Techniques
Field recording often involves the capture of ambient noises that are low level and complex, in response the requirement from the field recordist has often pushed the technical limits of recording equipment, that is, demanding low noise and extended frequency response in a portable, battery powered unit. For this reason field recordists have favoured high quality, usually professional, recorders, microphones and microphone pre-amplifiers. The history of the equipment used in this area closely tracks the development of professional portable audio recording technology.
Field recording is typically recorded in the same channel format as the desired result, for instance, stereo recording equipment will yield a stereo product. This is in contrast to a multitrack remote recording which captures many microphones on multiple channels to be creatively modified, augmented and mixed down to a specific consumer format.
Field recording experienced a rapid increase in popularity during the early 1960s with the introduction of high quality portable recording equipment (such the Uher and Nagra portable reel-to-reel decks). The arrival of the DAT (Digital Audio Tape) in the 1980s introduced a new level of audio recording fidelity with extended frequency response and low self noise. Amongst these technologies, other popular means for field recording have included the analog cassette (CAC), the DCC (Digital Compact Cassette), and the MiniDisc. The latest generation of recorders in use are completely digital (hard disk/Flash) based. In addition, many are using a Smartphone such as the Apple iPhone 4, along with software such as Hindenburg Field Recorder app to do high quality field recording and editing.
Techniques have developed to include creative placement of microphones (including contact microphones & hydrophones for example), diffusion of captured sounds and highly individual approaches from recordists.
Read more about this topic: Field Recording
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