{"id":882,"date":"2019-10-24T14:20:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T14:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.symbiosis-music.com\/?page_id=882"},"modified":"2024-02-03T08:54:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T08:54:36","slug":"the-new-zealand-recordings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.symbiosis-music.com\/index.php\/the-new-zealand-recordings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Recordings – A journey in sound around New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Recording New Zealand’s Natural Sounds<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Sound recordist Clive Williamson explains:<\/h2>\n

There can\u2019t be many places in the world that offer the huge range of climates and natural environments to be found in New Zealand. Snow-capped mountains, glaciers, rolling plains, dense forests and hundreds of miles of coastline have all been crammed into two islands only a little larger than the British Isles.<\/p>\n

New Zealand is thinly populated so \u2013 theoretically \u2013 it makes an ideal place to record sound effects. You can escape the sounds of traffic and aircraft with relative ease, and quite apart from the stunning scenery, it\u2019s a captivating place to record because of the wealth of bird-life and its unusual range of geo-thermal activity like boiling mud pools and hot-water streams and geysers.<\/p>\n

So, in the summer of 1995\/96, armed with a tiny Sony DAT recorder and several microphones, I made the 3000 mile journey to New Zealand to complete a recording project for my own group – Symbiosis – and the BBC Sound Archives.<\/p>\n

These recordings are now available on the album New Zealand Naturally<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"New<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Grand Tour<\/h2><\/div>

So I was off: into the bush and climbing steep forest trails to hear the strange calls of New Zealand\u2019s indigenous birds like the tui, saddleback and bellbird; clambering over rocks to record the Pacific ocean; through trenches to see yellow-eyed penguins; and getting sea-sick in pursuit of Sperm Whales. The first difficulty I encountered was battery life in the D7 DAT recorder, which only ran for about an hour on four long-life AA cells when monitoring through headphones whilst recording. Mercifully this was cured by another Clarity systems add-on: an external battery box which acts like an AC adapter, and easily powers the D7 for about 20 hours on one set of four type D cells.<\/p>\n

Predictably with the range of outdoor environments and locations, wind noise presented the biggest problem, but the Rycote Softie with its \u2018hairy covering\u2019 did an incredible job of shielding the ECM 959 stereo microphone, damping all but the strongest sea breezes. The Softie\u2019s pistol grip was comfortable to hold, and did a good job of cushioning the mic from any handling noise too. Two unprotected Shure Beta 58 mics often had to be positioned at ground level to reduce the chance of wind noise, and sometimes I made recordings in the knowledge that heavy editing would be needed later to remove unwanted effects. Fortunately the Shure mics \/ Clarity pre-amp combination suited recording in the bush, where there was usually less wind to worry about.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Clive<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"A<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>

Travelling light \u2013 and on a budget \u2013 you don\u2019t always have the right equipment for every eventuality and, needless to say, nature isn\u2019t always on your side either! My first encounter with dolphins at Paihia, in NZ\u2019s beautiful northern Bay of Islands, was less than successful. The\u00a0pod\u00a0of these mammals that I tried to record there was sleepy and inactive, and noise from the aluminium hull of the boat swamped any sounds they were making. A more controlled attempt at\u00a0Marineland\u00a0in Napier was better, but I think the dolphins were frightened by the furry Softie, and would only make underwater echo-locating sounds, which I recorded by way of an ECM 150 mic dropped into their pool in a dentist\u2019s rubber glove, and weighed down with a spoon borrowed from the motel.<\/p>\n

The height of my inventiveness came when I had to tie the ECM 959 to a hotel\u2019s broom handle to get close enough to record a pool of bubbling mud in Rotorua: the heart of NZ\u2019s thermal activity. The sound quality was really good, and later I was able to edit out my muffled choking on the \u2018bad eggs\u2019 whenever the wind changed (and pick the dried mud out of the Softie\u2019s fur: yech!). But nothing could protect me from the shower of guano from some juvenile korimako (bellbirds) I was recording in the trees overhead on Tiritiri Matangi Island. So it goes.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The Kit<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Clive<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

I needed to find the smallest, lightest, and most reliable equipment for the trip. Here\u2019s what I took, and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>