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Road Trip Special: Recording at The Garage

May 9, 2011 By Colin Hart 4 Comments

After we finished up recording Gareth's Yamaha R1, we all decided to go out for pizza and drinks. While we were sitting there talking about our plans for the week, Gareth mentioned that we should come by the transmission shop where he works. It sounded like a great idea. We planned everything out and then showed up around 11:45 the next morning. We timed it so that we would show up right before everyone went on lunch, so we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves. Pretty sweet! Johnny grabbed a stereo package (CSS-5 into a 744T) and I grabbed a mono package (MKH60 into a 744T) and we headed into the garage. We met up with Gareth, who … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Cars, Escapades, Featured, Field Recording, Libraries, Road Trip, Sound Libraries

Road Trip Special: Recording the Yamaha R1

May 5, 2011 By Colin Hart 27 Comments

Last Monday was our first full day in Greenville, SC. We didn't have many big plans that day, just location scouting, organizing gear, building rigs, and a few other housekeeping activities on the agenda. We were supposed to be recording a MasterCraft Ski Boat with a nearly 400hp Carbureted Ford V8 inboard engine on it, but the weather prevented that. As a consolation, Will, our host, mentioned that his good friend, Gareth, had a Yamaha R1 bike that we might be able to play around with. Having no other plans for the rest of the night, we jumped on it, and were soon meeting up with Gareth to record his R1. I've recorded bikes before, but … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Cars, Drag Racing, Featured, Field Recording, Gear, HartFX, Libraries, Microphones, Motorcycles, Road Trip, Sound Libraries

Our 5-Day SFX Recording Road Trip Extravaganza!

May 2, 2011 By Colin Hart Leave a Comment

Last week was a VERY productive week for us here at HartFX. I had a wonderful response to the 192k article I posted (thanks!), plus the HartFX crew (Johnny and I) took a 5-day road trip up to South Carolina to record an amazing amount of sound! We recorded vehicles, a mechanic's garage, tons of waterfalls, guns, and explosives, and now we have 3 new libraries on the way! Check them out here, and here. During the trip, we learned a ton and now we want to share our experiences with you! There is so much I could talk about, and I don't want to skimp on the details! So instead of writing one GIGANTIC article that covers everything but … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Escapades, Explosions, Featured, Field Recording, Gear, Hydrophone, Microphones, Rocket

I’m on a boat!

April 28, 2011 By Colin Hart 1 Comment

Last week, the HartFX crew (aka me and Johnny), spent the weekend recording boats in Sarasota. The first boat we recorded was a 2008 Sea Ray Sundancer 340. It has two T-VD-8.1 S Horizon MerCruiser DTS 370hp engines (loud!). We spent two days recording the boat. The first day we wired it all up and did a bunch of engine starts and stops, as well as revs and other engine sounds. The second day, Captain John Hart (my Pops!) took us out on the Sarasota Bay to get a bunch of different maneuvers and cruising speeds (and have lunch!). We did a whole bunch of different recordings, from Cub-01s in the engine room and a shotgun on the exhaust, to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Boats, Escapades, Featured, Field Recording, Microphones

New Library Coming Soon: LFE Effects

April 22, 2011 By Colin Hart 4 Comments

So it's been a good few months since I've released a library. I am planning the release of 3 - 4 more by the end of the summer - so keep your eyes out! The first one that will be released (hopefully by the end of May) is a collection of high resolution LFE effects. The library will be called... drumroll please... "My Hart Resonates!" I enjoyed that :-) These aren't your simple synthesized LFEs. These are all real sounds, in real environments! Here's a taste of what I mean: (you'll need a sub or good headphones for this one!) In the demo above, everything is recorded with an Aquarian H2a hydrophone (sometimes with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Contact Mic, Featured, Field Recording, Gear, Hydrophone, Libraries, Microphones

A Whole New World! Exploring with a Hydrophone

April 22, 2011 By Colin Hart Leave a Comment

About a month ago, I finally (after a year of deliberating) bought an Aquarian H2a Hydrophone. I love it! Very cool mic. As you may know, I've been playing with hydrophones for about 2 years now - most of which I've made by myself - with mixed results. This mic is lightyears better than what I've been using! So Johnny and I set out to find some cool things to record last week. We headed up Longboat Key, and ended up stopping at the park by the draw bridge at New Pass. I threw the hydrophone all the way out and let it settle, then started recording. The Gulf was definitely alive that evening! Depth charts estimate the water to be between … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Boats, Contact Mic, Featured, Hydrophone, Microphones

Sanken CSS-5 Self-Noise Testing

March 27, 2011 By Colin Hart 4 Comments

Someone commented on this video the other day asking how the CSS-5 performed in quiet situations, more specifically the difference between the self-noise in "Normal" and "Wide" modes on the mic. I've never thought of the CSS-5 as a very quiet mic (and don't ever use it for recording quiet things), but I wanted to give him some examples, so I did a quick A/B compare. Here's the original video: Here's the A/B: I just did a quick recording on my back porch, so there are some rural noises in there (distant a/c hum, kids and toys, occasional traffic, etc...). What are your thoughts? … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Field Recording, Gear, Nature

Mortars and Microphones

November 23, 2010 By Colin Hart 8 Comments

About six months ago I purchased a ton of fireworks. Why? Because I like blowing things up. So combine that with a recorder and you have some awesome sounds. I never got around to actually using any of them until just last week, when I decided to bring a bunch of them out to a party at my friends house, which is in the middle of nowhere. While at the party, we found this long drainage pipe and started throwing bottle rockets down it. The sound was absolutely amazing, and I decided that I needed to record the resulting sound. So a few days later, I returned with an arsenal of rockets, firecrackers, and my favorite, mortars. Armed with a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Escapades, Explosions, Featured, Field Recording, Microphones, Rocket

HartFX Drag Racing Library Released!

November 3, 2010 By Colin Hart Leave a Comment

I’ve just announced the release of my new drag racing library, “My Hart is Racing!” This heart-pounding library is 1.2gb in size, 46 files wide, and 37 minutes long. It includes, dragsters, jr dragsters, super sport cars, bikes, imports, and more! There’s even a 7 minute qualifying heat included that comes unedited! Tons of good source for some epic sound design! For this week only, while I’m at AES, I’m offering this library at a discount. Normally it will be $20, but until I return home from San Francisco, you can purchase it for just $10! The trick is that you’ll have to find my promo code to get the discount! I’ll … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Field Recording, HartFX, Microphones, Sound Design, Sound Libraries

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