Transient Enhancement With Explosions

Snow Explosion Composite Image
Transient enhancement plug-ins are wonderful tools to have in a sound designer’s arsenal. They can be used to soften a sound or to make it balls to the wall, hard hitting intense. Explosion sounds really benefit from this type of process. If you have recorded explosions, you may already have discovered that live is much better than tape, or should I say “BWAV file.” The human body feels the concussion wave from a powerful blast as well as hearing it. The sound still feels massive even when wearing hearing protection . Read more

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The Making of North Country Water

Water. We have it in abundance here in North Idaho. When it’s moving, I go record it. The massive deep water lakes, the winding rivers, the spring snow melt run-off and the pipes that make sure it gets to where it’s going were recorded during the different seasons over the last few years. This sound effects collection is a close up and personal tribute to the amazing water sounds that can be heard here.

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Crazy Sound Of The Year 2012

Pig Feeding And Head Bumping

Presenting the Crazy Sound Of The Year: Pigs eating and head butting each other. These pigs are from my Brothers’ farm and I recorded them with a MKH-8040 at 192K to a Sound Devices 702 recorder on December 30, 2012. They are two weeks out from being bacon and weigh in at 200 pounds or more. When they eat the are VERY aggressive and just push each other out of the way even when there is ample room to eat. They also bite each other sometimes and I did notice a bloody ear or two.

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Explosion Sounds From Scratch

Two years ago I asked myself the question “How can I record the sound of explosions without breaking the bank” After months of research including many hours of watching You Tube videos I asked my local gun shop if they would be able to help me. “Yes we can” was the enthusiastic answer. So, a little over a year ago during the first M-60 machine gun recording session I was able to finally record what is known as “Tannerite”. For those who do not know, Tannerite is a binary exploding target that contains two elements that are sold separated and when mixed together and shot with a high powdered rifle makes quite a loud noise. These sessions came out great even though we got rained out later in the day and had to scramble to get the equipment under cover.

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Crazy Sound of the Month: Sept, 2012

MuaserHere is the sound of a custom Mauser 6.5×300 Weatherby rifle I recorded during the cliff bullet ricochet sessions earlier in September 2012. This is a special rifle that shoots large custom bullets. The shell is squeezed down in size to fit the barrel. I’m not sure why, but someone does.
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The Sound of Black Powder

Some video footage from recording the sound of black powder and regular gun powder for Explosives HD Pro SFX Library earlier this year. Black powder and gun powder are basically the same thing but gun powder comes in the smokeless type also. Enjoy! -Frank
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Explosives HD Pro SFX Trailer

Get ready… It’s coming very soon. More than 450 earth shaking explosions and black powder sound effects in High Definition from The Recordist. Here is a small sampling of the many recording sessions from the last 3 years. Don’t miss the blooper clip at the very end of the video!

As many of you already know I’ve been recording lots of Black Powder and other “Explosive” things. Well, here is the audio teaser and video trailer showcasing some of the sounds I recorded and designed from the raw source material.
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Crazy Sound of the Week – Aug 29, 2012

Prop Plane Aug 2012

This is a prop plane engine start and run at various speeds recorded on August 11, 2012 in Sandpoint Idaho. I was 50 yards from the plane when it started up and performed some high RPM tests. It then approached and strolled on by me on it’s the way to the runway for take off. Recorded with a Sennheiser MKH-8040ST at X/Y 90 degrees. Free and Downloadable at 24-Bit 48kHz. -Enjoy! -Frank
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Slow Motion Bullets Part-2

Slow Motion Bullets Part-2 Article

Image: 29 Grain .22 on the left. 40 grain .22 on the right

Earlier this year I wrote an article about recording the sound of subsonic bullets using 40 caliber ammunition and learned a lot about the physics and technical aspects of these bullets. Since then I have recorded hundreds of subsonic bullets using smaller 22 caliber ammunition. Keep in mind I am no physics or ammunition expert but since talking with many knowledgable people about subsonic ammunition and actually recording them I have learned even more.
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A Train And A Bird And A MKH8060

SFX Recording 2012

This is an informal test of the off-axis rejection capabilities of the Sennheiser MKH 8060 – Short Shotgun Microphone. As the official product blurb states:

“The MKH 8060 offers true and natural sound in a lightweight, rugged package. Reliable under the toughest climatic conditions, the MKH 8060’s symmetrical RF transducer design produces high sensitivity, low distortion, excellent transient response. Newly designed short interference tube yields a pleasing supercardioid / lobar pickup pattern, suppressing off-axis sound without coloration to create extremely natural and detailed results.”
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