Outside Car Sounds Recording

[rkruz3]

Im having issues with wind when recording outside audio from a car. I want to pick up the tire-on-road noise and maybe a little of the engine grunt noise.
Im using a GoPro and its internal mics with a foam wind reducer (called a Windslayer, see pic), but I still pick up significant wind noise even at slow speeds. It's mounted on the car, as shown in the attached picture. I've experimented with external mics for the GoPro, but it is never better than just the GoPro.
Do you have any experience with this, or do you have suggestions for recording good ambient outside sounds from a moving car?
Thanks!

 

[Slouching Raymond]

You're always going to have trouble with wind.
How about mounting a separate mic or handheld zoom type recorder inside the wheel arch, away from the wind.
Edit them back together afterwards.
The foam is stiff, and will perform worse than a dead cat mic cover.
Nice looking Jeep.

 

[spantini]

You need something in front of the mic to deflect the wind. You'll have to improvise placement with a product that already exists - such as a small motorcycle windshield. The difficult part will be in the mounting/attachment.

Cycle Windshield Sample

 

[rkruz3]

I made this deflector and attached it to the side of the jeep with magnets. Rode Video Micro and dead cat cable attached to the GoPro audio input. I aimed it down at 45 degrees, so the mic was aimed towards the ground. But the sound was wrong somehow. It's too muffled, perhaps. Would just a flat deflector be better, like the windshield you attached, leaving all sides open except for the forward-facing wall to deflect the wind noise, and pick up a tire on the ground noise going over rocks and such?

 

[rob aylestone]

I have so many shotguns (the sound kind, as I'm in england, and most of us have never even touched a real gun) and collected wind reducing gizmos of all kinds. I used to do lots of TV work, but that's long gone now. The usual devices are combinations of fur, foam and air space. The only ones I have that can cope with proper wind are the zepplin type. shotgun on an iso mount in free space inside the zepplin - which has a lightweight mesh outer. You then fit a thicker cloth sock to it, then you put that inside the hairy sausage - the long haired cover. Second best - the Rycote softie. Inside these you have a sort of large cell mesh - a bit like those things you scour plates with - a sort of nylon open cell sponge, then around this is a hairy outer. Down side is that it's very front heavy. That all said, most of the sound that you hear on TV in the movies is Foley - the sound of the engine, tyres and wind is fake - recreated in the studio to sound like what we think cars sound like. Even if you record it, wind free, it sounds sterile and nothing like real life. People in the UK think all US cars have tyres that screetch pulling out of a parking space, or turning left at a junction. I actually believed this until I noticed on holiday that most cars simply don't do it and few sound like the movies. Most American popular cars sound like UK cars, apart from ours have gears and clutches. My front wheel drive van screetched when I pulled out quickly the other day and the noise made me jump.

 

[rkruz3]

I have so many shotguns (the sound kind, as I'm in england, and most of us have never even touched a real gun) and collected wind reducing gizmos of all kinds. I used to do lots of TV work, but that's long gone now. The usual devices are combinations of fur, foam and air space. The only ones I have that can cope with proper wind are the zepplin type. shotgun on an iso mount in free space inside the zepplin - which has a lightweight mesh outer. You then fit a thicker cloth sock to it, then you put that inside the hairy sausage - the long haired cover. Second best - the Rycote softie. Inside these you have a sort of large cell mesh - a bit like those things you scour plates with - a sort of nylon open cell sponge, then around this is a hairy outer. Down side is that it's very front heavy. That all said, most of the sound that you hear on TV in the movies is Foley - the sound of the engine, tyres and wind is fake - recreated in the studio to sound like what we think cars sound like. Even if you record it, wind free, it sounds sterile and nothing like real life. People in the UK think all US cars have tyres that screetch pulling out of a parking space, or turning left at a junction. I actually believed this until I noticed on holiday that most cars simply don't do it and few sound like the movies. Most American popular cars sound like UK cars, apart from ours have gears and clutches. My front wheel drive van screetched when I pulled out quickly the other day and the noise made me jump.

thats good insight thanks. Im driving on dirt/rocky roads in the mountains and such. Im trying to capture mostly the crunchy tire on ground sounds and if a little engine grunt creeps in that helps.

 

[rob aylestone]

It's quite fun creating this kind of stuff - you can nick sound effect type stuff from loads of sources, and cubase and the others are great for slipping sliding and blending with the video in a window. One track has the engine revs changing, another wind, another tyres turning, and you can move them and group them and do left/right pans using the automation.

Look at sites like this tyre sound effects

 

[spantini]

Gee Rob. You're taking all the fun out of this. I was preparing a 3 hour power point presentation on recording live auto sounds while in vehicle. I guess I'll have to mosey on over to the How The Heck Do I Record Car Tires On Crunchy Gravel website

 

[grimtraveller]

Even if you record it, wind free, it sounds sterile and nothing like real life

I have never found this. I've recorded outside noise for years and lots with cars, vans, buses and motorbikes, on dry or wet roads and they sound as lifelike as they are. When I float them into songs, they sound good.

Im driving on dirt/rocky roads in the mountains and such. Im trying to capture mostly the crunchy tire on ground sounds and if a little engine grunt creeps in that helps.

If I want those kinds of sounds, I place my handheld Zoom at some point close to where I'm going to drive and then I'll drive by and gtet the sounds and hope there's no thief around who just happens to be passing by who just happens to want a Zoom handheld recorder and who has the supersonic vision to spot the very thing they happen to be looking for.

Another thing I've done if I want traffic sounds is to go to a busy road and record for a length of time. If I'm there long enough, I'm bound to get the sounds I want. You can set your device on walls, on a tree or hold it yourself.
Wind used to be a problem, but a windshield helped. The other thing that helped was not being so concerned about the wind.

 

[rob aylestone]

I spent many happy times in the natural history unit of a tv station known here for a series of wildlife progs. Loads of stuff came in totally mute, being on 16mm film. My strengths were bird wings and creatures like insects eating other insects. The crunch as a bug had its carapace crunched by the bigger creature’s jaws was an old fashioned, push out matchbox. Just a few inches from a U87. Slowed to half speed was even better for bigger crunches. Eagles taking off was a pair of leather old motorcyle gauntlets, together, held by the fingers and flapped up and down. The hardest was people falling down, like they’d collapsed or been shot. I remember a sequence in a cathedral, late at night and a wide shot of a priest at the altar suddenly collapsing. The noise made the other character at the end of the church look up. We discovered that all it did was a quiet rustle. Back in the studio we tried all of us really falling and reality was totally unacceptable. Collapsing onto a cardboard box worked. None of our mobile stuff sounded real at all. Great recordings of the wrong sound for what people were seeing. One of the worst i remember was the script note SFX worm emerging from soil. What noise does a worm make? None at all! Get bucket. Cover hands in washing up liquid soap, squeeze together.