Recording in the desert

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I dont beleive that would be true in the desert. There would be echos and reverberations from the ground.

Only those irregularities that allow the sound to be reflected back to the micorphone will do so, and that would require a reflecting surface perpendicular (or close to it) to the angle at which the sound wave hits the ground. Soundwaves hitting flat ground will reflect away, not back.

Plus, unless those irregularities were the size of a large boulder or wall or somthing, only the highest frequencies would be reflected because the wavelengths of the lower sounds would just swamp the obsticles.

And finally, much depends upon the texture of the ground. The harder the ground the more it will reflect; the looser, more it will absorb. Hard drypack dirt will reflect far better than sandy loam or desert wildflowers, etc. But then again, hard drypack dirt will reflect the sound away, not back towards the mic. The majority of reflection will be coming from first reflections betweeen the source and the mic, beyond that, in an open field they'll approach zero.

You're right, it's not a pefect anechoic environment, but if you're talking relatively flat surrounding terrain with open horizons, it's about as close as you can get without tiling a 10 ft circle of the ground around the mic in foam pyramids .

Plus the wind would definetly not make a desert recording sound like an anechoic chamber recording.

No, of course not. I was talking acoustics. Hell, you'll also have sounds of wildlife, overhead aircraft, and stuff like that too.

G.

 

[ofajen]

Do you think that if I tried recording vocals in the desert they would come out flat? I've thought about it for a long time, but I'm confident I'd be able to get a good enough sound to where I could add artificial reverb once back home. Just wondering what other peoples' thoughts were on this...

One day I'd like to record in natural areas...caves, etc...get true sounds and use no effects. I think that would be insane.

If you are going to do this, I recommend you check out gear from Sound Devices (www.sounddevices.com). They're pretty much top of the range in field audio gear. The 700 Series recorders are pricey, though. I use their MixPre into my MicroTrack, instead. The MixPre serves double duty as a great two channel preamp in the studio, too.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[ecktronic]

Only those irregularities that allow the sound to be reflected back to the micorphone will do so, and that would require a reflecting surface perpendicular (or close to it) to the angle at which the sound wave hits the ground. Soundwaves hitting flat ground will reflect away, not back.

Plus, unless those irregularities were the size of a large boulder or wall or somthing, only the highest frequencies would be reflected because the wavelengths of the lower sounds would just swamp the obsticles.

G.

Dont forget that some deserts have hills also.

Eck

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Dont forget that some deserts have hills also.

Which is exactly why I said

if you're talking relatively flat surrounding terrain with open horizons

Re-read the OP. In the second paragraph he's talking about the idea of using natural reverb in caves and such, but in the first he's talking about using The Great Outdoors to get a recording untainted by verb so he can get a theoretically "flat" recording to which he can pump verb back in later.

The fact is, he has the right basic idea when he's thinking that he can use The Great Outdoors as an near-anechoic environment, acoustically speaking. But as many here have shown, caveats and trickeries abound in taking advantage of that basic fact. It's not an awful idea, but it is one that's not as straightforward as it may seem at first blush.

G.

 

[sk8bobby10]

Thatd get tiring tho, think about getting all sweaty and overheating when youre trying to lay down some vocals in the middle of the desert..

 

[semidiablan]

Wow, what a great read...It would definitely be hellish tracking, but for me that's sort of the point. One thing I didn't think about was the destruction of gear in the sand, that's one thing that would not be so fun.

"The performance would be awesome, Think about that AC/DC type of scream when a rattlesnake bites your balls."

LOL yea man!

ofajen thanks for that sounddevices link, that will come in handy. Anyway, yea I don't have the gear or time or money to do this right now but I'd eventually love to reach this. The desert is really inspiring to me and it's just one of those things where if I'm inspired I can do things 100% better. I also want to mess around with real natural acoustics to get reverb as opposed to effects or rooms.

I agree it sounds awesome in theory, but would be hard to pull off. I know it could be done though.

 

[Ironklad Audio]

well...speaking of tracking in the desert...

i'm going to try to bootleg the RATM reunion at coachella...i'll let you know how it sounds if i do

 

[semidiablan]

Oh man! RATM! I don't know if I can afford all three days but I want to see RATM, I got into them after they broke up. I hope I can get a ticket for Sunday...

 

[Ironklad Audio]

nope...sold out