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.

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 and biomusicology, 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.

Politics

During the early years of commercial recordings, the speeches of politicians sold well, since few people had radios. The HMV catalogue for 1914 - 1918 lists over a dozen such records, by Lloyd George and other politicians. Probably the last time such records sold well was in 1965, when the LP "The Voice of Churchill" reached number 7 in the Uk album charts. This was immediately after his death.

ee also

*Biomusic
*Soundscape

External links

* [http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/field.html Early history]
* [http://www.quietamerican.org/links.html Do-It-Yourself field recording advice] at Quiet American
* [http://www.gruenrekorder.de/ Gruenrekorder]
* [http://www.throughmyears.com/ Examples of some field recordings]