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Location Recording
Contributed by David Steinwedel
Tuesday, 26 July 2005
They key (or one of the keys) to good sound is great source material. Finding such material and recording it in a useful manner is like panning for gold. You can spend hours experimenting with different props and recording setups—sometimes hitting a mother lode, other times barely fishing out a tiny nugget.
A recent shoot done here at Flagship is a great example to show how we plan for recording sessions. The San Francisco Giants have a few fireworks shows every year. Talk about a great chance to pick up some fantastic booms and explosions for our game!
Recording something that happens in the real-world leaves us with little control over many variables that affect recording. Ambient background noise and proximity to the effect are two the main factors we think about. If you take a look at the map, you’ll see SBC Park and its surrounding areas. The fireworks are shot off from in the bay, and if you’re in the park, it looks like they’re coming from behind the centerfield scoreboard (marked in blue, the arrow approximating the direction of where the fireworks come from).
SBC Park Aerial View
To get the cleanest recordings, we want to set up as close to the fireworks and as far away from any other ambient noise as possible. There are three decent locations in the surrounding area, all marked with a yellow circle. Each location has pluses and minuses (highlighted in red on the map), which are listed below.
Location 1—Pier 30
Pier 30
Pluses– Relatively quiet and distant from any parking lots or areas where crowds will gather.
Minuses—Somewhat distant from the source location of the sound. About 100 yards to Muni trains, which run intermittently and create loud metallic screeching sounds running the rails around curves.
Location 2 —Fishing pier
Fishing Pier
Pluses — Closest location to source material
Minuses — Prime location for crowds to gather and watch fireworks.
Location 3— Pier 34
Pier 34
Pluses — Not many.
Minuses — Right next to a major ballpark parking lot. 130 yards or so from the Lefty O’Doul Bridge (which emits very loud, metallic hits every time a vehicle crosses it), possibly a popular place to gather and watch the fireworks.
Around the bottom of the 6th inning I head out to setup. I start with location #2, as it’s easily be the best location of the three (on paper). Upon arrival, I find two very large passenger boats with idling engines docked right alongside the fishing pier. The constant, loud noise means that this location is nixed.
So it’s off to location #1, where I find a pretty quiet environment, save for some seagulls. The occasional Muni train comes by, but it is not as constant as the engine idles at location #2 or the bridge at #3.
The game finally ends (Jason Ellison hits a game winning single in the bottom of the 9th) and I’m primed for the fireworks to start. I see the first few flares go up and point the mic in the right direction. And then, over the stadium PA system, it happens. Music. "Thus Spake Zarathustra" (better known from 2001: A Space Odyssey), followed by the themes to Superman, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars.
Music, of course, is a complete no-no in sound effects recording. Even though the perceived volume of the music is at a much lower level than the explosions and will probably never be heard, it’s still in the recording. If we put it in the game without the proper licenses it could be devastating to the company, so basically, the whole session gets scrapped.
Even with careful planning and good logic, location recording is always a crapshoot. Here we ended with barely a nugget of sound (one or two booms came through between songs). But hey, there’s still some military bases up the coast, I’m sure they’re always blowing stuff up on the firing range. =)
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