Tips for recording sea sounds?

AtticusLake

AtticusLake

Well-known member
I'm doing a little side project for a friend, for which I'd like to record some audio of waves on shores (I have various appropriate beaches including rocks, shingle and sand). I have an AT BP4025 stereo mic attached to a Roland R-26.

I've tried putting the mic on a stand right down at the edge of the water, but it still sounds kind of "narrow" and white-noise-ish to me. Any tips for improving it?
 
Like anything in film, soundscapes are often layered and not just from a single sound.

Beaches in stereo are going to sound pretty bland because the mics are hearing a wide pattern of waves capping and crashing at such varying intervals that they all run together. This will be even more bland where the waves are not very dramatic. I'd record at a few different distances. I'd also grab a shotgun and use it to grab individual waves crashing in different places, both at a semi-distant POV and up-close. You'll use layers of these different recordings to create you "picture-perfect" sound environment.

Also, don't forget about the reverse perspective. If you can swing it, I'd take a kayak out into the water and get some sound of the beach "looking" back from sea. Even if your script doesn't call for that at this point, if you're out recording beach sounds, you might as well get everything you can out of the excursion and just add it to your personal library.

And yes, wind protection will be a must.
 
+1 and try recording on a beach late at night, you'd be surprised how ambiences sound different in the early hours, especially if you're in range of a city or town.
Take ID with you for the federales :)

Cheers.
 
Get in really close as well. Get a couple packs of unlubricated condoms to cover your mics, bring a few really long cables so you can leave the recorder way on the beach and walk out into the surf, and even stick the mic under water. Get the protected mic an inch or so above the shore wash (shingle, whatever) for a close perspective there as well.

As Alex C2V mentioned it's all about the layers. Use your stereo recording as a general ambience bed and the select a few of your close-up sounds to more closely match the visuals. And, as mentioned, use the opportunity to build your library.
 
This is a kind of "me too" post but...

Alex was right on with the wash of sound description of "beach recordings". You pretty much have to get a rocky shore to get much specificity. The exception is if you can get a really wide even beach. Sometimes you will find a place where the entire beach tends to come in as one wave. On those beaches you can get great wave recordings, but they are hard to find. I found one in Portugal if you have some travel money ;~)

If the beach has waves coming in randomly all over the place it will be VERY hard to get anything interesting.

And as always go in "looking with your ears" for the sounds you want to hear. Don't try to match the shot visually, it will almost never sound "right".
 
Huge thanks to everyone who replied! This is great info. I will definitely try the layered approach. Getting close I did, found a rock with the waves literally flowing around it... and I have a long cable (the AT comes with one).

One thing that seemed to help was placing the mic behind a rock, so waves were breaking either side but split in front of the mic -- definitely made it less bland. But today I will take the shotgun out and try some layering.

Wind protection is an issue... especially as wind and good waves tend to go hand in hand.... however I'm fortunate in having a very diverse set of beaches nearby, so I'll see if I can mix it up a little.

cheers!
 
Watch the entire 11 minutes of this video by PB. He reviews the HPX370 and then shows the video that he shot. Of interest to you will be the sound he got along the shore (which you'll hear around 10:20, unfortunately with music). He used a special mic to record this stuff, which he shows in the video (at around 4 minutes). I believe he kept this mic mounted on the camera at a fair distance from the water. There is also a link beneath the video to more info on the setup.

Hope you find this useful in some way.


 
Going for bigger waves may not get you a bigger sound, big waves on a beach will just sound like a lot of white noise with a few individual waves if your lucky. Medium waves that are breaking cleanly wwill give you the most wave-like sound.
Maybe even try small 50 cm waves but quite close and then pitch them down to make them sound bigger.
 
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