Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to go field recording with audio engineer, Foley artist and all-round audio wizard Martyn Ellis (@Ellis_Audio). It was an incredibly fun and rewarding experience, so I thought I'd throw a few sentences together about it on here!
Over a two-day period, we scouted out several locations around Manchester to record interesting ambiences and capture a variety of city soundscapes; all the while experimenting with different configurations of mic types, polar patterns and mic positions, including mid-side & binaural recording setups.
Along with fellow game audio students Adam Whitehead (@AdamRWhitehead), James Balshaw and Josh Hindle (@BassFaceBindle), we set up our recording gear (including our very own disembodied polystyrene head for the binaural sounds, which definitely drew some funny glances from onlookers) and got to work. Whilst we were out and about, we also had a fortuitous encounter with NJ Apostol - the audio designer from White Paper Games - and got to briefly chat about game audio with him. Very cool indeed!
Fancy a listen? Here's a few samples of what we recorded :
New Bailey Street/Chapel Street Crossroads
Binaural Head Recording - Sennheiser Lav MKE2 Gold Mic Pair
First up is a binaural recording we sourced from the junction of New Bailey Street and Chapel Street, right next to Salford Central station. The mics were taped to either side of the head, and covered with Rycote Ristretto Lav mic windshields to attenuate wind sounds. I like this recording a lot as it's really cool being able to hear a busy detailed audio picture in your head of cars passing by on the left and right. We were even lucky enough to snag the sound of a rattling overhead train as it makes its way into the station.
Deansgate
ORTF Pair - Superlux CM H8Ks with Omnidirectional Capsules
Another roadside recording, this time we were situated on Deansgate, the busy main street of Manchester. As you might have guessed, we were to capture some really beefy passing car sounds from the traffic from this position! The omnidirectional capsules on the Superlux mics really helped to capture the detail of the scene without also picking up extraneous wind noise.
Trinity Bridge Construction Site
Mid-side Pair - Sennheiser MKH 8060 (Mid) and AKG C414 (Side)
For this recording, we set up just outside a loud construction site close to Trinity Bridge. What was good about this location was that the tall buildings and walls surrounding the construction site provided a lot of hard surfaces for all the bangs and engine rumbling to reverberate against, which created a nice sense of distance and depth in the recording.
Big thanks to Martyn for showing us game audio greenhorns the field recording ropes, it was really useful!