The Sound Equipment Reflection!

My experience with the audio hardware and software was quite an interesting experience. I have had many ups and some downs while completing the entire task for this Drift 1 assignment. This all included the building of the microphones, the operation with the Mini Disc recorder, and lastly the audio-editing software.
The microphone was quite a neat experience. For the most part I really enjoyed doing this. I am not really a great tools man, so I had some learning experience, and got to brush up on some of the tools used. My most difficult task was coating the wires, because I knew I had to get all the wires coated but my hands were horribly shaky. I did like though when I finally got to test my microphone, and realized that it was a clean, sound microphone. That made me very happy, because I just felt I put a lot of time into it.
I believe the microphone rig worked all right, I really didn’t have many problems with the microphone at all when I was doing this walk. I seem to be able to catch ambience sounds as well as extreme closeups. I think I would have liked to get more extreme closeups though. I mostly had ambience, which was ok, but it was editing it later that made the difference.
My ideal setup was to take the microphone, and put it in position with the event that was occurring. I tried to do a lot of different types of shots, some up and down, and then some with the microphones right next to each other. Although we were given ample time to complete this project, I didn’t always feel like I knew what I was doing. I have always learned best by seeing and often found myself looking for assistance from someone.
I really didn’t have that many problems with the mini-disk. There was one time that I recorded some sounds and I thought I had saved all the sounds, and then I realized I didn’t. That alone got me a bit angry. Regarding all the settings on the device used for the MiniDisc recorder, I had no problems.
I haven’t had a lot of experience with audio work in the past. Most of the time I was working with cameramen, or just helping out with the set or helping the director. In an ideal situation, however, I would love to use a device that would be able to follow my commands through vocals. It would be great to be able to say what you want, and have instant recognition of my voice. That’s just my idea of the dream audio device.
Insofar as my personal software experience, I have had no experience at all. I did choose to use the standard equipment that was in the syllabus. So I used Sonic Stage and Audacity, to get through my Drift 1. I really enjoyed using Sonic Stage, and Audacity because the equipment was very new to me. It did take me a few times to get the whole idea of both programs, but I did get it. Sonic Stage is very easy to use now and I really enjoy it. It was cool discovering that I had the program at home and could download my music at home with Sonic Stage. Audacity program is neat too now that I understand it better. There were a few times that I just wanted to re-do everything to make it better. However, I needed to move on and get the project done. I did learn a lot about features such as fade in, fade out, equalization, and amplify while using audacity. I will use this software again. I like being able to talk to my teacher assistant when I run into problems because I understand much better when I have someone in front of me who can show me what I’m doing wrong and what I can do better.
Drift 1 was a quite a learning experience for me. I also got to use some really neat equipment and enjoyed using some really cool software. I may have had my difficulties with Drift 1 and all the audio and software equipment, but now I have a much better grasp of it and I feel I can do a better job on Drift 2.