Okay, I know that sounds a bit like something 007 would say, but it will all make sense.
Sound ambiences are a crucial part of media and filmmaking. It is standard practice for editors to source and add sound to a film at a later stage after filming.
As someone who records and sells sound effects, it can be quite a challenge to record sounds without someone noticing. You just want to blend in while recording; you don’t want to stand out, but often you can end up walking around carrying a chap like this…
Okay, I added the face for comedic value, but even without the googly eyes you would be amazed at how many conversations people have with you.
Even the people that don’t start a conversation often say hello to you, or just start acting differently (which changes the sound).
In nature recordings, I find that people who are just hiking suddenly stop and point before making their way over to where you are recording. This is not conducive to a natural-sounding recording.
So, to make life easier I bought these…
Earbud Headphones? No. These are high-quality microphones from soundprofessionals.com. This image belongs to them and links to the product I bought. It is not sponsored and it is not a review. That said, I am very impressed with the audio quality.
The idea is that I can sit or work in an area and go unnoticed while recording pro-quality audio. Not only that, due to the binaural nature of them and the position inside the ear, you get a perfect stereo image. When you listen with headphones you could be back at the location. It is weird sometimes because as you feel that the sounds are all around you, rather than just left and right.
A Virtual Experiment
When I researched these, I realised that virtual walks with binaural sound are quite popular on YouTube. Some videos have millions of views.
For this reason, rather than just walk and record, I decided to purchase an action cam and strap it to my chest so that I could make my audio into a virtual walk. The real aim is to pick out and edit the best bits of the audio recording, however, if the virtual walk by-product is interesting, and who knows, it may catch on.
If you are interested in sound recording check out these microphones at the link above, and if you want to hear my results so far, my first two attempts can be seen/heard here…
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