Recording recommendation

[Thirdtime33]

Greetings,

 

I recently brought an Zoom F1SP F1 Field Recorder W/SGH6 Shotgun Mic - Supports up to 24-bit/96 kHz because basically my neighbour has been using some form of speaker/amplifer or something to project sound into my house. It's audible to the human ear but my recorders or shotgun mic can't capture it. A expert did manage to clear some of the sound and confirmed the echo himself, however I require clearer audio, a device with a good frequency response especially for recording indoors, if the sound echoes. 

 

Anything you guys can recommend?

 

Any advice you could provide would be deeply appreciated.

 

regards,

James

[oohms]

A shotgun mic is very directional.. you might want to record with something else, even if it is your phone. You can record a video from inside the house and talk in it to provide a comparison level

[audiofeline]

I think the recorder would be able to record OK (as good or better than alternatives).  Live recording is all about the microphones.  If nobody can help here you might need to consult a professional. 

 

It is unusual that your neighbor is deliberately projecting sound into your house, but I know there are some difficult people around.  I knew someone who was disturbed by her neighbor in the adjoining house having a home theatre subwoofer with sound that spilled into her home.  He had a fondness for action movies with lots of gunfire and explosions.  Reasonable requests didn't get anywhere.  She took someone's advice and bought her own sub, and left it going as much as she could tolerate.  After a few days her neighbor would turn off his home theatre at 10pm each night. 

 

[TMM]

As above, have you asked them politely to stop? If it isn't deliberate, they may not be aware of how their activity annoys their neighbours. If they aren't close neighbours, don't know you/your family and you don't think they will take your complaint seriously, just make up some garbage so they feel worse e.g. something about you have young kids and they can't sleep at night etc.

If it is quiet enough that you're having difficultly recording it, it's unlikely that the law is going to get you anywhere. I usually wouldn't recommend fighting fire with fire, but once it did work for me (It probably helped that I fought back with 10x the fire power).

 

If all else fails just buy 10kg of sugar and pour it all around their front porch / letterbox / etc  in the middle of the night (HOPE YOU LIKE ANTS!). At least it'll make you feel better about it. Probably best to only go down this path when they don't know which neighbour you are and are unlikely to find out.

Edited December 26, 2019 by TMM

[LogicprObe]

 

Is Nikola Tesla living next door?

Do noise cancelling headphones make a difference?

How long are you out for?

[Guest Muon N']

Wow! someone does this intentionally?

 

Is this your neighbour?

 

[Ihearmusic]

Reminders me of the "sonic attacks" on the US Embasy in Cuba. Couple of years ago.......

[LogicprObe]

 

I think they found his resonant frequency and he has been vaporised.

[audiofeline]

I've been reflecting on this.  I agree with the above comments regarding first trying to negotiate with the neighbor to resolve the problem, which may not have been conveyed with my above posting. 

 

Apropos your recording.  Some mastering may be able to reveal what you are trying to highlight in your recording.  A few years ago a friend gave me a digital recording a student had made of a teacher delivering a class.  The teacher could hardly be heard, the recording was very quiet.  I checked that the levels of the recording, and the editor reported that it had a full dynamic range -  the waveform ranged from min to maximum, with no clipping.  But the problem was it had too much dynamic range.  I added lots of compression in the digital editor (not something recommended for music).  This increased the average volume level, so when the recording was played the teacher's voice was very easy to hear.  Maybe something like this, and possibly some eq, could help highlight what you want your recording to demonstrate.

 

Please let us know how it all goes for you.

 

[LogicprObe]

 

Compression will bring the noise up with it in a quiet recording.