Free Series - Sound Design with Field Recordings

[Nick the Zombie]

Hey all,

I've been doing tons of preparation lately for my new, free series on Youtube on sound design with field recordings. Every week or so (depending on the time crunch around here), I'll be taking recordings that I've taken around the house, around town, etc. and processing them into a sound effect, instrument, etc. I'll also be providing the Live project file as a download link so you can work along with the video, or just take the sound and use it for whatever you want. Everything in the project file is royalty-free, of course, so go crazy with it if it inspires you!

Here's a link to the first installment which I just uploaded: http://nickstutorials.com/blog/2009/03/ ... er-effect/ In that blog post, you'll find the video along with the project file link and a short description of the project. Like I said before, I'm going to try and make this a regular thing so stay tuned if you're interested.

Thanks for reading and enjoy!

- Nick

[machine+1]

Cool video nick. I love working with field recordings!

looking forward to the next one.

[UKRuss]

Nice one Zombmeister Nick.

I am out in a Suffolk forest at the moment with my Zoom H2. Got loads of great forest noises recorded but also, found this play area with these outdoor musical instruments made for kids to jump on. One like a see saw, foot operated and each end produces an organ pipe like note when jumped on the second a set of a 3x3 grid pads with underslung bells, so when the kids jump on them they ring out. Great fun for the kids and totally great field recordings on the Zoom...can't wait to get back home tomorrow and start working them!

[contakt321]

Thanks for this Nick, this was really good and inspiring! I just got a field recorder, I suspect I will be using some of the techniques you showcased.

[Nick the Zombie]

Thanks guys, I'm glad this is inspiring people! If you guys have any field recordings that you'd like to see turned into something else, feel free to send them along to me and I'll do a video on it (with credit given for the sound, of course!).

- Nick

[Clearscreen]

thanks for this - very nice work!

[djfm]

nice nick

[djgroovy]

Thank you Nick, gonna check it out latter.

[Subficial]

thanks man

[squeakycheeker]

oh cool... been a bit stuck since buying a field recorder..just the bump to really get going with it, thanks.

[Nick the Zombie]

Nice response to this one so far!

@squeakycheeker: I felt the same way when I got my first field recording device many years ago because I was thinking of the samples merely as units of sound to be played back. Since then, I started thinking of my samples as replacements for oscillators in synthesizers, i.e. source material that can be twisted and broken to your heart's content. After all, most software samplers have the same sound-shaping tools along with a great deal of customization with loop points, so there's a lot you can use to creatively manipulate sound.

@anyone that is just starting out manipulating samples in this way: try not to worry about achieving a particular result, and instead just get to work, practicing with the tools. It's most important to simply enjoy the process of creating something. With practice, you'll get to a point where you almost always come up with something useful, and then from there you'll get to a point where you know basically what you need to do to get a specific sound completed.

- Nick

[fixed_up]

Really interesting stuff

I'm weighing up whether to buy the Edirol R-09HR as want to start building tracks/pieces solely constructed from sampled material. Would you recommend it as a fild recorder?

[Nick the Zombie]

Really interesting stuff

I'm weighing up whether to buy the Edirol R-09HR as want to start building tracks/pieces solely constructed from sampled material. Would you recommend it as a fild recorder?

Thanks Re: the R-09HR, it all depends on your expectations as far as sound quality. I found myself getting wrapped up in discussions of spending hundreds of dollars on specialty equipment in order to get a quality sound when I was deciding on a field recording rig. Then I started reading about people being very happy with the built-in mics on their recorders, and I decided to take the plunge. I'm big on creating sound designs and tracks only out of samples like you are, and I have been very happy with the results from the built-in mic. One thing to consider is that I often heavily mangle the source sounds, so a little bit of noise here and there isn't going to throw me too much. Taking basic steps for reducing unwanted noise in your environment, such as not recording when your fridge is running, is far more important than having a bank-breaking microphone that you are afraid of breaking in the field.

Just my 2 cents.

Also, part 2 of this series is getting uploaded as we speak. This time it focuses on creating drums from field recordings (something I like to cover a lot in my vids).

- Nick

[UKRuss]

Nick, see what you can do with these two babies if you need some more source material...

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... 80&start=0

[silveriofunk]

pretty cool nick!

thanks for sharing man..