This week me and my 3rd year Audio production course received a guest lecture by Jez Riley French. Jez is a sound artist and field recordist. 

Jez began the lecture by introducing a range of his field recording examples whereby he utilized unconventional recording methods, most commonly, placing handmade contact mics in unusual places. Jez showed us his modified contact mics which he bought from maplins then modded so the mics could pick up bottom to mid end frequencies more clearly. The examples were raw recordings with no altering in post production. Jez explained how when you listen closely each example has a musical quality to it then quoted John Cage when he says ‘The More you listen, the more you hear.’.

Jez showed us a range of recording examples such as the Bethlehem wires in iceland that support the largest radio tower in europe. Jez placed contact mics on the wires which recorded deep resonant sounds of the movements within the wires and wind echoes. Jez explained this recording method was used to create the iconic blaster sound heard in the Star Wars trilogy. Another example was the recording of air bubbles being released from melting ice in Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, iceland. Jez put hydrophones into the water on the ice which picked up a high frequency crackling sound.  In terms of musical pieces Jez showed us an example called ‘Salts – Adagois’ which he created by playing a looped 2 second music clip through a concert hall then recording it by placing contact mics in peculiar surfaces/areas such as springs. Most of Jez’s work is sound art but some of his works have more of a musical quality to it than others.

In between the examples Jez spoke about a range of principles, lessons and ideas related to his work in sound art and sound design in general. Jez usually records for his own interest/pleasure but sometimes adapts his work for clients such as video game developers and TV networks creating nature programmes. With regards sound art Jez told us to be prepared to adapt our work to different environments and to be specific about what sound system we want to fully reproduce the experience of whatever our sound art is about. In terms of recording Jez made it clear that if the recording is bad that we simply go out and record again because there’s only so much you can do in post production to alter the recorded sound. Jez let us know that careers in sound design, especially video game sound design, requires great raw recordings to capture a full sound that appeals not only to our conscious mind but also our subconscious mind.

Jez expressed how he was fascinated by the question ‘what is reality in sound?’. Jez continued to explain how humans are essentially dumb when it comes to perceiving sound and that human hearing is progressively getting worse due to living in an environment of compressed sounds where the ears aren’t working hard enough. In an example of recording froghall wharf tadpoles and water beetles Jez explained how the tadpoles perception of sound is overwhelming to the point where vibrations in the ground created by humans sound the equivalent to a loud jet plane engine blasting away. Jez summed up that humans are unaware of a whole spectrum of sounds that they are perceiving subconsciously which could be damaging to human perception of sound in future generations.

Jez concluded his lecture by showing us more of his recording equipment with some general thoughts/advice for when we do field recording. Jez doesn’t use handheld microphones like zooms because of the inherent pre amp above 70% that removes the recording capability to pick up frequencies but let us know that handhelds like zooms are good for trial and error to figure out what sound we want. Jez showed his ultrasonic detector used for recording sounds in geothermal areas, coils that pick up sound through electric signals and VLF detectors which pick up decaying universal sounds.

I learnt a range of valuable lessons, ideas and advice. In terms of lessons I learnt that as a sound artist or any profession where I’m managing an audio project to be prepared to adapt my work to different environments and industry needs. Furthermore being specific about what sound system specifications I want. For careers in video game sound design, my personal career goal, I learnt that there is high demand in the industry for high quality raw recordings. In terms of ideas I learnt about how humans are unaware of a whole spectrum of sounds that they are perceiving subconsciously which could have detrimental effects in future generations . In terms of advice I learnt that if a field recording is poor quality to simply go out and record again due to post production having limitations in increasing the quality of a low quality recording.