Radio Off The Dial (2013)

The students are out recording postcards. Here’s some practical advice based on over 35 years of making boneheaded mistakes when out recording in the field.

Always wear your headphones.

Check your equipment before you go out. (It’s a good idea to do this on the bench outside the Equipment Room) Make a test recording. Check to see cables are working properly (move them around while talking into the mic; listen for intermittent connections). Make sure batteries are fresh, extra batteries are packed, recorder is formatted and ready to go.

Double-check those switches on the side of the Olympus LS-10 recorder. Low Cut should be Off, Mic Sense on High. The only time you would switch Mic Sense to Low would be in a super-loud situation (a club, subway, concert) where levels are still too high even with the Rec Level thumbwheel almost all the way down.

Be aware of your environment. If it’s very noisy, ask to move the interview to someplace quieter. Listen for wind noise. If you hear the wind making a low rumbling sound in your headphones, go to a more sheltered spot. Try not to do an interview with music playing in the background — it will be impossible to edit.

Not all noise is immediately obvious. Our brains tend to “tune out” certain sounds — air conditioners, trucks idling, refrigerators humming. Just remember: the microphone can’t tune these out, and there’s no magic filter to remove them later in Pro Tools.

Sometimes, however, a noisy environment is exactly what you want. Just get in close with your microphone — and be sure to record the ambience by itself without anyone talking over it.

Always glance at your recording levels and adjust them as necessary. Even a single-person interview in a quiet location can have variable levels as the subject’s energy level changes.

From Jeff Towne, transom.org: “As a rule, record as loud as you can, without clipping. Watch your meters carefully, and be ready to adjust them (gently, gradually!) on the fly if your meters are reading too high or too low. It’s better to err on the low side than the high, quiet levels are easier to fix in the mix than those with distorted peaks, but recordings made at too low a volume can also be problematic.”

Be aware that the volume in your headphones can mislead you. You may have the headphone level cranked all the way up and think you’re making a great recording when in fact the actual audio level is very low. Always look at the meters.

The closer you get the better it sounds … and the louder it gets as well! When you move in close, be looking at the meters and adjusting levels as necessary.

Go to where the sound is. If a chef is demonstrating, for example, how to slice an onion properly — don’t be standing six or even three feet away! Get permission and put your microphone right on top of that chopping board, as close as you can without being physically in the way.

Microphone handling noise is a low frequency sound that’s transmitted to your recording when you move your fingers or adjust your grip on the mic. This often happens when moving the mic back and forth between interviewee and reporter. The solution: move from the elbow, not from the wrist.

Cable noise is similar: the microphone cable is rubbing against something and those physical vibrations are traveling up the cable into the microphone and onto the recording. The solution: make an S-loop of the microphone cable and hold it in your hand as a strain relief (see picture). Any vibrations will be absorbed by your hand before they get to the mic.

From bodmas blog, Keith Peter Burnett

Always double-check that the time display on the LS-10 is counting up and the Rec button is not flashing (solid red).

And always, always wear your headphones!