HERZ

Baltic Quad Surroundings captures the urban sounds of Riga city and its adjacent suburban and rural areas, located in the Baltics, Northern Europe. A Quadraphonic library for your next surround work. Takes are approximately 4 to 5 minutes long or even longer, so that should cover the majority of movie scenes. Please listen to the stereo samples, or download the Quad samples to hear full potential of these recordings here: Quad Recordings Demo

Since this is our first release, we are also adding a free bonus micro library with quad recordings of passing trains that we encountered during the recording sessions. Enjoy!

Recorded with a spaced Quadraphonic omni setup.

The recordings were done in early spring when vegetation has not yet grown leaves, to avoid unnecessary noise pollution. Some recordings are made at night to keep bird activity to a minimum.

This is the first library that results from a steady need for authentic and realistic surround backgrounds.

The most common problem we have with surround sound libraries is that they are too exotic, or have too much activity. So, we took matters into our own hands and started to explore different surround recording techniques. Our recordings can be used as a surround soundscape “beds” or layers. This allows controlled additions of other elements to build up the scene and keep the viewer’s focus on the storyline.

The goal was to record diffused sound field atmospheres and that is where a spaced Quadraphonic Omni setup shines. Human hearing does not rely only on level differences across the frequency spectrum – in fact, our auditory system heavily relies on the difference of sound wave arrival time to each ear. This is especially important with frequencies below 800 hertz.

So spaced microphones result in more believable sound field recordings than point source recording techniques like MS or other compact systems. The phase is also not an issue, it even decreases as microphones get placed even further apart. The only downside to this technique is the big and bulky rig and that it requires individual wind protection for each microphone.

Our future goal is to add a dedicated center channel to the recording rig and to start building up way bigger and more sophisticated libraries. Stay tuned for future releases!