What do you call the audio equivalent of home movies?

So we’re back from our trip and I’ve got several hours of recordings. Something I’ve been trying to figure out is how to turn the recordings I make of my family into more of a finished product. Over the years I’ve accumulated something over 600 recordings. Just like a huge stack of photos or a bunch of videos, the recordings are fine by themselves to a point, but they are often long and have lots of dead space in them. Or they may be full of just ambiance, but it’s 90 min and really 3-5min is more than enough.

How to edit this down? How do I make this something that is more entertaining, and has more of a structure?

The normal process is to start with a story idea, go collect audio based on that idea, then piece it together in a way that tells the story. But what if there’s no story at the start?

The good news is that the audience is very forgiving, if a bit small – me and my family, maybe a bit of extended family – and the story doesn’t have to be of NPR or even podcast caliber.

The bad news is that there isn’t an established process for forming a story from a bunch of raw audio. At least, I haven’t found one. So I’ve come to a basic strategy and we’ll see how it works:

Listen to the tape, and see what the common themes emerge. For example, on this recent trip I made much more of an effort to get family banter so there is more discussion of the ‘Are you recording this?’ line along with discussion about which is better, audio or video in the beginning and then the discussion changes over the trip as recording became a bit more accepted (or they just got resigned to it). Another was that as we drove from one part of main to another we started to run into places being closed and it became a running joke.
List these themes and the chronology of events.
Form a story structure of the events & themes.
Go back to the audio for the bits that support those items & pull the clips.
Assemble the piece, using narration to fill the gaps as necessary.

I have no idea if this will work or no, but it’s the best I can come up with so It’s what I’m doing.

For what it’s worth, I’m using Hindenburg Journalist to do most of the editing, with Reaper being used to split up some of the polywav files.

Last but not least, what do I call the result? In the interest of helping whoever else might be trying to do the same thing, what do we call the audio version of home movies or a scrapbook?

Powering the MixPre – reconsidering the options

The SoundDevices MixPre recorder comes with a battery ‘sled’ that holds 4 AA batteries along with an AC adapter. A set of 4 Alkaline batteries might power the MixPre for maybe 20 minutes, which isn’t really useful for anything. Four rechargeable batteries fair a lot better – over an hour in my experience – and are useful for short recordings. Anything longer though, and you’re looking at needing to either swap batteries or use some other power source.

The crafty folks at SoundDevices added a USB C port to the MixPre, and it can be used to power the unit as well. The USB A port can also be used, but with limited capabilities.

While planning a recent vacation trip I recalled the last time I’d taken a recorder on vacation and decided to re-examine powering options. Going through my notes from last time I learned some things about what I used and didn’t use:

I brought some USB power banks (Anker 10,000mah, and 26,800mah), along with a cable to connect to the MixPre6ii. Both power banks can do Power Delivery, so they were the obvious source of power, except the only bag I had at the time was the Orca and I decided not to bring it. As a result, the recorder had to live in the backpack when using the power banks.
I really like using the recorder with the AA sled & strap. I’m usually carrying just one mic and ‘phones, and it’s a very simple setup. No trouble getting to any controls on the recorder, and it’s nice & small so it fits in whatever bag I’m using to haul all the other stuff when I travel.
The AA’s are a very bulky and heavy power source. Spare batteries require big pockets or a bag, and the charger is pretty big and requires access to AC.

In reconsidering power options for the next trip I decided on a goal of a total 6 hours of record time per day, although not necessarily in one recording. That’s to cover recording, listening back in the car, entering metadata, etc. So that’s enough battery to cover six hours, and the ability to charge it overnight.

Here’s a table that shows how the options I considered compare.

Recording lighthouses

What do you do when your spouse wants to see a bunch of lighthouses? Well if you’re me you record them! And since we’re on vacation I’m trying to record the trip in the same sort of way that a photographer or videographer would.

Getting family banter is easy. Getting good sounding family banter while in a restaurant in a way that doesn’t mortify my teenaged daughters is a bit more challenging. Tucking the mic under the flap keeps it a bit discreet, and putting the bag on the table at the end of a booth works, but restaurants are noisy places. Really, the Zoom H2n would be a better choice in that specific instance. The car and hotel room, along with walking around are better times to try to capture good sound.

Lighthouses are also surprisingly noisy places. Lots of people, wind, ocean, birds, and people. And the cars they leave idling while taking a quick snap of themselves.

Amazingly, not many have come up and asked me what I’m doing. Usually, holding a mic with a windscreen is obvious enough to draw questions.

Amazingly, my daughters still walk up to me as I’m recording to ask “How’s the recording going? Oh, sorry!”

Still, it’s not too hard to get a minute or so of decent ambience out of 5 minutes. My standards are not too high – I’m not waiting for silence, just the absence of loud people and vehicles. Distant boats & planes are part of the soundscape in my ears.

More to follow…