Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

Lessons from making audio-recordings of wildlife in urban/semirural environments

Abstract

This article considers the adaptations required by the time-restricted wildlife sound recordist, who only has access to semiru- ral environments, to achieve recordings. More than 200 experimental recordings and reflections have been made, advice pages reviewed, experts questioned, texts scrutinised and specialist talks attended to inform this articles’ findings. The overall lessons learned will be of use to those who only have easy access to semi-rural environments and would wish to include nature sounds in their compositions that are either symbolic of a piece or characteristic of an environment. The article starts by comparing the differences in recording approaches used between a studio practitioner and the wildlife field recordist and latterly considers the tacit knowledge and skills employed by these wildlife-recording practitioners and the field-craft considerations, which underpin the successful projects. Subsequently it focuses on the barriers to recording in semi-rural environments and how the tacit knowledge of the experts can best be exploited to tackle these difficult recording domains. It includes first person observational accounts to illuminate what it is like to be immersed in these variable recording environments. It concludes by forming recommendations, which are based on tested approaches, that have yielded some success in these semi-rural environments. It is envisaged that the content and findings will be of use to those moving to record species and environment in the field, such as musicians, students studying soundscapes or composers exploring new environments.