My feet were soaking wet. A strong wind blew across the flat terrain around me and the sun was still slowly working its way up from behind the mountains. This was going to be a cold day at work.
In this blog post I’ll tell you about the pre production and recording of the sound effect library “Wind turbine” for Norsonant as well as the equipment I used.
In December 2015 I decided to try to record some wind turbines. After doing a bit of research online I found two nearby sites with wind turbines. One is a large area with more than ten turbines near a road, so it’s easily accessible. The other is a smaller area with only two turbines, further away from civilization. After carefully checking maps and satellite images, I hiked out to the smallest site to do some location scouting.
If possible, I like to go out on location before the day I actually plan to record. It just makes everything easier. Using maps and satellite images can tell you a lot, but nothing beats going there in person. When location scouting I can use my ears to listen for potential problems and decide how to best avoid them. Sometimes I need to bring extra gear to help me get rid of the problems. Sometimes I need to find a different recording location. Without taking the time to scout the location I wouldn’t know. In this particular case I wasn’t which route to take to get to the wind turbines. I’d rather get lost and walk for hours without carrying lots of microphones, stands and other gear.
At the site I found a few challenges I had to overcome, but all in all it was a good location. The biggest problem was that there were two wind turbines pretty close together. I found a good spot for the microphone that would let me isolate one of the turbines enough to make it work. There was a bit of noise from distant traffic, but recording early in the morning should solve that. I also found out that the road nearby was open, not closed by a barrier like the map said. This meant that I could drive to the other side of the area, park my car a lot closer than I thought and save myself from a lot of unnecessary walking. The location scouting trip was already worth it.
I prepared my recording gear the evening before the session. Since I was going to walk to the recording location I wanted to travel light. I’ve fallen in love with the Manfrotto Nano stands as they are super light and can be folded to fit in a backpack. This session would be the first test for my shortened Rode blimps, or “mini-me” blimps, as Watson Wu named his in the blog post I stole the idea from. In the blimp I placed my recently purchased Line Audio CM3 microphone. The recorder was, as always, my Sound Devices 744T. This setup is very small and light, so I was not worried about the weight of the backpack for the hike the next day.
Recording day. I got up early so I could get to the location before traffic started picking up. The wind shook the car, so I started looking forward to listening to fast spinning rotor blades. I drove the car as far as possible and walked from there. It was a windy, but dry day, so I had chosen to wear sneakers. Oh boy, what a mistake that was. Since I was approaching from a different direction, I had to cross a mire. Long story short, that wasn’t happening without getting my feet wet, but I was set on getting the recording done.
When I got to the turbine I had decided to record I set up the gear as quickly as I could. They tend to place wind turbines in areas with plenty of wind, so my wet feet were starting to get cold. I recorded from a few different positions to capture different distances. I also wanted to try to get different intensities, so I recorded long takes to give the wind a chance to change. The final position was right next to the turbine, about a meter away. I extended the microphone stand all the way to get as close as possible to a vent from that let sound pass through from the generator room. The wind was so strong that the wind tipped over the stand several times. The blimp hit the concrete so the microphone loosened from the suspension and got shook around pretty good. Both the microphone and the blimp survived the fall, so all was good.
I walked away with pretty cold feet, but some good recordings after a two hour session. On the trip back, I took a detour to scout the other wind turbine location. Unfortunately this area was too close to main roads and the airport, so I quickly decided that there was no point in recording there.
Lessons learned:
- Location scouting can save you hours of walking.
- Keep your hands on the microphone stand when recording in strong winds. It only takes a second and a strong gust to tip it over.
- The Rode wind jammer works surprisingly well and I’m very happy with it. I still wish I had brought a Rycote Hi wind cover to protect the microphone from the strongest gusts.
- The shortened Rode blimp, or mini-me, is awesome and pretty easy to make.
- Don’t be stupid. Wear proper shoes.
The wind turbine library used to be free for Norsonant mailing list subscribers. It’s now available as a paid library only. Join the Norsonant mailing list to avoid missing out on news and future giveaways.
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