Humans being

Workbench
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The How Sound episode, “Getting inside someone else’s skin” (May 14, 2019 from the Sound School Podcast) contains insightful comments regarding why in-person is so great.

(Sorry, I cannot find a web-page specifically for this episode. You’ll have to find it in your favorite podcast app.)

Too long; didn’t listen? Here are my thoughts and opinions…

Listeners can tell when we have captured “humans being” and that can only be done when we humans are in our natural environment. That’s field-recording… pointing a mic at someone in the real-world.

Anything else is not the same thing. Wether that’s in a full studio, over a call even with video on, or when I carry a bunch of gear and give them a mic and great headphones sitting in their home… none of those are the same as field-recording a human being (and I intend both meanings there.)

Anything else is some degree of “disembodied and silenced” — quoted because that is a nugget taken from the podcast.

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As a listener, I love a live conversation, but I would rather have a great interviewer conducting over Zoom than a poor interview in person. As long as the human-ness is allowed to come across with skill and energy, it will transcend the recording equipment and process.

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I’m always reminded of those old table-top, roll-the-ball-thru-the-maze games… where you can control the tilt of the table to influence where the ball goes in the maze… lots of little holes… plop you lose… along the way to the winning exit.

Every time I think about all the myriad things we’re trying to balance as we record a conversation… so many impossible-to-perfect things!

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