Horror Sound Replacement Project - Update 1

Hey guys! In my intro to this project post I said that the field recording for ATMOS sounds was starting in 2 days. Well, that was 2 days ago! Yesterday I spent the afternoon in my college recording a heap of different rooms to capture ambience. I even threw in a bit of foley while I was at it! Todays blog is going to be all about where, what and how I recorded, so lets get into it shall we?

Firstly, where and What did I record?

As I mentioned above, I spent the afternoon in my residential college (Raymont Lodge) in Auchenflower recording different room spaces and the odd light switch or two. Now, this may seem like a lazy option as I didn't really have to go anywhere. However, it was actually the opposite as everything I needed was right where I was so yeah, in a way, I really didn't have to go anywhere. Raymont Lodge is comprised of 2 main unit buildings, Alcorn (where I live) and Primmer. Apart from the these residential buildings there is also a study house, library and wreck house (social building). Below, you'll find a series of photos I took of the different rooms and atmospheres I captured while I was recording.

Raymont Lodge - Photos taken by yours truly

As you can see from the photos shown above, I recorded a series of different environments that varied in shape and size. Due to this, each of these environments gave off a different sound. As Richard and I are yet to book our first studio session, it is currently undecided as to which ATMOS recording to use. However, we'll be going through all of these in our first studio session in the coming week.

how did I record?

I recorded all the atmospheres shown in todays blog as stereo samples using the Zoom H4n field recorder (shown below).

The Zoom H4n recorder is a portable device that records stereo samples with a basic X/Y technique. However, contrary to its small size, it can still cover a rather large area. In addition to this, the quality of its recordings are also very clean, making the post-production processing a little easier on my end. However, even though they are small, they are condenser microphones, meaning they're very sensitive. Therefore, if handheld recording is what you're looking at doing, just make sure you have very steady hands.

Because I don't trust myself with hand-held recording jobs, I found places or platforms that were the most stable and place the H4n there to get the most solid samples.

To finish

For a (proper) first time field experience, I have to say I had a lot of fun. There really is a lot more to it than just point and shoot. Finding the right angles to capture the right sounds, its super interesting. Best part of it all is that at the end of the day, these samples are things I can incorporate into my future productions. Super keen to give you guys more updates on this project, especially for this coming week as Richard and I run our first session in the C24! Stay tuned and I'll catch ya next time!

Levels out ;)