Noise school: creating a sense of space with field recordings

Here is an elaborate response to this comment (re: Impossible Light) by raeaw: "it's almost like there's a movie playing in your head or something, i think because all the samples contextualize it since they're concrete sounds?".

 It also reminds me of some other comments I've had about my work: "it sounds like she's in the room with you" or "its like ASMR" etc - I suspect its why some people can get very scared of some the songs.

Basically, yes, samples contextualise things because they are "concrete" as opposed to "abstract sounds". It's not a difficult thing to pull off, and if you feel your drone sections (or any other part of the song) feel a bit flat it can be easy (and fun) to do. Above all, it can help communicate to your audience more accurately the world you have inside your head which you want to communicate with your music.

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Below is a sample of the drones from the title track of The Origin  (as I have stated elsewhere, pitchshifted variants of a drone from Silent Hill 2 and another from Yume Nikki) without the field recordings.

You may notice it is more boring, especially if you have never played SH2 or YN. They are simply the drones from those games.

The field recordings in that song come from two sources.
First, most of The Origin is based off a live performance recorded with a zoom. It was a poorly attended show, so the audience is silent, however you can hear some shuffling around and even the bar staff in the background. It also picks up the room reverb.
Second are samples. Below is one of the foley I did for the song. Basically I just clanked bits of metal and trash and recorded it with a field recorder (specifically a zoom H5) and then edited it (usually a hi pass to remove low rumble) and added some reverb. All done in my own house.

Basically, what foley and field recordings do when added over music is put the music in a place. It tells your brain unconsciously that this minor-key drone is not happening nowhere, but conjures images of where the story of the song is happening. Specifically, there were recorded is the horrible shitty broke share houses I live in around that time period. It makes it sound domestic and 'intimate' (especially when paired with the lack of processing on my voice for most of that record) while also sounding kinda abandoned, as the house is falling apart or derelict. The kitchen-y sounds do a similar thing. Somehow it sounds more 'empty' by adding things in.

Basically, if you feel your drone - or any section of your song - feels flat. try adding a field recording. I usually prefer to make these myself when feasible, as I feel like its putting a literal memory into a song. However, sometimes you just gotta be goth and sample silent hill or or a lynch film or whatever.

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Several other artists do this effectively. Take Claire Rousey's "emo ambient" which uses field recordings in a very profound manner. You hear similar techniques in Tim Hecker, Khanate (especially Thing Viral and Clean Hands Go Foul) and the speech recordings in Suffocate for Fucks Sake.

Furthermore, keep in mind the above applies to other noises rather than just 'room noises'. For example the gore and glitch sounds in A Puzzle (like some form of bio-mechanical creature, like a Strogg from Quake II or Tetsuo from Akira). Detuned radios (i.e. in Epilation Joy, the first two songs of IL and some stuff by Tim Hecker) are often effective at making things vaguely post-apocalyptic.

 Also, many layers of field recordings can be overlayed - say both industrial clanks with a running river - which cumulatively create a brand new space - an abandoned factory by a polluted river.

In the Phthalates there are countless overlayed samples of metal clanking, detuned radio + me ranting into a 20$ dictaphone (while randomly press fast-forward or backward to make the squeak). The idea here was to make some kind of massive junkyard - like the enormous "Trash Mesa" in Blade Runner 2049 (no, it is not a coincidence that I saw that movie in iMax a mere month before working on IL). The pulsating synths also move like waves in the ocean - all of these directly ties into the themes of its sister song, Endocrine Disruptor. Similar logics were applied via the entire record (from the whispers of Jawline to the rain in the title track).

some final hints with using field recordings:

-Compress your field recordings, especially if they have a lot of dynamic range. I often use something aggressive like the Ableton Colour Limiter (with saturation) or simply a compressor with a high ratio, low threshold and fast attack. Distortion can be used to great effect too, although I tend to be subtle with its use unless I want to do a full harsh noise attack. It's ok for the field recording to sound squishy for a clean mix, as long as the rest of the mix is given some headroom.

-Make sure the field recordings are not too high in the mix, or so low they are inaudible. Adding reverb can help, although keep in mind not all spaces have reverb (say a carpeted, 'dead' room), and field recordings often capture reverb too. I only added reverb to the clanks in The Origin to make things sound distant and to match the space of the overall song - to feel like all the parts of the song were in the same space.

-Most field recorders available online will do the trick - my preferred choice is a zoom H5, but I also use my girlfriend's Olympus LS-P2. An iphone can do the trick, but be aware that they are usually mono.

-Also try an analogue dictaphone, all of the dictaphone recordings were done with a Sony M-430 microcasette recorder. I still use it quite often. I often mumble into it, or distort it in various ways by breathing close into the mic etc. We all know that tape recorders have wonderful EQ and distortion from the limitations of both the magnetic tape and how one records onto them, which of course can add a lot of character the sound.

-With mono field recordings, try panning them to either a certain place in the mix (with some reverb to add some stereo depth) or cutting the sample in half, place them over each other simultaneously over two tracks in the DAW and hard pan one left and the other to right, or try automating the panning so it slides around (say with Ableton's Autopan).

-Use a high-pass if you don't want the low-range rumble, especially if you want a cleaner recording or no bass present in that part of the track. I often eliminate anything below 200hz, however for some sample sources with more low-end (like a thunderstorm) I make an exception.
Also, low wind rumble can sound great when heavily distorted as a form of 'heavy' or 'crackley' harsh noise.

- If it is a stereo recording and you want it to sound wider, try using a stereo widener. In the 'utility' audio effect in Ableton, you can expand the stereo width by up to %400 which can make things sound uncanny (and bring out odd frequencies) and it can make the field recordings sound more 3D, and can really help with immersion. Watch the low ends for phase issues, insofar as you don't want them (either for mix clarity, playback on certain systems or mastering/pressing to vinyl - ideal to hi-pass about 200-300hz here).

-You can use field recordings from elsewhere! Often taking them from movies and video games is ok, as copyright is rarely enforced on samples that do not have voiceover or music (as somebody who dislikes capitalism, I think sampling is actively a good thing). Even if you took a wind sample from Star Wars, I am highly doubtful Disney would notice, as long as the music and speech is absent. If you apply some pitch shifting, distortion, reversing or buried with many other samples nobody would know or be able to know. However, try and use CC or copyright orphans (say like sounds from Silent Hill 2) if possible just in case you are paranoid about it. Also do not steal stuff from recent indie creators without permission unless it is quite buried and transformed (or its me, I don't care). However the advantage here is using field recordings from other sources can help inject a bit of the vibe in that movie into your art, as well as allow you to have sounds you wouldn't be able to do yourself.

Anyway, have fun. Let me know if you found the above helpful!