Noisy Recording Environments...

[PlugHead]

After (remote) recording a female choir in a neighbourhood church yesterday, I realized how spoiled I am in the normal, "controlled" studio environment. There, I know the environs, and "unknowns" rarely occur and/or get in the way of recording critical musical events. Often in remote recording situations, there are imminent problems with the environment: hum (due to lighting: MH/flourescent, HVAC, etc.), leakage (traffic - air or ground, passer-bys), exteranneous settling sounds (wood creaks, environment reacting to temperature changes, etc...) I often wonder how it's possible to do critical recording in these environments? Do most people book time in these places long after the city goes to sleep? Shut down the HVAC (if possible - most new buildings, this is impossible ), players perform by stand lights/candlelight? How do you deal with these impediments? Seems there's always a catch when moving gear out of the familiar, and into the "real world".

BTW, this is geared towards "critical" recording - not R&R (amps/kit) - large dynamic range, and low noise required...

[PlugHead]

No response(s)...

Maybe this could (should) be moved over to "remote possibilities" - Jules?

[Steve Smith]

Hey, MD, that wouldnt have been WCCC would it?

[Nathanael]

Originally posted by PlugHead
Often in remote recording situations, there are imminent problems with the environment: hum (due to lighting: MH/flourescent, HVAC, etc.), leakage (traffic - air or ground, passer-bys), extraneous settling sounds (wood creaks, environment reacting to temperature changes, etc...) I often wonder how it's possible to do critical recording in these environments? Do most people book time in these places long after the city goes to sleep? Shut down the HVAC (if possible - most new buildings, this is impossible ), players perform by stand lights/candlelight? How do you deal with these impediments? Seems there's always a catch when moving gear out of the familiar, and into the "real world".

You nailed the issues pretty well. The solutions are all pretty "common sense" oriented, like turn off the HVAC- use the facility after hours, be very careful about mic selection - sometime you can't use the omni's.

The other reality in the remote "acoustic" realm is that much of the work is documentary in nature rather than "label release" in nature. Lots of choral societies, local and regional symphonic and chamber groups want a copy of their concert. Distribution is often limited, and they sell "live" albums too. If the recording was made with 150-300 people in the room - it just won't be critically quiet.

If it is an album gig, then you often get to try and pick the best compromise for recording, musos, etc.

The other bit that is definitely applicable for classical is Cedar NoNoise, etc. Even in studio recordings, you get 80 musicians in a room, and there will be noises to edit out - lots of noises (chairs sliding, a bow hitting the stand on a page turn, the trombone player who clears his instrument right at a breath in the oboe solo, etc.).

Even with amateur groups, two or three successive takes will often give you enough to edit around the worst issues.

One other tip is recording several minutes of room noise so that you can edit the start and ends of pieces pretty tight as that's when a lot of movement seems to happen.

You've also got to do some musician education about just how sensitive the mics are. If your director/conductor has recorded critically before, that is a big plus, as they know just how many (ie. all of them) of the little noises are picked up. I had a choral director who was amazed that his whispered mouthing of the words was audible with the choir.

[PlugHead]

Originally posted by mdbeh
Maybe... I'd love to hear Steve Remote's thoughts on this one.

I once had a enourmous suburban church shut off the AC for a recording. I got some seriously dirty looks from the non-musicians in the building. But hey... it sounded better.

In this neck of the woods, it's more likely turning off the heat would get even more of a stir: esp. when it's -45 deg...

[fifthcircle]

Welcome to my world....

Seriously- just do the best you can in these situations. When I record concerts, I have to do a lot of strange things to try to deal with room situations that are "less than perfect." I think the worst was about 3 or 4 years ago, I did a concert recording at USC in the recital hall. It was composition recital so there were ensembles that ranged from solo piano to chamber orchestra. As it turned out, Nelly was giving a concert in the quad right next to the hall. At the steps of the hall, it was 120dB SPL- literally, the entire building was shaking from the massive amount of sound.

Due to the fact that most recordings of live events are documentary in nature, we do the best we can and then just accept the problems. If I can record a dress rehearsal for editing, that helps (especially when it is for radio broadcast). HVAC can sometimes be filtered via FFT or sometimes even looping room sound and phase inverting it. When it is time to do a "serious" (aka released) recording, I get much pickier about rooms. I will usually scout the location to make sure that things like noise won't be a problem. In city locations, I will often insist on recording after about 9:30 or 10:00 at night.

I will also bring lights if the house lights buzz. You can get cheap flood lights that can take 100w bulbs at Home Depot for just a few bucks. I keep a box of them around for sessions.

To avoid light and other creaks, I set the lights at the beginning of the session and leave them. To avoid dimmer buzz, I'll turn lights full up or completely off. Lights will often make noise when they heat up and cool down so they will be turned on early enough so that they are at full operating temperature before the session begins.

Even with all of the prep work, there can still be issues. I did a recording quite awhile back in a silent location. (see here- http://gearslutz.com/board/showthrea...&threadid=6424 ) The room was in the middle of nowhere. In the afternoon, we started to hear dogs barking- quietly, but audible. When we went outside to see where they were, we saw 2 dogs fighting with each other close to a mile away. We just made sure to take plenty of starts and endings so we'd have quiet room sound.

--Ben

[PlugHead]

Ben,
Great insight: thanks! Although I haven't done many multi-channel remotes (most live to 2 track) I have some experience, and most all of it's bad (just kiddin!). I don't like the stress that comes with it, and it's pretty rare to have a budget high enough to pay for the session, let alone setup and tear down...

One thing i do enjoy is gathering outdoor (natural) sounds: a few days ago, I rode in the cockpit of a dogsled and caught the team and their musher (for sound design/composition for a film). Tomorrow I go out again: still needing some important sounds. For interest sake, last time I used a pr. of DPA 4060's (attached inside the rycote on a boom), and they sound splendid. Quite accurate, however, it was a windy day, and with omni's, created too much drama. Tomorrow I'll use the shotgun.

If anyone thinks setting up a (recording) rig for stationary performers can be difficult, boom-poling a rambunctious team of dogs while operating the recorder in a bouncing sled poses quite a challenge: that's why this time I have an assistant