Nat Sound – Less is more?
October 10, 2007I know we are all encouraged to use the best equipment possible to record interviews, but I made quite an interesting discovery while recording the nat sound for my interview. Before going any further, I must clarify that I am all for recording interviews with the best quality equipment. What I am talking about is the nat sound.
Before I bought my own recorder, I was experimenting with an old recorder borrowed from a friend. Some of the nat sound I recorded involved the sounds of a crowd. When I went home and heard the recording, I was disappointed. The sounds of the crowd were muffled. We had heard in class, time and again, the importance of clear recording.
However, one discovery I made was that the muffled effect provided by the old recorder was actually perfect for the background sound, under the voice of my subject. Another question was whether purposely using such a recorder would constitute an “unethical practice”.
I would be very interested in knowing if anyone else has had any similar serendipitous encounters while recording the nat sound for their slide show.
I considered this issue Monday when I was gathering sound for my soundslides project. Although I had gathered distinct scooter sounds from the parking lot where I took photos of my subject, I wanted to get the sounds of people and traffic on campus because these sounds were the backgound noise I heard during most of my work on the pfoject.
I realized how clearly I could hear using the microphone and recorder when stood on Stadium Road to record the natural flow of traffic and students. I was picking up details of students’ conversations as they walked by and even a guy mowing the lawn near the parking lot. I wondered if this sound was to clear to be just backgound noise. However, I have just decided to play around with the volume when I edit my sound in Audacity.