Initial Ideas For Binaural Recordings (LO1)

The original way that I had planned to do the binaural recordings was to go to each of the areas that I had written a story on and record the ambient sound of the areas, however when I got around to doing the recordings (around 3 am on a Sunday, with no one around), there was little to no sound present, the only thing that was picked up was the occasional gust of wind.

So what I have decided to do instead is focus on the binaural recordings in the context of the narration and try and find different and interesting ways to record each story. As well as this, I plan on recording some of the sound effects in each of the areas or areas with a similar environment (to try and get a good recreation of what it could sound like in the areas).

The first story was recorded fairly simply, it involved jerry-rigging a head sized object and placing the microphones on either side to simulate the spacing of the head. I tried recording the story from each side of the fake head, but in the end, I decided to add some padding around one side of the microphone to simulate an ear shape, and then record from behind. I found that recording from behind gave the best impression of being in third-person, whereas all the other recording sounded like I was reading a story to the listener.

When recording the story for the area around The Lawn I again used the fake head set-up but recorded from multiple sides as I wanted to give the impression of it being a handheld recorder, so I also added some background noises and hand movements to make it seem more like a basic handheld microphone. By using the fake head it gave me the opportunity to move away from the microphones and that then influenced the way I could write the stories – meaning that I could add distance to the recordings.

Initial Voice-Over Tests (LO2)

As part of this project, I am attempting to do something that I have never been comfortable with doing, which is using my own voice, this time in the context of voice-over or narration. I spent a day with an RE-20 Microphone connected to a Zoom and ran through a scary story that I found online multiple times.  *1

I edited the story that I found slightly so that I could read it easier and also make it sound like something I would write/say. It took me a fair few tries to actually get to a point where I felt comfortable talking to the microphone and also got all of the words write on a single take.


However, after about the twentieth try, I got to a point where I felt comfortable and could read the piece in its entirety. My original plan was to have someone else do the narration of the story, however, I quite enjoyed the process and I want to try and get better during this project.

*1 http://www.creepypasta.com/stairs-2/