Puffins: Cute to Catalyst

Role:
Field Recording, Audio Capture

Capturing the Sounds of the Puffins: Location Recording at Bempton Cliffs

This project involved capturing high-quality audio for a BirdNote’s Threatened podcast. ‘A podcast about answering the call to protect the birds and places we love’. This episode focused on the plight of the puffin. The recording took place at the RSPB reserve on Bempton Cliffs, a spectacular location on the Yorkshire coast and a vital habitat for these charismatic seabirds.

Challenges and Solutions:

Preserving Clarity: Calm weather conditions were crucial for capturing clean audio recordings, especially considering the exposed clifftop location. The team was fortunate to experience minimal wind during the recording sessions as even with wind jammers on the microphones, there can still be issues with excessive wind noise.
A Multi-Mic Approach: The primary setup for capturing the puffin calls utilised an ORTF stereo technique, employing two LOM Uši Pro microphones and a Zoom H5 recorder. This configuration ensured high-quality stereo recordings of the birds.
Flexibility for Different Needs: A Sony PMC-D100 recorder was used for situations requiring a quicker recording approach.
Clean Interviews: Interviews with RSPB staff members and enthusiastic puffin visitors were captured using a Sennheiser MK416 microphone. Additionally, producer Paul utilised a Zoom F1 recorder with a lavalier microphone to ensure his questions were clearly recorded for potential use in post-production. All microphone setups incorporated wind protection to minimise unwanted noise.

Collaborative Post-Production:

A Rough Assembly: A preliminary edit (string out) of the podcast episode was assembled after the recording session, incorporating feedback from the team.
Final Touches: The final audio mix was completed by a separate team in the US, who added elements like music and the host's narration.