Creativity

Recording Perfection Pitfalls 2: How to Avoid the Numbers Trap

2012/03/28 Filed Under: Creativity

Every field recordist has had problem sounds trample on their recordings. Maybe you’re recording a dawn chorus when aircraft interferes. Or perhaps that location you’re forced to use is soaked in buzz. It’s common. The first instinct is to demand complete perfection from sound effects. As field recordists we often expect this. It was certainly […]

Recording Perfection Pitfalls 1: Why You Must Avoid Sound Effects Perfection

2012/03/21 Filed Under: Creativity

I first started thinking about field recording success last year. My thinking grew from two field recording trips: Occupy Toronto protest crowds and CF-18 Hornet fighter jets. In both those sessions I was faced with challenges that threatened to cripple the sound effects I was recording: loud, groaning garbage trucks interfering with protest crowds and […]

How To Add Personality to Your Sound Effects

2012/02/15 Filed Under: Creativity, Technique

Over the last two weeks I’ve written about recording race car sound effects for airbornesound.com. This post will wrap things up with a description of how I specifically tried to evoke character from the session. Bringing personality to recordings when you can’t control the environment or performance is tricky. Last week I wrote about how […]

Getting Good Sound Effects from ‘Passive’ Field Recording Sessions

2012/02/08 Filed Under: Creativity, Technique

In my last post I wrote about recording IndyCar and Nascar race car sound effects for airbornesound.com. Visit there to read the background of the field recording shoot. You can hear some of the samples of Ferrari and Indy Lights race car sound clips. I recorded those cars last summer. Since then I’ve thought a […]

2011 Review: Creativity and Sound Roundup

2012/01/11 Filed Under: Creativity, Resources, Roundup

This post will conclude the 2011 review roundup posts. Next week I have a new field recording report in the works. On this blog I’ve gradually focused writing about four things: field recording travel, a sense of place and sound selling sound effects creativity and field recording

Why Inspiration Vanishes and What You Can Do About It

2011/08/02 Filed Under: Creativity

Why finding inspiration is difficult Over the past fifteen years working in sound I’ve found that inspiration comes in waves. For months I’ll record and create sound effects for my library at airbornesound.com every day. I’ve painstakingly mastered 19,000 of my own sound effects and over 15,000 sound clips for other libraries. I can be […]