railwaysounds.co.uk
Dedicated to railway sound
About Recording
Choosing a location
Most recordings were made near the lineside, in stereo.
For stereo recordings the mic stays still, facing the lineside.
Let the train pass the mic; don't pan the mic to follow it.
The temptation is to
get in close, as you would for a traditional front 3/4 view photograph. A lot
of the early recordings were made in this way, but this can be a mistake.
The sound of a train in the distance can
be very faint but the sound of the train passing is not. The result on the
recording can be almost inaudible until the train is close, when it passes
rapidly and loudly from one speaker to the other before fading to
inaudibility once more.
Standing a bit further back
(30 to 50 yards, say) gives a much smoother variation in sound level and progression
across the sound stage. So you don't need to go over the fence, and there's no
need for a lineside pass.
Further back still (up to 1/4 mile) gives even more progression and longer
recordings, but the sound can be distorted as it is buffeted by wind and
bounces off hillsides. Worth a try but you need a quiet, non-hissy, mic.
A large scale map showing local footpaths is a key tool for this type of recording.
To keep attention focussed on the railway sounds, keep away from road traffic as
far as possible. The NYMR suffers from flight training and the SVR from light
aircraft, and there's not much you can do about this except record early and late.
Bad weather helps, as this keeps some of the planes on the ground.
For on-train recordings, the preferred spot is a front door window on the leading
coach. So get there early. A good windshield is essential, otherwise the
recordings will be spoiled by wind noise. Cutting the low fequencies during
editing can help, but if this is done too much the recordings will sound
'thin' and lifeless.
Recording on-train is an easy way to get long takes and
seems to be a better use of a recording trip than a few short
passes at the lineside.
However - its all too easy to nod off to sleep while
listening to a long on-train recording. To keep up listener interest the
recordings generally need to be heavily edited to reduce the timescale,
focussing on noticeable changes in sound such as the right-away, notching up,
wheel slips, passing over or under bridges etc.
Don't ignore the possibilities for recording in stations, or on shed.
Crossing gates closing, signals going on and off, shunting movements, buffering up,
attending to the fire, engine starts and stops all make interesting subjects.
If you get a chance for a steam loco footplate ride, seize the opportunity.
The sounds are different. Exhaust nose is surprisingly muffled; coal shovelling,
injectors singing,and the sound of air rushing through the firehole door
dominate. Tuck yourself into a back corner of the cab, point your mic towards
the middle of the backhead and keep recording.
To find out more, read 'Sounds of Railways and
their Recording' by the late, great, Peter Handford. This was published by
David & Charles in 1980; ISBN 0-7153-7631-4. This is
out of print but is advertised on Amazon secondhand. As well as being an
interesting autobiography, this book tells you all you need to know.
Equipment
1980s recordings
These were done with a Sony WM-D6 Walkman Pro recorder with CrO2 casettes, and
Dolby B noise reduction; a reasonable standard of equipment for the time.
Later recordings were made using a Marantz CP430, and on some of these
recordings dbx noise reduction was used. dbx
machines are now almost extinct.
A Sony ECM-929LT electret microphone was used throughout,
mounted in a home-made windshield. This wasn't always very effective.
Modern recordings
Everything is now digital, making high quality sound
recording much easier. MiniDisc and Flash card recorders eliminate tape hiss,
so sounds can recorded much more clearly. Recordings can be transferred to
computer and edited with a few clicks of a mouse and with no loss of quality.
Easy Peasy. Adjusting sounds levels, fading in and out, overlaying and compiling tracks
onto CD is so much easier than copying tapes used to be.
Sound editing software is readily available and includes Audacity, Wavepad
(both are free downloads), Magix Music Studio, Sony SoundForge, Adobe Audition,
Steinberg WaveLab, and others.
Microphones are easier to find. Quiet mics with little hiss can be very
expensive but they aren't really necessary for most recordings as railway sounds
tend to be quite loud. Sony, Rode and others make convenient stereo mics at a
reasonable price, but shielding the mics against wind noise is still a challenge.
Quiet mics do have a use though, for recording trains gradually approaching from
the far distance.
More advanced microphones tend to be of the 'condenser' type. These usually
need an external 48V power supply, known as a 'phantom supply'. Most consumer
recorders such as MiniDisc don't have this. External power supplies are available,
but make the recording rig more cumbersome. The Rode NT4 stereo condenser mic
is an exception, as it can also be powered by an internal 9V battery.
This makes the NT4 a good low-noise choice, but it must be used with
an effective windshield.
Windshields
Windshields are essential for outdoor sound recording. If you're lucky and it's
a still day you might get away without using one, but how many days are like
that in the UK? The general idea is to surround the microphone capsules with
a still air space where sound can get in, but wind and air movement cannot.
Two ways of doing
this are:
- Surround the mic with a block of acoustic foam. This works to a point, but
you need to make sure that the foam is an open cell type and that you don't use too
much of it. Too much foam will lead to absorption of high frequencies which
will make the recording muffled or dull.
- Suspend the mic in a cage covered with thin fine-meshed cloth which is
transparent to sound, but won't let wind through. DIY arrangements of mesh
collanders and ladies tights are the traditional way of doing this.
To increase the resistance to wind noise, cover the cage with a 'hairy' cover
made from long-hair fake fur.
You can see this type of cover in
Rob Danielson's Sound Gallery
Rycote, of Stroud, make a comprehensive
range of wind covers for most types of microphone, large or small.
Find out more
A good general book is 'Sound Recording from Microphone to Mastertape' by David Tombs.
(David & Charles, 1980, ISBN 0-7153-7954-2). Again, out of print but available
secondhand on Amazon. Some of the equipment discussed has been overtaken by time,
but the details of technique are timeless.
Wildlife sound recordists know the most about outdoor recording. The sounds they seek
are often very quiet and distant. So they know what is the best, quietest, kit.
Links to wildlife sound recording and other sites about equipment and
technique are included on the
Links pages.
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