This is the first installment in guest blogger George Paul’s “Recording Nature” series, which will chronicle his travels with four of the top bird-watchers in the world for the ultimate nature sound recording experience. Today George discusses the techniques he’ll be using as he sets out on his expedition.  Imagine you are traveling with four ornithologists to record the sounds heard during an expedition in South America. These will range from the mind- blowing noises of the Amazon Basin, to the crystalline birdsong of the cloud forests farther west, to the sounds of the high mountain regions. Imagine your primary goal is to make high-quality recordings of ecosystem sound. But you are also a one- man film team. You must pack light and move fast. What equipment would you bring?

George Paul with his recording setup

My beloved friends – the Sound Devices 722 and the AT835ST

I’m preparing to leave for Quito, Ecuador to explore the eastern slope of the Andes. I will be documenting the activities of bird gurus Rudy Gelis, Dŭsan Brinkhuizen, Tuomas Seimola, and Mitch Lysinger during a weeklong journey through various landscapes. There’s one major question on our minds: Just how many bird species can be recorded and identified in a 24-hour period?

Natural Sound Recording Techniques

The greatest challenge in recording natural sound is whether you can escape “machine noise” in the recording environment. It is agonizingly difficult – so much so that we face a cultural crisis of sorts. There are multiple techniques I could employ, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. However, the question remains - which technique is best suited for this expedition?

Parabolas

To escape ambient noise, many recordists use parabolas to focus on a single organism. The disadvantage is the technique does not accurately convey the sound of the landscape. For this project, the method was considered inappropriate because I want to record a stereo soundscape. And there may be 6, 8, 10 or even more species in the trees just above my head, all vocalizing simultaneously. A parabola won’t cut it. Nor will there be time to “aim” it accurately. Famed natural sound recordist Geoffrey KellerFamed natural sound recordist Geoffrey Keller, using his 30-inch Claude Roche parabola, to record in Arizona. These wonderful French devices are no longer fabricated, and there are probably fewer than 6 or 7 remaining in the United States.

Custom SASS Stereo Set Ups.

And, as another example, there is perhaps a flip side of the coin. There is an esoteric stereo method called SASS – which stands for “Stereo Ambient Sampling System.” Two omnidirectional microphones are arrayed at 90-degree angles, with a foam divider in between them. Their diaphragms are positioned on two flat planes on the outside of a box. The objective is to produce a “boundary effect,” where the signal to noise ratio can be improved by up to 4dB. This is a fascinating technique, but they are unwieldy, and I need the freedom to use my cameras and other microphones. Recording pioneer, Lang Elliot

Recording pioneer, Lang Elliot, pointing to his huge, custom-built SASS recording set-up during a recording trip in the Adirondacks.

Custom-built SASS recording set-up  

The author’s SASS, held by bird guide “Pajarito”(“little bird,” or “bird boy”) in the far western reaches of the Amazon Basin in 2007. Inside the SASS were two Audio-Technica omnidirectional microphones, amplified by a boundary effect.

MS Recording

For this particular adventure I will be using Audio-Technica MS stereo shotgun microphones – my “go to” soundscape microphone for years. MS is a stereo technique employing two fundamentally different types of microphones. One has a cardioid polar pattern and produces a “Mid” signal. The other is a “Figure-of -Eight” microphone, which produces the “Side” signal. Two mono signals are routed to two mono tracks, and then decoded in the studio to produce a stereo recording. Or, the two signals can be decoded in the field and laid down as a stereo polyphonic file. I will be decoding in the field and this is one of the necessary capabilities of the Sound Devices 722. This will allow me to adjust the stereo mix to mirror as closely as possible the sounds I am hearing. Or, if a particularly important species is heard, I can emphasize the “mid” microphone signal. This shows the flexibility of the MS technique. And for this reason, these are also good microphones to use in film productions. Some like MS and some don’t. I have always been fascinated by it. AT835ST

My AT835ST many years ago at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, with stand-alone, phantom power MS decoding preamp feeding line stereo signal into ancient DAT machine.

One of the advantages of using an MS stereo shotgun microphone in the field is that it is more portable than a boxy SASS set up. An MS shotgun microphone can be pulled out and aimed quickly while handheld. The fact I can take it on long backpacking trips confirms the practicality of using it when one must jump in and out of a truck and run along paths through the jungle and bound up and down hills – all while following experts identifying birds and birdsong rather like sound wizards. I have achieved superb stereo results with my Audio-Technica AT835ST microphone for well over a decade, and look forward to using it, and its successor the BP4029 down in South America. George Paul September 28, 2015 Phoenix, Arizona --- Check back soon for updates on George’s adventure in South America! –A-T Team