Recording cars

[hki]

Hello people,

I hope you all can help me with this one. I am a sound editor with the need and a wonderful chance to record some great cars..Ferrari,59 Caddy, rare challenger, limo etc...

I record my own Efx's and BG's but haven't seriously recorded any cars aside from the ext. sounds; car doors, horns etc.

I have a SD 744t, 1x Rode stereo mic, Sennheiser 416, 2x Dpa lavs with lectrosonics.

I only have one chance to "get it right" and would appreciate any input. I know there might be other forums out there, but I trust and value the experience found here. (clean off nose!

Thank you in advance

[dkstudios]

Will The vehicles be in motion?

[hki]

I can do what I want with them except take them home!

[georgia]

for one thing i'd get the following:


Door latches
Door open/close
Door slam
Keys in ignition
Switches etc on dash
electric seats ( if any )
Door locks
Stick shift
Shifting gears at moderate at slow, medium and fast speeds
Brake pedals
windows
horns
start
stop
idle
trunk
hood
starter without actually starting
Shutoff
rev (from outside front, and rear of car and close to exhaust)
drive by's L to R and R to L fast, slow, med
Skids ( both turning a little too fast and stopping )

Also ambiences from Interior driving around town with a rig in the car.

AND, i'd do it with a recording device BOTH, inside the car and outside during EVERY take of EVERY sound. I'd use a single wireless mic inside and a set of mics (stereo setup close to the car) and a second set or biaural head or XY or MS mic set up at a bit of a distance outside. I'd probably use condensers for interior and close and do it both close and with a bit of distance every time. Track everything to a multitrack recording... then you have everything for later...

Finally I would also make a detail list of EXACT things that I would need from the cars for the project at hand besides the basic library stuff I listed.


FWIW

Cheers
geo

[JKD99]

Add to Georgia's excellent list:
In/stop/off, various speeds
Start/away, various speeds
Corner by's (slowing down into the turn, then accelerating away)
Onboard exterior drive (put a mic under the hood and one by the exhaust, be careful not to melt them ), get some good accels and downshifts, as well as the more mundane (but WAY more useful usually) medium drive
Reverses

[subwoof]

It's a good idea to also record cars doing things that are always depicted in films, such as pulling into a driveway and stopping. Starting and backing up our of the driveway then driving off. Pulling up at the mic, before the mic, past the mic. Uneven driving, like sudden speed changes, swerves, revving the engine,and sudden stops with small tire squeals. Also, pulling into parking spaces, parking garages, parallel parking. Driving on wet streets, and gravel. And try to get sound of going uphill with a load on the engine.

The problem with some commercial libraries that have cars like Sound Ideas 5000 series is all of the sounds are boring with no character. Every car goes at exact perfect even speeds that sound like an old grandma was driving. There is no variation. No character. Do unusual things with the cars...

good luck

Mike

[JR Fountain]

One other thing to add to the great suggestions here, is to make sure you have enough road space for your aways and bys. I've run into the problem where our road was too short for the type of vehicle we were recording and you start to hear the car slow down after it's ripped past you. Obviously the key is to hear it drive away into the distance.

Have fun! I just finished recording a monster truck last weekend and although the location stunk we still got some great stuff and I had a blast rigging up the truck.

JR

[Don Barto]

Record in the desert.

[wheresmyfroggy]

I would love to be in your position, cars can be tricky to lay up so to get the chance to do some really specific fx is great. One thing to remember is something I always struggle to find/emulate are really really slow passes, almost just creeping past, oh and juddering/stalling/breakdown sort of noises.

Have fun


Tom

[hki]

Hello all,
Thank you for some great ideas. I had a list of quite a few of them, but there were some that hadn't crossed my mind. I do have one more request;

How about the mic placement inside the car and around the motor and exhaust? Georgia recommended 1 wireless inside the car but where would you suggest..dash, backseat etc..?