It might seem hard, and even scary, but recording and creating sound effects is actually pretty simple and straightforward. You just need to keep a few tips and procedures in mind when doing so. First, you need to purchase a good digital recorder in order to record quality and professional sounding
sound effects. Though there are many expensive options, a handheld $150 to $400 digital recorder no larger than a small digital camera will provide professional quality .wav files. A search on the Internet will swiftly provide many good options. These small recorders are optimal for sound recording because they have their own power supply and are very portable. Many of these units accommodate up to 4 gigs of recorded audio with the use of a flash card and utilize a simple drag and drop method for saving the .wav files via a USB connection to your computer.
Since video has a 48k sample rate then sound effects supplied for video need to be 48k, not the standard 44.1k used for CDS, so any recorder you purchase must be able to record up to 48k quality. If you have a library of 44.1k these samples always have to be up-converted by a video editor and their quality can be compromised. Therefore, do yourself the favor of recording at 48k and you will have a more valuable and usable sound effect collection. Also, record sounds as .wav files as they have a much higher sound quality than .mp3s.
There are two basic types of sound effects that you will be recording: "hit" or event sound effects and "ambiences." Hits are single short sonic events such as a slaps, gun shots or dog barks. Ambiences are longer background elements such as ocean waves, restaurant environments, or some types of
horror sound effects.
If you are interested in recording sounds to build a library, then both categories are necessary to capture. The ambience variety is the easiest to obtain, because you merely have to go to location such as a train station, for example, and hit record. More planning and scheming, however, is required for hits because you need to gather the objects and perform the actions to be recorded (called foley) or you need to wait outside police stations, for example, for that perfect siren sound. The basics of recording a sound effect is literally as simple as hitting the record button. However, there are several tips to keep in mind in order to get the best recordings possible.
First, be sure to record all of your sounds as "hot" as possible, meaning as loud as you can without overloading the input of the microphone. For example, if you are recording a fireworks demonstration in your neighborhood for
firework sound effects, you will need to pull back from your source if you notice a red LED light on your recorder which signals that your incoming signal is too hot, which results in clipping, otherwise know as distortion. Capturing the strongest signal without distorting is the goal.
Second, some sounds, such as , may cause distortion even if you are 30 feet away from the source. To avoid this problem, purchase a 10dB pad that fits between your microphone and digital recorder . This pad lowers the input of the sound and will enable you to clearly record audio with high decibel levels like
explosion sound effects. The pad lowers the incoming signal by 10dB and can be found online for $20.
Third, try to keep background noises to a minimum but don't be too obsessive over a "pure" recording because these background sounds can often afford surprising results such as an unexpected car honk, bird call, or human noise. Remember that much of the background noise can be filtered out when editing your recordings by using various EQ and plugins. Also, the surprise bonus sounds captured can be made into sound effects. While it is of course good to be careful, being overly cautious while recording will slow you down and limit the number of sound fx that you can create.
Fourth, protect the microphone head with a windscreen or simply keep your recorder out of the wind by using physical barriers such as trees, walls, or even your jacket, because wind hitting the microphone head will ruin your recording efforts. Sometimes wind noise can be cut out during editing with a high pass filter and cutting frequencies below 200-500 khz but for the most part wind will destroy your work. As with a 10db pad, a windscreen is a must have and also cheap to buy.
Fifth, keep background music from loudspeakers or live performances out of your recordings. Your efforts will be compromised if you inadvertently include music in the background, such as the music played in a restaurant. This is not
royalty free music. It is copyrighted and if it appears in your ambience recordings you will be violating copyright law. Therefore, always keep on the look out for unintended music that may find its way into your product.
The previous points, though simple, are mentioned to help the aspiring sound designer in the assembling of a valuable sound effect library.
