Finley Shillabeer

Sound recording LAB

The Principles of sound

The doppler effect is a change in frequency and/or wavelength of a wave in relation to you, for
example: an siren might seem to be getting higher in pitch as it comes towards you, and once it
passes you it lowers in pitch again. The reason this happens is because when the siren is traveling
towards you the waves get shorter as they have less space to travel, creating less gaps in the
waves, creating a higher pitch. And as it gets further away the waves get longer as it has more
space to travel, creating larger gaps in the waves, creating a lower pitch. Refraction occurs when a
sound wave changes direction when it passes by a medium, when this happens it also changes
speed and wavelength. Depending on the material for example a wall of a building a soundwave will
vibrate at different frequencies. So if there was a vibration through the wall someone on the other
side might not be able to hear it. When I recorded in a cupboard the walls were thin so there was
vibrations.
Principles of sound
Diffraction is when sound meets a barrier with a gap, and passes through that gap. Not all of the
waves pass through this gap because they are larger, causing them to spread out. The size of
them spreading depends on the size of the gap. Sound reflection is when a sound wave meets a
object and collide with them, because the object is more dense than the soundwave, it bounces
back. Sending the sound back the way it came. Sound is affected by altitude, the higher the
altitude, the slower the sound waves. Due to colder temperatures the soundwaves vibrate
slower, causing slower soundwaves which in turn makes the pitch lower. The lower the
soundwaves, the more they vibrate, the higher the pitch. In recording 289 I had tested diffraction
by having one person standing inside a room with a door open and the next recording with a
small gap in the door. This meant one recording was much clearer than the second, because not
all of the sound waves passed through that gap through.
Interior locations and considerations
Having a room furnished or unfurnished can make a big difference when recording sound, as
heard in my recordings you can hear a huge change when listening to furnished and unfurnished
simultaneously. When a room is unfurnished it echos a lot as there is no objects to stop the sound
from reflecting off the walls. Objects like curtains and carpets can stop reflection and absorb a lot
of sound and because there is less space for the waves to bounce around and refract it makes it
get to the microphone quicker, causing less echo. If the room was bigger it would need more
furnishings to reduce echo due to it having more space for the sound to bounce around. I had to
think about where i was recording to make sure i had the right effect. In recording 0289 i used a
furnished room with little space, this meant that the room didn’t echo as much as an unfurnished
room, as heard in the recording when I was standing further away from the mic and the room was
not echoing as much. I recorded in a cupboard as it was a small effective recording space. This
also causes a lot of refraction due to the sound waves bouncing off the walls frequently.

I also recorded in a room, this was a bigger environment to the last recording therefore it had a
slight amount more echo. The room was furnished. Therefore it wasn’t completely echoing but did
echo slights amounts. There is also less refraction due to the walls being further apart. The echo
was more apparent when i was standing away from the microphone in this location as well.
Exterior Locations & considerations

When i was recording outside there was a lot of background noise. This can be heard in recording 264s, I
eliminated most of this with a cover for the shotgun mic, but still after that there was still the sound of wind, to after
that i covered the mic with a bag. The difference between these can be heard in my recording. As i put the bag on
the recording becomes much less windy and you can hear the audio much easier. This in turn made it slightly less
easy to hear people. I could still hear background noise like passers by having conversation. I raised my voice to
make it easier to hear over the mic, inside a room if i was to raise my voice it would reflect and echo but outdoors
there is nothing for the sound to reflect off of. Some things like a car siren were difficult to record because as they
got closer it got louder, and i didn’t want the volume to go over a certain amount of Decibels as it can cause
damage. To prevent this i recorded the sound of a siren carefully and made sure that the doppler effect could be
clearly heard.

Recording B was recorded outside in a windy environment. It was too windy so the sound recording failed. You
couldn’t hear what i was saying. I tried this again in a non windy environment. If the environment was less windy
than that would result in a clearer sound quality. I also could have used a better cover for the mic which would
enable it to be heard clearer