Recording Rainfall

C

charleyvonne

New member
Hi folks,

You might remember that I posted a question regarding a "front to back" effect in a stereo recording a few weeks back, well, I've got another question relating to the same track:

How do I go about making myself a nice, clean and crisp rainfall sound? I want to record a song where the listener can visualize him/her self walking down the street in the rain, with cars, drains and different surfaces being drenched with rainfall. To do this properly and easily, I'm going to need to layer the entire track piece by piece, with a nice, level rainfall sound behind it as a base to work from. I've hunted the net, but can only find 10 second clips, which IMO are very poorly recorded and sound muddy.

I'd prefer to record this in stereo, but as I only have 1 AKG Perception 400 and 1 Samson Q7, I doubt I'll get an even stereo mix. Another thing is that I obviously don't need to get my mics wet, but can't have the sound of an umbrella in my recording, so I think I'm up that famous creek, without that paddle!!

Any advice is greatly appreciated,
many thanks!
 
If you've only got those two mikes, then that's what you would use. I'd try for a stereo recording. There may be differences in the mikes that you could reduce later with EQ or whatever. However, when you consider that the rainfall is going to be in the background, differences may not matter that much.

I agree it's not a good idea to get the mikes wet, but don't discount an umbrella. So long as you can get it high enough above the mikes while still affording protection, noise of rain on it may not matter.

What you could also consider is to get one of those really cheap plastic gazebo things, and put an old blanket over the top to muffle the impact of water on plastic.
 
I took a (single, because I didn't have two) AKG C414 in omni mode out on the front porch and got some nice rain sounds without getting the mic wet. I guess the rain was hitting the roof of the porch, but I couldn't distinguish that from the sound of the rain hitting the ground
 
When recording rain you are actually recording the sound of the rain hitting something, the ground, the roof, a lake.

I recorded the sound of rain hitting a tin roof for an album, it was recorded from inside the roof, still sounded like rain and the mics were dry. In fact it was actually someone outside with a hose, it was raining which is where the idea came from but by the time the mic was set up it had stopped. So out with the hose. It did sound like rain on the roof in the control room.

Cheers

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
I recorded the sound of rain hitting a tin roof for an album, it was recorded from inside the roof, still sounded like rain and the mics were dry. In fact it was actually someone outside with a hose
Click to expand...
This is much what I was going to say. I'd work a simple setup with a flat piece of material suspended like a tabletop on some bricks or milk crates or whatever you got. (It doesn't have to be pretty ;) )

I'd make one side shorter than the other so that the water runs down a controlled side instead of just dripping and pooling wherever the water pleases, and run the mic cable(s) in under the high and dry end with the mic(s) set up underneath the material.

As far as the material type, I'd experiment with what I could get my hands on or buy cheaply at Home Depot or the local dump, such as plexiglass, plywood, a sheet of tin, etc., and pick the one that had the kind of sound I was looking for, sharper or duller. And then just let a hose or sprinkler "rain" on the top of it.

One advantage to doing it this way is that you don't necessarily need two mics to get stereo. You can use one mic, record two different tracks sequentially with the same mic and pan them separately. It may not be true stereo, but considering you're using it as a background effect, it should work just fine for the purpose, I would think.

G.
 
I'm lucky enough to have a patio under shelter, so I just ran one mic cable out the window, set the mic up on the patio, and recorded the rain for about 30 minutes. Then I cut it up into pieces, put the pieces on seperate tracks so they played simultaneously and panned them all over the place. I think I was trying to explore holophonic sound at the time. Sort of trying to expand the sound beyond the stereo field. My ADD saw that I didn't get far with that part though.
 
legionserial said:
I'm lucky enough to have a patio under shelter.
Click to expand...

Likewise . . . and I've also got a carport with a tin roof. So I had a choice of rain sounds; a softer sound from the veranda, and the more percussive sound off the tin roof . . . so I recorded both. The verandah faces the road (unsealed) so I also got nice squishy wet sounds from cars going past.
 
Hi all,

Many thanks to everyone for all the advice! I'm sorry I haven't replied earlier, I'm not at home right now. I'll get cracking on a few things and see what happens, alternatively, maybe I'll buy a good quality track to use.

Once again, many many thanks to everyone concerned here, God bless!
 
How 'bout a rainstick? The trick is to hold it at about a 35-degree (off horizontal) angle and turn it slowly.
 
I've actually used one of those sound machines...

for sleep in the past. At the time, I simply mic'd it onto 1 track and overdubed the other for stereo. It worked well for me.
 
Hi peeps!!

Sorry for not replying for ages, I've been out of my hutch for a bit, but they caught me and bunged me back in here again, so here I am!!

Stevie, I thought a friend of mine on Facebook was joking when she said to use one of those!! Where would I find one in the UK? I don't even know what one looks like lol! I'm a bit disappointed with myself at the mo... We had torrential rain the night before last, but I was (and still am) quite poorly, so couldn't bring myself to stand out there and record it... Now it's all sunny, bummer! Still gorgeous weather though!! Lol!

Many thanks!
 
Well, Charlie, I had no idea, but Leigonserial came thru for you, so there you go.

Good luck.
 
Hey,
Thanks for the info, I'll take a look at that and see what I can come up with. Many thanks for the help everyone, take care!
 
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