Recording The Presidential Alert
The goal of the day was simple: capture the sound of the presidential alert test that was scheduled to go off on October 3rd at exactly 11:18am PST in a crowded public setting. The immediate concerns that entered my head were as follows:
- Avoid public spaces that have unwanted noise such as music, heavy foot traffic, vehicle traffic, etc. (very hard to do in the busy city that is Los Angeles)
- Avoid calling attention to myself as a sound recordist so security or pedestrians do not interfere with the recording
- Find a location that I can make additional recordings at to maximize my available time so I can come away with more than just a single recording of the alert
After nixing all locations that didn’t adhere to this list, I decided on a museum that has plenty of patrons every day, and very little unwanted noise. I knew they were located somewhat nearby a freeway (about 1/4 mile), but that would be better than near a busy side street.
The Gear
For the incognito recording setup, I used the Sound Devices 744t recorder paired with the DPA 4060s (miniature omnis), which all fit neatly into a laptop bag.
I gently zip the zippers shut on the cable right near the microphone capsule, which works well for most situations, since I’m just standing still or set the bag down. I might eventually sew the microphone mounts onto the bag to assist with a sturdier mounting rig, which would be good if I’m walking through a crowd and don’t want the mics to slip out of the bag.
A pair of earbuds allow me to maintain a nondescript profile, and while they aren’t the most accurate monitoring method, they give me the ability to ensure I’m not making any glaring mistakes while recording.
Also, I removed the jingly zipper pulls from the bag to reduce any possible rattling noise, should I happen to be moving while recording.
The Alert
So, there I am, nervously counting down the minutes, standing near the crowd waiting in line outside the museum. I triple check that I’m getting good audio levels; everything looks good. I’ve made sure to put a good distance, about ten feet, between myself and the crowd so that I don’t have easily identifiable voices in the recording. I’ve been rolling for the past twenty minutes to make sure I don’t miss the alert in case it goes off prematurely. And then, right on cue, at exactly 11:18am, the alert goes off…
It’s just an AMBER alert?! Okay, I admit that I was expecting some newly created sound to emerge from all 150 or so cell phones around me, and part of the excitement about making this recording was that it would be a new and unique sound that only went off specifically for this “presidential alert”. But it makes total sense that the same tone as the AMBER alert is used, since it fits the bill for an effective alarm; it contains a scathing tonal structure that is impossible to ignore (which in today’s noisy world is of the utmost importance in the event of a national emergency).
Besides that slight disappointment, I was rather pleased with the recording I walked away with. There are some great crowd reactions to the alert, mostly laughing, which could be useful for just the right scene in a movie. It was also nice to be outdoors so that there wasn’t any reverb that would be baked into the recording. With all that said, there is a lot of chatter going on during the alert, so the usefulness of the recording is certainly questionable, as it is inherently glued to the crowd….
….which is why I asked my friend and colleague, Mark Camperell, to roll sound on the alert while he was at his studio (Empty Sea Audio). Major thanks to Mark for not only carving out time during his busy schedule, but for sharing the sound with you all for this blog post. Here is the sound on its own.
[UPDATE: I’ve removed this sound because it is illegal to reproduce it other than for actual emergencies, and after speaking to my legal team (myself) I realized It was best to not share this.]
After capturing the main event, I decided I would proceed into the museum to record patrons walking and talking around the various spaces in and around the galleries.
Appeasing Security
At this point, I had to go through security. I knew they would notice the large metal device and a bunch of wires. Instead of making them figure out what it was, I told them right away that it was an audio recording device. We had the normal exchange of squinted eye questioning, asking if I am recording a television show, if I work for a studio, etc. etc… They put me in contact with the communications director at the museum, who, upon realizing that I wasn’t part of a larger production, assured me that it was perfectly fine to be recording audio so long as I wouldn’t be recording any private conversations, didn’t use the museum name in the recordings, and I wasn’t an eyesore. I always go for the honest and friendly approach, and more times than not, property managers let me continue to roll sounds.
Now that I could relax a little about my presence there as a secret field recordist operative, I was ready to capture more sounds.
Inside the Museum
This space has 50 foot high ceilings with lots of patrons shuffling about, asking questions at the info desk, and corralling their children to follow them. So naturally, I sat down and hit record:
I simply love how natural the DPA4060s sound for ambiences. Having an omni-directional pickup pattern helps to capture everything happening around you, as well as being forgiving with mic placement (this setup is a pseudo A/B array, but being attached to a laptop bag, I am sure there is acoustic shadow coloration happening similar to a Jecklin disk setup, but not quite as extreme). It has taken a bit of trial and error since I first got the DPAs about a year ago to find mic positioning that sounds good to my ears, and so far, the recordings are turning out pretty accurate to the real thing. When I don’t need to have the mics discretely placed, I prefer to space them a bit wider apart and have them simply on a mic bar, but considering the circumstance, I wasn’t about to throw a mic stand up in the gallery.
I wandered far from the lobby to a secluded foyer that didn’t have much foot traffic at all. As enjoyable as a busy crowd recording is, it is often the relaxed and slower paced crowds that are most difficult to capture. I sat there in a zen-like trance listening as visitors walked around the reverberant space, quietly discussing the artwork (or perhaps their plans for lunch, as I was getting a bit hungry myself):
After enjoying some of the artwork on my own, I decided to head outside for some fresh air. I figured I might as well capture some of the wonderfully dull distant freeway wash, since, you can never have too much of that. Some visitors saw me relaxing on the railing overlooking the freeway and proceeded to join me for the view. Field recording is certainly a great way to practice one’s patience. I had to record for a good fifteen minutes or so in order to yield the following minute of usable audio.
After visiting a few more exhibits, I planted myself in a semi-busy hallway that was very reverberant due to the round-ish shape of the walls and low ceilings, which seemed to throw the sounds around the room every which way. The following recording was made:
And as a final stop before leaving the museum, I found a particularly busy gallery where many patrons were congregating and appreciating the museum’s most notable paintings. Large groups were coming and going during the recording, which added a nice sense of movement within the gallery space.
Final Thoughts
By the end of the day, I came away with a ton of great material that will be useful for many projects down the line. Much like nature recordings, these took a good amount of editing to patch together the best segments in order to be suitable for sound editing purposes. This mainly involved removing distracting or private conversations, loud footfalls, and laptop bag movements. I also took a little bit of time to flesh out the metadata to make searching for these sounds easier down the line.
Big shout out to Ryan Cota, another sound junkie I know via social media who proposed the idea of recording the presidential alert in a crowded public space. Thanks again Ryan!
Now I encourage you, the reader, to go out on your own field recording adventure; just make sure you have a good explanation ready when security tries to stop you.
As with all blog posts, the sound recordings posted here are available for download and can be used as royalty free sound effects in your personal or commercial projects.