FIELD RECORDING | Audio Scavenger Hunt

9/24 - 6:30am
Milwaukee Rotary Centennial Arboretum - woods, calm environment
Zoom H6 - XY mic capsules at 90-degrees then rotated to 120-degree capsules
This was a particularly clean recording in a calm section of woods, above you can hear two distinct birds which were captured clearly, as the capsules are rotated wider you hear more background traffic and a helicopter enters the recording.

9/23 - 8:30pm
Atwater Park - low to moderate traffic, very windy
Zoom H6 - XY mic capsules at 120-degrees on a stand, two NT3 mics handheld pointed in the opposite direction from the Zoom mics.
The NT3 mics isolated and captured a few pedestrians walking, you can clearly here keys jingling on one person as they walk by.
The was quite gusty so the mics would occasionally get hit with wind noise even with sufficient protection.
If I were to record in this kind of a windy environment I would utilize a better option to eliminate wind noise. Also, a more sensitive shotgun would've been nice to isolate detail noise a bit cleaner.

9/24 - 6:15am
Milwaukee Rotary Centennial Arboretum - woods, calm environment
Zoom H6 - XY mic capsules at 90-degrees
As I was recording my mobile capture I walked past a particular present and close-up bug that was making a consistent chatter. I moved the Zoom slowly into the wooded area where the bug seemed to be coming from to get as much detail as I could out of the recording. I was pleased with the clarity and volume at which I captured this particular subject.

9/24 - 6:15am
Milwaukee Rotary Centennial Arboretum - woods, calm environment
Zoom H6 - XY mic capsules at 90-degrees
The dense nature of the woods didn't create much of a perspective shift as I moved around the environment. You can hear my footsteps as I pass over gravel and twigs in certain sections of the recording.
I would've chosen better footing or quieter ground to walk on if I were to mobile capture again. I also feel like a less dense and more diverse landscape would have yielded better results in different angles and perspectives of the mics.

9/23 - 8:00pm
Atwater Park - low to moderate traffic, very windy
Zoom H6 - XY mic capsules at 120-degrees
Idiot wind. The gusts of wind would come on particularly strong intermittently causing noise in the recording. I was trying to capture a flag blowing in the wind from above, which is certainly present in the recording but interrupted by wind in sections.
if I were to record in this type of wind conditions again I would strongly consider investing in a wind blimp for my mics.

9/23 - 9:00pm
Linnwood Water Treatment Plant - directly south of the plant on the edge of Lake Michigan, very windy conditions.
Zoom H6 - MS mic capsule
I wanted to experiment with the MS mic capsule provided with the H6 recorder for the moving water recording and I was pleased with how well it turned out. Zoom describes this capsule as a unidirectional mid mic that captures sound from the center with a bidirectional side mic that captures sound from the left and right. The crashing waves recording felt close, loud, and detailed but you can definitely notice when the mic shifts away from the waves, there is a significant decrease in volume, but detail and clarity remain.

9/24 - 9:30pm
My backyard - typical Riverwest neighborhood environment, calm night
Zoom H6 - XY mic capsules at 120-degrees
My neighbors were having a bonfire so I decided to record it! I played with levels and shifted my perspective to and from the chatter several times to capture different sections of the surrounding environment. I found that staying stationary but rotating the mics position in a more diverse surrounding created a more dynamic recording. I did feel like I was creeping on my neighbors and I was glad I wasn't caught.

Field Audio Recording