Colin Hart

Principles of Boom Operation

May 12, 2012 By Colin Hart 11 Comments

I wrote this article a few years ago for my old blog. I got a TON of great responses from it, so I thought I would resurrect it again, especially since I just shot a new microphone placement video (seen at the bottom of this page). I've made some updates and edits to the article as well. Quick disclaimer on this article: There are many different boom operation techniques. While some are better than others, there is no one way that trumps the others. There are many different ways to boom op, but what matters is the end result, not so much how you got there. So I offer the following advice as a collection of the knowledge that I have gained … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, boom operation, Featured, Production Audio, Tutorials

Don’t Be a Hater, Hart a Gator!!

April 26, 2012 By Colin Hart Leave a Comment

The gator library has been released! Don't release the hounds, they will be eaten! Check it out here! Here's the library demo: … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alligators, Blog, Escapades, Featured, Field Recording, Gators, Gear Casualties, Libraries, Nature, Sound Libraries

Gators, Part Deux!

March 24, 2012 By Colin Hart 9 Comments

[UPDATE: For anyone having trouble viewing the SC player, here is a link to a Set of the sounds on SC: SoundCloud] It has been a busy season! Things are finally starting to calm down a bit around here, so the blogging should be a bit more consistent! About 9 months ago, the HartFX team headed over to Gatorland to try to get some gator sounds. We were able to get some jaw snaps, hissing, and some decent ambience - and we managed to feed a Rode Blimp to a hungry gator (most definitely not on purpose...). The sounds we ended up with weren't really anything exciting though - a bit of a let down (considering the work that went into getting … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alligators, Blog, Contests, Escapades, Featured, Field Recording, Gators, Gear, HartFX, Nature, Sound Libraries

Get Ready, Get Jet, BOOM!!!!!!!

November 27, 2011 By Colin Hart Leave a Comment

You may remember last year when we went out to an event called "The Night of Fire" to record jet cars, but I forgot a cable? Well, we went back this year and grabbed some wicked recordings! The "Night of Fire" is an absolutely wonderful night where a bunch of Jet Car Drivers from across the country come together to show off what they've been working on - jet powered dragsters! First off, putting a jet engine inside a car is a crazy feat of engineering. These things are crazy powerful! The smaller cars had 6000+ horsepower, and the big rig (yes, a semi truck cab), has 18,000hp! Enough to propel the 4 ton beast to 209mph at the 1/4 mile. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Cars, Drag Racing, Explosions, Featured, Field Recording, Jet Cars, Jets, Microphones, Rocket, Space Shuttle

DesigningSound.org’s Sound Design Competition, Sponsored by HartFX!

November 18, 2011 By Colin Hart Leave a Comment

Every month, Shaun Farley hosts a Sound Design Challenge. We're now on Challenge #13, and HartFX is sponsoring it, which means that if you win, you take home your very own copy of the Hart of Steel HD library! Check out the challenge's rules: We’re going in an advertising direction this time around. The picture above is a capture from the video you’ll be working with for this challenge. It’s an old, in-theatre, trailer advertising a screening of horror movies. You’re task this time around will be to create the audio for this trailer keeping the horror and advertising aspects in mind, as well as matching the sound to the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Contests, DesigningSound, Featured, HartFX, Libraries, News, Shaun Farley, Sound Design, Sound Libraries

Extra, Extra, Read All About it!

October 15, 2011 By Colin Hart Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, I received notice that the current show I am working on was put on hold for a few weeks while they re-edit some things, which gave me a few weeks to record again! The day I received that news, I went right out and did this session: I recently noticed, while making copious amounts of collated, double sided, stapled photocopies (fancy machine!) in the office, that the new printer we have sounds really cool. So, as soon as I had a free evening, I grabbed a few mics, a recorder, and a few reams of paper, and started recording. Disclaimer: I did actually have a ton of copies that had to be made, so I didn't waste any paper... I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Field Recording, Gear, HartFX, Microphones, Printer

Come on Irene

August 30, 2011 By Colin Hart Leave a Comment

This past week, Hurricane Irene brushed up against the coast of Florida. There were a few small spin-off storms and whatnot, but it pretty much missed Florida altogether. I still wanted to head to the coast to try to record something though, so I packed up and jumped into the car with my recording buddy, Josh (Twitter: @JoshuaGladu), and we headed over to Cocoa Beach to see what it was like out there. We drove through some pretty nasty storms on the way out, but to our surprise, it wasn't even raining in Cocoa Beach when we got there. The sky even cleared up enough to see the sunset. I knew the waves were going to be pretty big, and I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Escapades, Featured, Field Recording, Gear, Gear Casualties, HartFX, Hurricane, Nature, Rain, Weather

Hey! Leggo my Rode Blimp!

June 30, 2011 By Colin Hart 3 Comments

A few days ago, the HartFX crew took a trip down to Gatorland. If you haven't been to Gatorland, you need to go sometime. It's totally awesome! Huge gators everywhere, plus a ton of other animals too. Very cool place, and the management there is just as awesome! We hooked up with Tim Williams, the "Dean of Gator Wrestlin' " (that's what his card says!), who is just about the nicest guy you could meet. He toured us all around the facility before hours (very nice of him!) and told us all about the gators. Tim started wrestlin' gators over 30 years ago! He now trains the other wrestlers at the park. The guy knows a lot about gators! So our … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alligators, Blog, Escapades, Featured, Field Recording, Gators, Gear Casualties

Road Trip Special: Explosives and Fireworks

June 16, 2011 By Colin Hart 1 Comment

Our last full day in South Carolina was a big one! This is the one we planned for. Explosives and guns! Let's talk about the explosives first. I've recorded explosions before, so I sort of knew what to expect. I also knew it was going to require a lot of planning if I was going to come out with anything worth using. The things I needed to consider were location, gear, and available ordinance. Also, I had to stay within my budget with all of this. First, I decided to find a location. The main reason we travelled to South Carolina was because of this location. We were given access to this huge farm that was in the middle of nowhere. It … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Explosions, Featured, Field Recording, HartFX, Microphones, Road Trip, Rocket, Sound Libraries

Road Trip Special: Falls Park Recordings

May 13, 2011 By Colin Hart Leave a Comment

On the second full day of our trip, after we did the garage recordings and picked up our fireworks stash, we headed over to Downtown Greenville, where there you can find tons of waterfalls in Falls Park! We brought the same two packages as before - Johnny had a CSS-5, and I had an MKH60, and of course I brought my hydrophone! The layout of the park is pretty cool. At the top of the park, there is a large river that comes through Downtown Greenville. The river flows through a manmade waterway, and then goes over this cool manmade waterfall. We stopped at this waterfall first. It's one of those cool waterfalls where the water comes off … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Contact Mic, Escapades, Featured, Field Recording, Gear, Hydrophone, Microphones, Nature, Road Trip