Continued from the previous post, I found some further practical recordings when I was going through the sounds and editing the pieces.
The noise of the recorder/mics is very loud when you are recording quieter sounds. This was particularly evident when recording my pond – the occasional sounds were incredibly quiet, so in order to make them loud enough, they needed to be turned up. Needless to say, this also increased the volume of the machine noise, so then ruined the recorded sound. That said, it wasn’t just the hydrophone recordings that had a problem with internal noise; a couple of the contact recordings have an unmistakable, constant tick through the recording. When the sound builds up, the tick can’t be heard, but it is very distracting during the quieter periods.
Partially related, before I starting using tape to hold the contact mic to the surface, I just held the mic there with my fingers. However, the mic picked up the creaking in my fingers as I was pressing it down, which also meant those recordings were mostly unusable.
Lessons learned:
- Record louder sounds, or on a lower gain setting, until I get a new recorder with less internal noise
- Be sure to keep an eye on the recording level. If outside noise is too loud to be able to hear it, it might be noticeable on the levels