how would you record a butterfly?

[themagicmanmdt]

...or any other winged object, like the Discovery Channel would?

shotgun mics?

(sorry, saw the post, had to do it.)

but seriously. all the time, I hear the big, amplified sounds of a bat's wings, or a hummingbird, and sometimes wonder how they 1) get such a consistent recording while they're moving around, 2) get it to be so *loud* without too much s/n problem, and 3) is the trick in the compression?

I think #1 would equate to a game of Duck Hunt - just follow it around.

Do they have focusing shields, like little radar or sattelite dishes, that help concentrate the sound to a mic?

Any field recordists out there?

[oceanic]

maybe it's overdubbed.

[mjau]

My wife is a fairly astute birder, so whenever we're watching anything on tv, her bird ears are going like crazy, and you'd be surprised how many inaccuracies there are on nature shows. I think a lot of what you hear is a combination of sounds captured in lab / controlled spaces along with non-animal sounds and/or special effects.

What drives my wife most crazy is a movie set in one place with bird noises from a completely distinct place. We were watching Cold Mountain, and toward the end she blurted out "Those are European crows! There's no European crows in western North Carolina!"

[jonathan]

i feel as though ive seen programs on people reinventing those sounds with bigger objects. so basically- sound effects

[Derrick]

My wife is a fairly astute birder, so whenever we're watching anything on tv, her bird ears are going like crazy...

I didn't know birds had ears to go crazy... save for Owls or bats if youcall them birds.

[darjama]

yeah, I'll bet a lot of this this stuff is foley-style sound effects.

But wouldn't it be a blast to fill an anechoic chamber with butterflies?


... and then you could toss in a few bats to clean up.

[JGriffin]

If it is real bat wings, though, it was probably still recorded in a studio, with a trainer holding the animal whle it flapped. I've done bird recordings that way.


Helpful hint: Do not use a furry windscreen on the mic if you're recording birds of prey. A falcon or eagle will think the windscreen is either its training lure or a small animal, and attempt to eat it. This is less funny than it seems when you're in a tug-of war for a $5 piece of fuzz with a 75 lb. bird of prey who can rip your arm apart with its talons; not that you can't replace the windscreen, more that if the bird eats it, it could die. One of the last things you want to say after a session was "I inadvertantly killed an endangered animal."

[Derrick]

The falconator!

[The Scum]

I'd force-feed it a wireless lavalier.

So you get the sounds of it digesting nectar as it flaps around.

[themagicmanmdt]

well, this thread is turning out to be anticlimatic.

or is it?

[JGriffin]

Well, the falcon incident gave me a bit of a rush.

[Pascal Garneau]

A lot of that stuff is foley or cut sound effects.

In many cases they are using very long lenses from far away and shooting M.O.S. (no sound). All of the wind in the trees, background birds, etc will be added in post. That's how it ends up being stereo or surround as well (most production sound is from a mono mic). With layered sound effects and foley, you can pan stuff around and mix it properly. That's the magic of television.

[drumsound]

What drives my wife most crazy is a movie set in one place with bird noises from a completely distinct place. We were watching Cold Mountain, and toward the end she blurted out "Those are European crows! There's no European crows in western North Carolina!"

I can totally picture that!

[BeepBeep]

For butterflies I usually use a lavalier mic. The trick is to attached it right when they come out of the cocoon.

[ubertar]

I don't know about discovery channel, but a lot of scientific work on insect noises and the like is done with B&K mics. They're omni, very sensitive, extremely flat response, with (depending on the capsule) extremely wide frequency response (e.g. 2hz-40khz). Google "insect sounds" + "microphone" and see what comes up.