FIELD RECORDING

'Field recording' is the technique for capturing the audible illustration of an environment, produced outside of a recording studio. A "field recording" is the actual recording that is produced.
Field recording, sometimes called Phonography, was originally employed as a documentary adjunct to research work in the field, but has since also found use as evocative art in itself.

Contents

Techniques

Research

Ethnomusicology

Bioacoustics

Art

Music

Radio documentary

See also

External links

Techniques

Field recordings are usually recorded on portable devices which utilize DAT (Digital Audio Tape) or completely digital (hard disk/Flash) technology, to reproduce an exact audio replica, or soundscape. Other dated, yet popular means for field recording are the analog cassette (CAC), the DCC (Digital Compact Cassette), and the MiniDisc. The latter two are declining in popularity due to the loss of fidelity resulting from their data compression technologies such as Sony's ATRAC. MiniDisc, however, particularly in its contemporary lossless HiMD version, is still used by many.

Research

Ethnomusicology

Field recording was originally a way to document oral presentations and ethnomusicology projects (pioneered by Charles Seeger and John Lomax),

Bioacoustics

Field recording is an important tool in bioacoustics, most commonly in research on bird song. Animals in the wild can display very different vocalizations from those in captivity.

Art

Music

The use of field recordings was in the avant-garde, musique concrete, experimental, and more recently ambient was evident almost from the birth of recording technology. Most note worthy for pioneering the conceptual and theoretical framework with art music that most openly embraced the use of raw sound material and field recordings was Pierre Schaeffer who was developing musique concrete as early as 1940. Field recordings are now common source material for a range of musical results from contemporary musique concrete compositions to film soundtracks and effects.

Radio documentary

Radio documentaries often use recordings from the field e.g. a locomotive engine running, for evocative effect. This type of sound functions as the non-fictional counterpart to the sound effect.

See also

★ Soundscape

External links

★ Early history

★ Field recording artist samples

★ Equipment Basics by the Association of Independents in Radio

★ Wildlife Sound Recording Society

★ Equipment guide by the Vermont Folklife Center

★ Do-It-Yourself field recording advice at Quiet American

★ Field recordings in the electronic age

★ 24-bit field recording FAQ

★ SoundTransit: collaborative online community dedicated to field recording and phonography (CC-by)

★ The Freesound Project: online community with a huge database of field recordings and other samples under CC licence

★ Field recording | Documenting the world around you through sound

★ Phonography.org : Web-based community

★ Gruenrekorder ::. Label for field recordings & audioart

★ The Binaural Diaries of Ollie Hall - A UK-based field recording blog

★ One Minute Vacation project | Ever-growing submission-based field recording collection (with weekly podcast)

★ FieldMuzick - Website for field recordings mixed with experimental music

★ Kalerne | Phonography, soundscapes and related studies or projects