Link:
This project was really fun in a lot of ways and a big challenge in several other ways. I had to drop off many side bits to the project that were unanticipated, but I learned a lot about the pains of mixing so many channels of sound.
Binaural Mic – Needs two microphone xlr inputs. Plugging into a mixer with a mic and instrument will not suffice as it needs phantom power to go to both inputs
Ambisonic Mic – tends to be on the quieter side
Wind is impossible to avoid when going 40mph on a boat – with windshields for all mics.
Setup includes:
Equipment:
Presonus Interface, LOTS OF TAPE, binaural microphone, ambisonic microphone, windcaps , two usbc cables and a dongle
Software: Audacity, Max MSP, Ableton Live 11 Suite
- Big hurdle in initial recording – the zoom recorder cannot be moved at all or all of it’s setting reset and recording has to be restarted. Very inconvenient but vital for it to function properly.
First Recording: Not much recorded in totality on the boat unfortunately – not the most efficient use of my time. Having to switch back and forth between which microphone to use wasn’t very efficient.
Failed max patches: Learning the max plugins for ambisonic decoding was too steep of a learning curve for me to do with the time alotted. I think that will still be a future project of having audio the listener can spatially pan themselves, but the project instead turned into figuring out how to capture essence instead of exactly replicating things.
Went out a second time and got much better results. Recorded using two programs simultaneously(Audacity and Ableton).
Learned -what metadata is – in order to have the files be read by by the zoom ambisonics software – the metadata has to be edited to decode the file. Many conversion issues between audacity, ableton and this other software.
settled on 5.1 – stereo mixdown
Conclusion: I have successfully recorded a lot of the atmosphere of the boat, but capturing the most accurate spatialization has been a pain. There’s still a lot of work to be done with leveling the audio, but I did what I could. There was a push and pull of me wanting to accurately represent the audio and making something that feels engaging for the listener.