On April 9th 2011 a protest march took place in Oslo. I packed my gear and got ready to record crowd sounds. A small group of people was protesting in one part of the city. A large group of about 700 people was marching to protest against the other group. The police was worried that there would be a huge street fight and had lots of officers ready to protect the smaller group. I figured it would be easier for me to record what I wanted if I followed the marching group instead of being boxed in with the small group.

I went to the designated endpoint of the march an hour before it was supposed to start. I walked the route from finish to start to find the best spots to record from. Street musicians and music from stores was a challenge, but I found some relatively quiet areas.

Around 12:00 the leader of the protest held a short speech and then the crowd marched off. I recorded the departure, walked with the group for a while, got a couple of pass-bys and, finally, the arrival at the endpoint. Aside from a couple of slogans being shouted, everything was quiet. There was no confrontation between the two different groups.

After the march it was time for more speeches. After a while one guy decided he wanted to pick a fight with the 700 other people there. The police had to move in and rescue him. I was at the wrong end of the area, so I wasn’t able to record the fight. I did get the speaker’s reaction and the silence while people were trying to find out what was going on.

At the end of the day I got lots of slogan shouting, applause and general crowd sounds.

Equipment: Rode NT-4 stereo microphone -> SD744T

The fight was caught on camera, if you’re interested: http://www.vgtv.no/#id=39308 (edit: dead link)

Want more? Check out Colin Hunter’s demonstration post here. (edit: dead link)