Being a sound effects recordist has it’s special moments… moments when you just have to let go and qo with the day. It’s been a while since I have experienced this as running my online business, contract sound design work and all the other things that go along with living life as a self employed maniac take up all of my time and having a structured schedule is a priority. Every now and then something comes up where you just have to throw all this out the window and go with the moment.
Here 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. Read more
Recording the bullets for my new SFX library called BULLETS HD PRO has been quite an experience. So far I’ve recorded over a dozen guns from a .22 to a M-60 but nothing had sounded as cool or as strange as recording a Mossberg 590 shotgun with a special shell called the “Bolo”. A Bolo is two heavy duty slugs molded on to each end of a 5 inch piece of steel wire and when fire expands 240%. Read more
The opportunity came up today to trek high in the mountains (3500 feet or more I think) and record a Barrett 98B sniper rifle into a massive canyon. The guys from Wrenco Arms were kind enough to let me tag along with my gear and do some recording. I brought my MKH-8040ST rig and that’s all I could bring as we were at a rock cliff and the long ride up in a 4×4 buggy was rough. Once there I was able to record many 98B shots and the mountain echo was simply amazing. One of the guns they brought along was a Rock River Arms LAR15 with a suppressor and after using up all the 98B ammo they shot off the semi automatic rifle into the forest below. The bullets ricocheted at times and this sound just blew me away. Because the gun is suppressed there is no loud trailing echo so the ricochets really stand out. Read more
https://therecordist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/therecordist_logo_2025.png00The Recordisthttps://therecordist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/therecordist_logo_2025.pngThe Recordist2012-06-22 17:45:492016-09-20 18:33:03Suppressed Gun In The Mountains
There is a first time for everything and recording bullet pass bys and impacts was a first for me. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at bullet recording but never had the knowledge or association with anyone that had a permit to use a gun suppressor. During the recording sessions for the M60 machine gun with the very experienced and amazing marksman named Richard from the local gun shop I began to inquire about what it would take to record some bullet impacts and whizz bys. I then consulted with everyone’s favorite weapons maven – Charles Maynes (my sincere thanks man!), and he gave me some valuable advice for these kind of sessions. I then explained what I wanted to accomplish with Richard and gave him the specs from Charles and we were off and running. The bullet demo in this blog post has some of the sounds recorded and played back at 35% of normal so you can hear the shot and the impact in greater detail, and they sound much more interesting slowed down a bit. Read more
This video cycles through the microphones used during the first recording session for this gun. This first session was for capturing the medium close and distant perspectives and the second session was primarily for the close up sound. Recorded at 24-Bit 96kHz/192kHz to 2 Sound Devices SD-702 recorders, Fostex FR-2, Sony PCM-D1 with XLR-1 Microphone Preamp and a Sony PCM-D50. The microphones used were 3 Sennheiser MKH-8040, MKH-416, AT-835ST, Sanken CSS-5 and D-50 internal.
M60 Machine Gun Microphone Comparison 2
This video cycles through the microphones used during the second recording session for this gun. The first session with this weapon was for getting the medium close and distant perspectives and this session was primarily for the close up sound along with some closer distant perspectives. Recorded at 24-Bit 96kHz/192kHz to 2 Sound Devices SD-702 recorders, Fostex FR-2, Sony PCM-D1 with XLR-1 Microphone Preamp and a Sony PCM-D50. The microphones used were 4 Sennheiser MKH-8040, MKH-416, AT-835ST and D-50 internal.
Over the holiday weekend I decided to give a shot at recording guns. My sister and her friend were hanging around so we grabbed his Glock 19 and I had my Remington 870 Shotgun. We shot over 150 rounds of ammunition.
We need something to prevent bullet ricos so I found a very wet bail of hay in the garden and proceeded to install it with the JD. I learned a great deal and plan to do much more with different guns, microphones and locations. Gear included: SD702/CSS5 and FR2/AT835ST at 24Bit-192k Read more
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