Field recording

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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 was originally employed as a documentary adjunct to research work in the field, but has since also found use as evocative art in itself.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] Research

[edit] Ethnomusicology

Field recording was originally a way to document oral presentations and ethnomusicology projects (pioneered by Charles Seeger and John Lomax),

[edit] Bioacoustics

Field recording is an important tool in bioacoustics, most commonly in research on bird song. Animals in the wild can display very different vocalizations from those in captivity.

[edit] Art

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] External links

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