A COLLABORATIVE POST WITH INTRODUCTION BY JACOB COOK
ASSISTANT EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
This month, I wanted to give our new interns some unsupervised Field Recording experience. I sent Colin Grant out with a stereo recording rig and instruction to capture a minimum of 3 distinct sound recordings. He did a great job and learned a lot, so let's what he has to share about his adventures.
How did you begin researching for your recording?
Well, I’m still fairly new to the area so I didn’t really know what was around. I started looking for things like nature trails since I knew they’d be accessible and free to record in. Next time i’d like to do some more research of the area.
What were the sounds chosen and why:
1. Sound of water gurgling down a pipe
a. I actually went out to get a waterfall but between the sole of my right shoe falling off and time pressing I decided against making the full trip. Luckily, a local to the
area told me about the water running down the mountains to the pipes.
2. Ambience of the Rubio Canyon trail
a. There were a lot of interesting sounds coming from the trail so I wanted to capture it all.
3. A crow
a. It just kind of showed up and stayed a while, so I went with it.
4. Bees
a. I walked by them and could notice how loud they were without my headphones on. It was terrifying having to listen to them up close though! My skin was crawling the whole way through.
What was the most challenging aspect of capturing these locations?
I completely underestimated how prominent certain sounds would be. There many birds and some dogs barking, but surprisingly there were three things that trumped them: Loud roosters, constant planes, and my fatigue. I’ll need to come at a better time and better prep next time.
What is your favorite sound captured?
Oh God The Bees...though I will never listen them to them ever again for what I think are obvious reasons. The recording came out fairly decent despite every part of my brain freaking out over the swarm of bees near my ears.