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The Best Way to Record Outdoor Sounds

Learning how to capture sounds from the places you visit, particularly wildlife or nature-preserve areas, lets you relive your trips to those spots long after you've returned home. You can use the sounds to create your own relaxing nature sound music tracks to soothe yourself to sleep at night or as a soundtrack for your store or office. If you specialize in landscape or nature photography, a recording of the sounds from where you shot your photos may be the perfect addition to your gallery display of those photos.

Things You'll Need

HiMD Minidisc Recorder
Tripod
Self-powering shotgun mono microphone with windshield
Synthetic fur microphone cover (wind gag)
Headphones

Instructions

- 1
  Select a spot outdoors close to the specific sound you want to record. Position yourself as close as you can get to the sound without disturbing its source.
- 2
  Set up your sound recording equipment. Place a synthetic fur microphone cover over the supplied windshield on a self-powered shotgun mono microphone. Connect the microphone to the input jack on a HiMD mini-disc recorder. Set up a tripod and attach the mini-disc recorder to the top of the tripod. Turn the microphone and the mini-disc recorder on.
- 3
  Select the "uncompressed" recording format on your mini-disc recorder. Plug a set of headphones into your HiMD recorder and press the "record" button.
- 4
  Manually adjust the recording level via your recorder's onscreen instructions or by turning a small wheel marked "recording level" or "mic" as you listen through your headphones to obtain an optimal amount of volume while minimizing unnecessary gain or static.
- 5
  Stop your recording, pack up all your materials and head home. Or, bring a laptop computer with you and transfer your recorded sound to your computer onsite. Edit the portions of your recording that do not contain the sound you are trying to capture (such as a bird song or specific animal call) out of your recorded sounds as desired in a sound-editing software package on your computer.

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