Sound Recording for Pi

Sound recording is definitely a struggle for me. It's the part about working with sound that I find the least appealing. It's fiddly and temperamental and everything can always go wrong all the time without you even knowing. However I've definitely been learning to enjoy it more with this project even though I feel I could have done a much better job actually collecting the sounds that I ended up with.

I did have some issues with the Marantz. Or perhaps they were issues with the cables. I'm not sure. There was just a LOT of crackling whenever I turned the recording volume up to a comfortable level. This meant I had to record all my sounds very, very quietly to avoid that which made the editing process a little more difficult. I also was not able to record in spaces with no background noise and so that was a bit of a problem on some recordings. I managed to get rid of some sound with EQ and because I was recording so quietly most background noise didn't actually appear on the recording unless you turned it up way too loud so that ended up okay. Still, next time I want to use the studios more.

The latex glove was probably my favourite sound to get and then add

Possibly the most fun part of sound recording is just the scope of what you can do. I like to just look around a room and try to find anything that might come close to sounding like the effect that I want to get. Some things are more specific in terms of how you need them to sound like a keyboard press or a latex glove, but other things are much more open. I was surprised by how versatile some things I recorded could be. I could use a lot of sounds in ways I hadn't really considered and when it matched up with the action onscreen it sounded right.

Something like a popped balloon ends up being incredibly useful to a sound designer. I used it for both the latex gloves (stretching the balloon) and the sticky mess (squeezing it when crumpled up). I used old CD cases that I didn't care about and more for the part where he smashes the computer parts on the floor. I used a soldering iron on a wet sponge to get the sizzling sound effect. I just rubbed my hands on bedsheets to get all the clothing movement noises used throughout the clip. I definitely enjoy the imagination and creativity that can be used when trying to obtain sounds. It's just the part where you have to record it that can be a real pain. At least I didn't have to record any dialogue.