Location Sound

I, for one, am no C-SPAN junkie; as far as I know, the senate could be voting on a line item that's calling for the requisitioning of my left lung under the auspices of "eminent domain," but if you're at all involved in the audio industry -- particularly if you work with wireless -- you'll want to be keeping up with all the DTV-shift-inspired UHF bandwidth reallocation malarkey.  

The new Holophone PortaMic 5.1 (no relation to the PortaStudio) is designed to capture instant surround sound for any digital camcorder. Just picture how jealous the other kids' dads will be when you whip out this otherworldly-looking thing and mount it to your HDDV Handycam.  

Hosa's decided to beef up it's pro-audio racket with a little help from "back home." As the US distributor for Da-Cappo Microphones, Hosa has announced the arrival of three new miniature microphones you can use to bug -- uh, mic just about anything!  

Everyone considers certain music to be "experimental," but what does that actually mean? Fred Lonberg-Holm, the creator of "photo-sound-esis I" offers his interpretation.  

In the world of guitar, it is important for guitarists to show restraint when necessary. In the world of sound installation for nature related projects, its important to show some restraint, too. Fred Lonberg-Holm talks about the weather and keeping sounds subtle.  

Fred Lonberg-Holm's photo-sound-esis I, a project where he created solar-powered circuits that produce sound in reaction to sunlight, was no easy task. Fred talks about obstacles and eliminating surprises by definition by eliminating expectations.  

Fred Lonberg-Holm designed some solar powered circuitry to jam along with ferns as a part of Florasonic, an audio event at the Lincoln Park Nature Conservancy. Check out this segment to see how he did it.  

Usually, artists invited to play Florasonic (which aims to bring music and nature together as a combined effort between Experimental Sound Studio and Chicago Park District) just bring in a CD, but Fred Lonberg-Holm takes things up a notch with photo-sound-esis I, his sound installation project.  

In the third installment of Gearwire's field recorder shootout, Owen O'Malley seeks out Chicago's premier acoustic open mic night legend, J. Irving-Giles. Josh took a break from enchanting coffee-drinking audiences with his folksy ballads and writing in the third person to put three field recorders to the test.  

What do Musak and Public Transportation have in common? They're both featured in this installment of our Field Recorder Shootout! Join Owen O'Malley as he test our three recorders out in a large, indoor mall, and tries [emphasis on "tries"] to record a passing el train.  

We haven't done a shootout in a while, so we decided it was time to bring them on back and bring them back right. In part one, Owen O'Malley takes the Zoom H2, Marantz PMD 620 and Sony PCM D50 down by the Chicago River to test their limits in the Windy City.  

If you thought everyone had already released their own field recorder at Winter NAMM, guess again. Edirol reinvents the wheel with their new R-09HR which is easily their top field recording effort to date.  

Audio for video sure has come a long way since the days when Louis B. Mayer had to bring a piano-roll-punchist on set. The Deva 16 from Zaxcom has so many inputs, outputs, and handy recording features, it's like having a modern recording studio you can sling over your shoulder!  

DK-Technologies announces the PT0760, four waveform monitors in one package that provide both audio and video monitoring options for broadcast applications. Despite its advanced functionality, DK says it's easy to use.

Nobody seems to yearn for the good, old days when it was impossibly difficult to use everything, so people would just spend their free time scowling at each other. Those were the days.

 

The rooms that are now Skybox Studios used to be a trashy space where hippie squatters ran cable through holes in the wall. Bob DiFazio and Skybox owner Ariel Rodriguez talk about taking the space over and making it into a really quality sonic space.  

The MKE 400 is a shotgun-style mic designed for use with consumer-grade digital camcorders. After much deliberation, the Sennheiser marketing team decided to refer to the diminutive mic as "mini" as opposed the more compelling, but ultimately too controversial descriptor "sawed-off."  

It seemed as if everyone came out with a new field recorder at Winter NAMM 2008. I'm not just talking about the manufacturers, either. Strangers were approaching me on the street with their new field recorders.

So what makes the M-Audio MicroTrack II better than the rest? Aside from the obvious that M-Audio is more reputable than a gentleman I believe called himself "Madd Skillz" who accosted me in the 7-11 parking lot, you'll have to watch this video to find out.  

With so many new portable recording devices flooding the market, we're pleased to see TASCAM come out with a field recording device at Winter NAMM 2008. The makers of the legendary portastudio now take recording mobile with the DR-1 and some interesting features  

"Plea to Edirol"
a Haiku

Fields of grass in wind,
They have oh so much to say;
Help me remember.

This and other haikus are availible in my new collection, Seventeen Syllables for my Love, recorded in surround sound with my new R-44.  

TASCAM puts another competitive field recorder onto the market at Winter NAMM 2008 with the DR-1. a portable recorder with some unique features and all the core goodies you want when recording audio on location  

Yamaha's Pocketrak 2G is a field recorder that looks to take a bite out of the field recording market. Their strategy is to make a field recorder that is also a portable music player.  

AAAWWWWE! Look how the big, friendly Numark gently cradles the wittle iPod wif it's comfy dock. Have you ever seen anything more precious? They love each other!  

Brent Grey does front of house sound for Silverchair and has dealt with all sorts of venues. Some problems he has encountered include bad PA placement on house systems, unshapely rooms, and certain notes and frequencies that just go crazy in certain rooms.  

At Decibel Festival, Jason Donnelly interviewed Yann Novak, an artist who creates sound art via field recordings with an Edirol R-09. In addition to capturing environmental sounds and experiences with the R-09, Yann also...  

If you didn't think mold was a serious problem, guess again. Check out Jesse Greist's mandolin case. On the outside, it's not so bad, but taking one look at the felt interior shows an entirely different story. Jesse can't...  

Bob Lentini, as we noted in two previous articles on Las Vegas-based RML labs, has been working in audio since the early 1970s. He graduated from Drexel University and founded RML Labs in 1992 . One of the products he...  

What's small, always unique and melts on your tongue? A snowflake. What's small, identical with all its brothers, runs about $80 and works as a complete mic solution for podcasters and media producers? The Snowflake...  

Australian mic-makers RODE are pleased to display the M3 microphone at AES. The M3 is a studio and location multi-powered condenser microphone. What does that exactly mean? First of all, its a condenser microphone that...  

iZotope's ANR-B debuts at AES. It is an adaptive realtime noise reduction unit that seeks and destroys broadband noise, hum, phone line artifacts and other noisy characters to increase your broadcast quality.

The...  

The Sonosax SX-ST is a very impressive piece to behold for any location sound recordist. Eight Channels with AD conversion and aa built in hard drive as an option is quite a hefty load of features. Gearwire scored video of...