Getting Good Natural Sound in a Noisy World

One of the biggest challenges we face in gathering footage for our RelaxationMedia products is getting a good, clean, machine-free, natural soundtrack. The world we live in is filled with cars, airplanes, and every other type of annoying noise, so we have to work very hard to get the good sounds that make our products take you to the locations we shoot in. Of course, I’m not the first person to ever consider this problem, Martyn Stewart, a professional audio recordist, has put out great information on what it takes to get pristine natural sound.

On the other hand, I thought a few simple tips on what we do might be all the help you need to get out there and get your own good audio. First, and this seems obvious, but is often overlooked, choose your location carefully. Look for sources of invasive sound, then spend some time there in complete silence (I like to spend about 20-30 minutes, if at all possible) listening to the sound. Next, carefully consider where to place your microphone and try out a few microphone locations while listening to the results in closed-ear headphones. Never use an on-camera microphone. Finally, gather sound from multiple microphone placements and mix, for best results.

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