Recording gunfire

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 3:27 pm

AstroDan wrote:wtf? Do you guys all live on some survivalist compound in the middle of Montana?

No, but one of us has some relatives who are police officers.

Artifex · Post by **Artifex** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:05 pm

I don't plan on duct taping a ribbon mic to the barrel or anything, but is it feasible that a 57 placed a few feet away could be damaged?

I gotta be the smartass and say....only if you shoot at it.

kenl666 · Post by **kenl666** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 9:13 am

Another thing to consider: indoor or outside location?

I've notice that guns are quieter outside (less reflections). At an indoor range you'll always get put next to some bozo with his .45 (those things are loud!) so you'll spend a lot of time waiting for the echoes to die down. But this ambience may also be useful...

If you have the opportunity, try different calibers, maybe .22, 9mm, and .45.

And when I asked "indoor or outside" I was talking about shooting ranges, not the local mall

lastpicked4kickball · Post by **lastpicked4kickball** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:56 am

Which kinds of firearms are you planning to record? There are so many variables just based on the type of gun, caliber, grain of the round, etc. that can affect the mic's. For instance a MK-18 on semi auto has a shorter barrel than say an M-16 or M-14. So the attack is louder but shorter and may not leave the diaphramcompletly shredded. The M-16 has a longer barrel same round, and the blast is more sustained or prounounced. The M-14 is just fucking loud and obnoxious and I don't ever suggest trying to record it. Take this into account with all firearms, the fact that they all have different characteristics to them and narrow down what you want to shoot, vs. what you want to use to record them. That's my 2 cents. I understand if you want a refund...

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:15 am

Gotta love a company that promotes its mics as good tools to record cannons:

From http://heilsound.com/pro/recording.htm

Heil Sound propaganda wrote:The PR 40 is the cannon of dynamic microphones, with a frequency range of 28 Hz. to 18 kHz., it's the absolute best mic for kick drums and horns. With a great articulate mid range rise at 5K (instead of the usual nasal sounding 2 or 3k) the PR 40 is well suited for vocals and instruments. Hollywood has even discovered the PR 40 for capturing the sound of cannons and guns. Outperforming the age old thousands of dollar condensers, the PR 40 reproduces it's wide frequency range with unbelievable clarity.

KilledByAlbany · Post by **KilledByAlbany** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:25 am

I was curious to try a PR 40 before this. Now I am legitimately excited. Especially since my studio is rent free for me, as long as I give local filmmakers a spot to track ADR and foley tracks for their films.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:27 am

can we get james hetfield or The Nuge on here? those guys would know.

floid · Post by **floid** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:26 pm

which gets me wondering what the hell happened to that footage of the Nuge hacking his leg off with a chainsaw, or whatever it was...

ThunderFaceWizardHead · Post by **ThunderFaceWizardHead** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:03 pm

lastpicked4kickball wrote:Which kinds of firearms are you planning to record? There are so many variables just based on the type of gun, caliber, grain of the round, etc. that can affect the mic's. For instance a MK-18 on semi auto has a shorter barrel than say an M-16 or M-14. So the attack is louder but shorter and may not leave the diaphramcompletly shredded. The M-16 has a longer barrel same round, and the blast is more sustained or prounounced. The M-14 is just fucking loud and obnoxious and I don't ever suggest trying to record it. Take this into account with all firearms, the fact that they all have different characteristics to them and narrow down what you want to shoot, vs. what you want to use to record them. That's my 2 cents. I understand if you want a refund...

All I own is a .22 pistol for target shooting (and occasional gang warfare), but I'll probably borrow a 12 gauge and .30-06 when I go record. I'm leaning towards trying a 57, and a number of shootable cheap/homemade speaker mics. Although, I do like the idea of using this as an excuse to buy a PR 40.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:21 pm

Yeah, that .22 is not gonna give you much, er, bang for your buck (sorry about that). You will have much more awesome gun-like sounds from the 30-06 and the 12 gauge.

lastpicked4kickball · Post by **lastpicked4kickball** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:03 pm

ThunderFaceWizardHead wrote: All I own is a .22 pistol for target shooting (and occasional gang warfare), but I'll probably borrow a 12 gauge and .30-06 when I go record. I'm leaning towards trying a 57, and a number of shootable cheap/homemade speaker mics. Although, I do like the idea of using this as an excuse to buy a PR 40.

I should look into seeing if I can get some ADAT of the MK-18's our VBSS teams use on our ships here in Everett. They are pretty close to some of the gunshots you hear on television, well at least they are on an outdoor range.

Kevin Kitchel · Post by **Kevin Kitchel** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:24 am

Whenever I need a sample of a gun, I use one from the very sweet Call Of Duty. My hip hop clients love the sound of the BAR and trench shotgun.

vsr600 · Post by **vsr600** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:27 am

Kevin Kitchel wrote:Whenever I need a sample of a gun, I use one from the very sweet Call Of Duty. My hip hop clients love the sound of the BAR and trench shotgun.

Aren't those sounds copyrighted though?

akg414 · Post by **akg414** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:27 pm

Here's how to do it (I've done this before with good results).

It's like micing a snare drum's air hole. You certainly don't want that mic near the shockwave. So what I've done is (with whatever mic), have the microphone pointing in the same direction as the barrel. Maybe where a "scope" would be mounted on the gun. The schockwave moves away from the barrel so your mic should be fine. I would try BOTH mics: SM57, and a condenser.

Let's us know how you make out.

Kevin Kitchel · Post by **Kevin Kitchel** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:27 pm

vsr600 wrote:
Kevin Kitchel wrote:Whenever I need a sample of a gun, I use one from the very sweet Call Of Duty. My hip hop clients love the sound of the BAR and trench shotgun.
Aren't those sounds copyrighted though?

The records that these people put out are the mix-tape type where they are using instrumental versions of popular songs anyway.

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