Field Recording: Capturing Audio for Podcasting, Qualitative Research, Environmental Science, Art, Music, and More! In-Person
Do you want to get outside for your interviews and focus groups, ecological study, or creative practice? While some interviews are best held indoors in a studio like those at Lyons New Media Centre, there are a million reason to leave the recording studio behind. This can include capturing natural or ambient sounds, making a podcast richer with audio from daily life, or going to an interview subject's home turf so they feel a bit more comfortable. This 3-hour intensive will give you hands-on experience with field recording for a range of purposes.
A trifecta of experts will boost your technical and creative decision-making:
- Sam Hansen brings experience field recording for their podcast productions, working with the BBC, NPR, CBC on tape syncs, and setting up mics outside the studio.
- Lyons' own Carlie King will introduce you to their field recording equipment kits (with H6 and H4 zoom recorders) and share details on microphone recording patterns.
- Danica Evering will give practical overview of approaches to recording with future editing and artistic choices in mind.
This session is designed for absolute beginners who have no experience with field recording but we also welcome audio enthusiasts who want to find community. We will intentionally keep this very interdisciplinary to reach anyone looking to record audio: from Health Sciences researchers recording interviews in busy clinical settings to ecologists and biologists looking to study bioacoustics of bird song to iArts (Integrated Arts) undergrads working on a multimedia project. Come record with us!
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Record intentional audio outdoors and in unconventional indoor environments.
- Select appropriate microphone and recording devices for their desired use case, as well as windscreens and other peripherals
- Locate campus resources for field recording
- Prepare to make creative decisions with field recordings
Details: Any preparatory work for the session can be found on its information page. This workshop will not be recorded.
Certificate Eligibility: This workshop is eligible for the Sherman Centre's certificate program. For more information, visit scds.ca/certificate-program. It is also eligible for the Canadian Certificate for Digital Humanities. To learn more, visit ccdhhn.ca or contact scds@mcmaster.ca.
- Date:
- Wednesday, May 5, 2027
- Time:
- 1:00pm - 4:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship (1st Floor, Mills Library)
- Audience:
- McMaster + Community
- Categories:
- DMDS DRI Training SCDS Sponsored Events Workshops
CODE OF CONDUCT
The Sherman Centre and the McMaster University Libraries are committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for its presenters and participants. As a participant in this session, you agree to support and help cultivate an experience that is collaborative, respectful, and inclusive, as well as free of harassment, discrimination, and oppression. We reserve the right to remove participants who exhibit harassing, malicious or persistently disruptive behaviour.
We strive to make this event accessible to everyone. Where possible, sessions are recorded and include live captioning, and we will share recordings, slides, and transcripts afterward so you can revisit the content at your own pace. Because these materials are provided, and to help protect participant privacy and consent, we ask that attendees do not use AI note-taking or automated recording tools (such as Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Zoom AI Companion, or similar apps) without prior permission from the organizers.
Please refer to our code of conduct webpage for more information.
Danica Evering is a Research Data Management Specialist grounded in curiosity and a deep commitment to ethics. They braid together broad fluency in social practice art, healthcare, community research, data, and systems development to provide comprehensive RDM services. Danica is available to help students, postdocs, faculty, and staff with RDM through the data lifecycle—Data Management Plans, storage and backup, data security, data sharing. Danica fosters active interest in research data management across disciplines, with a knack for engaging researchers who might not even realize they have data to manage. Outside of work they sing in a choir, play PC games, maintain an art writing practice, grow a garden, contribute Wikipedia articles, and run.
The Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship supports McMaster students, faculty, and staff, as well as anyone curious about digital scholarship. From research and teaching to training and technical support, we’re here to help bring digital projects to life at every stage!
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