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How to record the sounds of rain without extraneous noise and not to wet the equipment?


Lilay Purple

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Hello everyone.
I'm new to this and the question is probably stupid, I didn't find anything like this by doing a forum search.
Tell me, please, how to record the sounds of rain without extraneous noise and not to wet the equipment?
I have heard recordings of rain sounds on the Internet that are clean and without extraneous noise, they sound fantastic.
But when I try to record, I hear the sound of drops falling on the protective cover for the recorder or as drops hit the umbrella. If I record under the roof, I can hear the sound of drops on the roof or on the walls, microphones pick up all this very well.

Thank you in advance for your help.

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Hi!

 There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. 

 First of all, what microphones are you using?

 The characteristics of your microphone will affect your sound. So if you want a specific point or area of the rain, you’d need a more directional microphone, like a shotgun or a hyper cardioid. But proximity of the sound source is more important. 
 

You have to later sound sometimes.  if you’re trying to achieve a sound where you only hear raindrops “cleanly” you could fake it. As in, you go out on a night in a silent area where you have your surface, where you want the rain to fall, and you set up your microphone and then you pour your “rain” from a can or something, a hose might do. That way you get a clean sound and in post you can as the larger background rain. Layers.

 

 There is no one sound that can sound like they do in the movies. 

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There's a few possible approaches:  Record from under an shelter that is far above your microphone (this limits your mic placement, but if all you need is ambience, it can get you close enough.  Sometimes you can get away with a 4x4 flop on a C-Stand above your kit.  This is basically just moving the "extraneous" noise to a place where its far enough away from the mic that it blends in with the background.  As you've noticed, not all roofs / buildings work equally well here; ideally you want a building that has proper drainspouts so you don't get loud dripping into puddles.  But the basic principle is to get as close to the source and as far away from the noise as possible.

 

Or, you can try dampening the extraneous raindrops with some sort of soft material:  Think of putting a pillow above your windjammer to absorb the drops that would directly hit it.  Other common materials include cotton or polyester batting, or some kind of fabric.  This works until the material gets saturated, and then you may start to hear it splatter.  If you want to buy a custom solution, the Rainman is a polyester rain cover that fits most zeppelins: https://www.gothamsound.com/product/rainman-boom-mic-rain-cover-1 .

If the rain is slight enough, you can edit out the drops that sound too obvious in post, but this is highly dependent on the weather staying consistent, so it's not really something you can count on.

Or, if you are feeling brave and have a mic that stands up well to humidity, just use your zeppelin with the windjammer as normal.  The air bubble that protects from wind is also effective at keeping water out of direct contact with the mic (the zeppelin may saturate, but the water will be wicked around the body of the zeppelin and drip off the bottom.  I've recorded for a full 12 hour day in driving rain without any special rain protection, and while the mic will tend to get coated in condensation, especially switching between indoors and outdoors, the zeppelin + windjammer alone is enough to prevent direct contact with rain.  The Sennheiser MKH series has stood up well for me in these circumstances.  The condensation is a risk, but I think that comes with the territory of filming around water.  I don't know a foolproof way of preventing it.  There's certain circumstances where drops hitting the zeppelin become a problem; this is mostly either large droplets in very light rain (when the ambience isn't loud enough to mask the nearfield drops), or extremely heavy rain, when the physical force of the droplets becomes an issue (worst case, rain hitting the boom becomes a problem).  The aforementioned Rainman can help mitigate this.

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Most rain recordings are the sound of rain hitting something--rain passing through the air makes almost no sound.  So what do you want it to be hitting?  A roof?  A window?  Leaves?  Concrete?  Water?   How much detail do you want--ie how close to the surface the rain is hitting do you want to be? Are you after a general ambiance or individual droplets?   Finding a place with quiet BG is a good idea unless traffic and other human sounds are part of what you want.  When doing nature recordings of rain I eventually found myself looking for sounds that were unique in some way OR were utterly generic.  Both are useful in post, with, somewhat surprisingly, the generic rain sounds getting used more often than the unique ones.

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8 hours ago, Olle Sjostrom said:

First of all, what microphones are you using?

I have built-in microphones Zoom H5, Rode NT55 and shotgun Rode NTG5.

 

5 hours ago, Philip Perkins said:

Are you after a general ambiance or individual droplets?

In general, it is the atmosphere that interests me. For example, standing in the middle of the forest during the rain.
I was recording audio on YouTube for sleeping, people like the sounds of rain, and they asked me to improve the quality, I bought better microphones.
It turned out that microphones catch even a light touch to their body, not to mention the sounds of an umbrella or covers that protect from rain.

 

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A cheap foam mattress will protect you and the mikes from the rain and absorb the shock of the drops falling on it, even in heavy rain, at least for a while until it is saturated. When saturated you can find protection and squeeze the water out of the mattress easily.

it must not have a hight density and no cover sheet/fabric/plastic. 

 A single size mattress is transportable for a short hike in the forest. With an assistant that would help.

 

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Intrepid traveler and nature recordist, George Vlad, offers great advice in his blogs. He often builds mini shelters out of native vegetation to mitigate rain drop sounds.

 

https://mindful-audio.com/

 

 

https://www.creativefieldrecording.com/2020/02/12/field-recording-gear-and-travel-george-vlad/

 

https://tonebenderspodcast.com/121-recording-rain-with-george-vlad-and-thomas-rex-beverly/

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The hardware store has air conditioning filter material that works almost as well as real hog's hair, and with a few layers of that around the mic you'll stop hearing drips.  I have also left mic in pouring rain in a zeppelin + windjammer and the mic and connector were dry as a bone.  I guess Amazon has it also, about 1/10 the price of hog's hair.


Aqua-Flo roll

 

You'll only need a few feet.  This is also useful for loud drops in puddles that become distracting.

 

That's pretty cool - recording sounds for sleeping!  I've often thought about a recording project that would be for changing your awake world - 16+ hour recordings from different interior environments that people live.  For example, a Brooklyn apartment near the window, or an ocean house, or a house in the desert.   If those existed I'd play them at home and see what it felt like.

 

Dan Izen

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1 hour ago, Izen Ears said:

В хозяйственном магазине есть фильтрующий материал для кондиционера, который работает почти так же хорошо, как настоящая свиная шерсть, и, нанеся несколько слоев вокруг микрофона, вы перестанете слышать капли. Я также оставил микрофон под проливным дождем в цеппелине + виндджаммер, и микрофон и разъем были сухими как кость. Я думаю, что у Amazon он тоже есть, примерно 1/10 цены свиной шерсти.


Аква-Фло ролл

 

Вам понадобится всего несколько футов. Это также полезно для громких падений в лужах, которые отвлекают.

 

Это довольно круто - записывать звуки для сна! Я часто думал о проекте записи, который должен был бы изменить ваш бодрствующий мир — более 16 часов записей из разных внутренних сред, в которых живут люди. Например, бруклинская квартира у окна, или дом у океана, или дом в пустыне. Если бы они существовали, я бы поиграл в них дома и посмотрел, каково это.

 

Дэн Имя

Also a great idea, thanks a lot for the advice!
I will definitely try!😁

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I'll chime in with a really simple solution since it's even simpler and cheaper than what's already mentioned. I often record rain (or ambiences when it might rain) with just a couple of DPA 4060 lavs - and with these I just thread the mic through a 'washing up sponge' - that is a sponge with a thin layer of scouring pad on one side - suspend so the mic is an inch or less below the sponge, and pop on a lav windscreen (DPA, rycote, bubblebee, whatever). Have the sponge side on top, the scouring side below (just above the mic capsule hanging below). One sponge, about 4x2 inches, cut in half will serve 2 mics. Just make a small slit in the centre of each with a stanley knife to thread the lav through. So small and light I carry a pair wherever I take a pair of DPAs.

 

Of course this is for lavaliers, but you could DIY say 4 or more together with cloth or glue to make slightly larger pads (depending on your windshielding) at a cost of virtually nothing.

 

Apart from that it is important to listen and learn to understand what environments are making what kind of rain ambience, as mentioned above, particularly Philip's post.

 

I've been asked for copies of some recordings by friends precisely for going to sleep!

 

Jez

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