the amount of competition is discouraging, not to mention that i don't necessarily like the thought of living the engineer's life - up all the time holed up in the mixing room, recording bands you don't like comprised of asshole members, getting paid shit wages, and never being able to go anywhere or do anything.
i wouldn't particularily care about the shit wages part, or even the asshole people part, if the job was more adventurous and exciting.


i should maybe clarify a bit, too. i'm not really all that interested in working for film or TV in the traditional sense. i really just want to go record animals in the wild, and i'm wondering if there's anyone who pays for that sort of thing. i remember there was a guy here who recorded various sound samples of animals around the world, then sold the samples to National Geographic and Discovery and the like. i'd love to do that. hell, my girlfriend is a photographer, and she's equally interested in doing wild nature work, so my dream would be to team up with her and form an independant business based on information the two of us gather information on animals - her getting photos and researching behavioural patterns, me getting sound samples.

is that dream just way too unlikely to even bother persuing? because i'm really, REALLY into the idea of it, and i'd pretty much give up any amount of time, effort, money, or whatever, to achieve it.
 
I've done a small amount of nature recordings with a simple minidisc recorder. Seems to work alright. I import them into Sonar and tinker with them then. Good mic is the key.

I also work with several biologists who record sound production by fishes. They use all analogue tape recorders. They claim it is the standard in science for sensitivity reasons.
 
bleyrad said:
i should maybe clarify a bit, too. i'm not really all that interested in working for film or TV in the traditional sense. i really just want to go record animals in the wild, and i'm wondering if there's anyone who pays for that sort of thing.
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Somebody has to pay for the expenses and if there is no market then it's pretty tough to get backing. Doing something like that would classify as a 'labor of love' and that translates to 'you foot the bill'. The only way to do this and get paid would be to either work on a documentary production for Discover, Imax, National Geographic, etc (even that is probably unpaid or paid very little) or do it as part of some educational research where there was a school or government grant picking up the bill.

You may get lucky and pickup a project or two but to rely on that for your main source of income would be pretty tough. You might be able to do the recordings and sell them yourself on the web or distribute through some boutique label but you would most likely have to finance the project yourself.

If it seems like I am a know it all I have had some very cool production jobs and have researched many others. If I was you I would try to find a job that paid for you to travel (doing anything) and then in your free time overseas try to do some recordings.
 
yes, that's very sound advice and the direction i'm starting to lean in. i was just reading that elephants can communicate up to 6 miles in distance due to some subsonic vocalizations. i would love to study that sort of stuff, or at least get the sounds samples for others to study. if i can do research on stuff like that, and come to some sort of conclusion that hasn't yet been realized, i'm hoping that would pave the way towards future research based on government grants.
 
There's a guy that used to post around here that recorded stuff like that with a little mini disc recorder with 2 small microphones placed in his ears....He posted some stuff in the mp3 clinic early last year.Quality stuff....do a seacrh of the mp3 clinic.
 
couldn't seem to find it... tried searching for everything relevant that came to mind.

do you remember anything else about it that could point me in the right direction?

thank.
 
bleyrad said:
couldn't seem to find it... tried searching for everything relevant that came to mind.

do you remember anything else about it that could point me in the right direction?

thank.
Click to expand...

I actually have the mp3's saved on a disc somewhere.I'll see if I can find them and get the titles of the recordings and that might help in finding the original threads that they were posted in.
 
thank you so much.


this stuff is hellishly interesting. i think i'm going to try out binaural myself, if i can find some plans to make mics using those Panasonic omni capsules. of course, a portable recorder is a huge expense, but if i like it enough, maybe one day...
 
You could just get a minidisk recorder with a small pair of omni condenser mics. I have a few friends that make bootlegs of concerts this way and it works surprisingly well. The mics are battery powered and it makes for a compact, easily transportable, recording setup.

It seems that it would also work well for the binaural recordings that you are interested in. Just a thought...
 
well, the Panasonic capsules are around $3 each, so it'd be significantly cheaper to build my own.


i'm looking at getting a portable DAT now - i'd prefer to have no compression, so i don't want minidisc. anyone have any recommendations for a good but very cheap unit with digital outs? currently looking at some Sony TCD-D7's on ebay...
 
all I know is if you record a crow, play it back at half speed and it sounds like a teradactyl (<---sp?) !!!!
 
Sound Professionals deal with mics and Pre-amps that are suitable for this sort of an application. I'd look into binaural.
They carry quality gear. I have one of their 50$ T shaped stereo mic and it sounds surprisingly good.

Check them out!

Oren
 
bleyrad said:
i'm looking at getting a portable DAT now - i'd prefer to have no compression, so i don't want minidisc.
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If price is an issue, I would still consider minidisc. I don't claim to have professsional ears, but I think I have better ears than most. The compression on md is minimal to me and the cost is key!
 
the problem is, consumer-level minidisc doesn't offer half the quality and features of the cheaper DAT recorders. i need low-noise preamps and digitals outs, at the very least. that starts to get into Marantz PMD650 range, which is about $950 US. The Sony DAT, while not quite as good, offers way better overall value for around $200 used.
 
Yes, but DATs tend to require maintence, especially used ones. I'd triple check a used DAT before buying one. The studio I used to work in had a portable DAT and it was out of order half the time.

Oren
 
bleyrad said:
the problem is, consumer-level minidisc doesn't offer half the quality and features of the cheaper DAT recorders.
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Not to mention that most minidisc players have undefeatable copy protection and won't even allow you to digitally export your own recorded tracks.

DAT or Analog is definately the way to go for serious remote recording. Here is some Nagra stuff on Ebay to give you an idea of what they have http://search.ebay.com/search/searc...ult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=nagra

The biggest challenge of remote location recording isn't just getting great sound but having equipment that will actually work by the time you get to the locations. Extreme temps, moisture and dirt will make even the toughest pro decks earn their keep and will make most consumer decks weep in anguish. A $300 recorder isn't worth anything if it breaks down while a $2000 pro deck will be more dependable and easier to field repair.
 
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