A personal journey through sound.

The Gateway Drug: Samson Zoom H2

Posted: July 5th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: field recording, gear, sound design

(Part 1 of a 3-part series: Part 2 | Part 3)

The ultimate rule of gathering, be it audio, photography, video, or butterflies, is this: The best tool in the world is the one you have with you. (Not sure who came up with this first, but I heard it initally from Chase Jarvis.)

Zoom H2

The humble Zoom H2; even with higher-tech alternatives, still a viable tool.

My first dedicated audio recorder was the Samson Zoom H2, a cheap plastic box packed with four microphone capsules and a teensy screen. Its quirks and dull sound, however, are secondary to its pocket-sized form factor that lets you record stereo (or even semi-surround, using all four mics at once) literally anywhere. I’ve captured tons of sounds with the H2 that I’ve had missed if I carried more “serious” audio equipment with me (which I’ve since upgraded to, and you’ll read more about in the coming weeks).

One such example is this slice of urban ambience, replete with a heated street argument, shot out of a third-story window in San Francisco’s Mission District.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/5763682″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ee0000″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]
[Zoom H2, 120°-spread rear mic pair]

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Welcome to Noise Jockey.

Posted: July 4th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: news

I so don’t know what I’m doing. And that’s what makes it great.

The Noise Jockey

Welcome to Noise Jockey, where I, Nathan Moody, will be chronicling my journey (some would argue my “descent”) into the world of audio, field recording, music, sound effects, sound mixing, and more. I’m a digital creative professional who has skirted the world of audio for over a dozen years, and usually acts as the audio advocate of whatever visual (and usually interactive) project I’m working on.

Dabbling in field recording and sound is certainly less of a hobby or pasttime than playing or recording music, but I think it’s on the rise. The surge in online video certainly calls for more finessed approaches to sound for picture. The availability of insanely advanced audio hardware at low prices is truly ushering in a golden age of new sound gathering. Call me a semi-professional, or obsessed/advanced amateur, or a tourist, but I’m having a blast. And I figured it’s time to share, not just successes, but missteps and mishaps.

Noise Jockey will feature notes from the field, sound experiments, cool samples, stories, techniques, and music. You are hopefully interested in the same, and might find some interesting insights from a highly visual person moving towards the sonic arts.

Let’s kick things off with some silliness: Here’s a short piece I performed on a Casio Magical Sound Dial toy keyboard, multitracked in Logic Pro. The sound was captured from the keyboard’s single speaker by a complete piece of crap Shure microphone (plenty of higher-fidelity sound to come in the future, don’t worry). It’s simple, silly, and I just love the 8-bit, overdriven-speaker sound.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/5763611″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ee0000″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

There is much more to come, so please stay tuned. Oh, and do feel free to also follow Noise Jockey on Twitter. Welcome!

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