Defining and redefining terms in field recording

December 3, 2025

Field recording isn’t a very new discipline but it’s not been around for as long as photography or other arts. Consequently there is still a lot of room for innovation and creativity, and a lot of common concepts can be very vaguely defined. Let’s take a look at some of these.

Long-form listening

May 2, 2025

How long is a dawn chorus? How about a thunderstorm? Can you capture the essence of a soundscape in a few minutes, or do you need more than that to accurately portray such natural phenomena? Does it matter if you only listen for a few seconds or minutes? Important questions worth exploring.

Wildscreen and a few cool films

October 24, 2024

Last week I spent a few lovely days in Bristol attending Wildscreen film festival. It was my first time at Wildscreen and I had a chance to hang out with some very cool people who work on natural history productions.

32-bit field recording

October 3, 2024

While it has recently gained popularity, 32-bit float workflows have been around for a while. Let’s have a look at the advantages, disadvantages and requirements of this popular approach.

Sound Matters collection for Google Pixel - recorded by George Vlad

September 5, 2024

It’s been a huge privilege to work with several teams at Google on Sound Matters, a collection of birdsong audio elements for the new Pixel phones, Chrome browser, Fitbit app and others.

How to get field recording commissions

July 5, 2024

While field recording is not a new discipline, it’s not as popular or well known as photography for example. As a result, it takes a more entrepreneurial and self-starting approach to get work gigs as a field recordist.

What does an active volcano sound like?

November 12, 2021

Boiling lava, gases escaping, mini earthquakes and lava bombs create a surreal soundscape inside the volcanic caldera at Erta Ale in Northern Ethiopia.

How I edit and master my field recordings

April 13, 2021

The studio side of field recording

Field recording tools of the trade

At the lower end of the price spectrum, field recording equipment will yield relatively similar results. A few dB of self noise won’t make a huge difference if the recordist hasn’t mastered the other tools of the trade, the ones that can’t be bought. Let’s examine some lesser known but rather more important tools that are sure to improve your field recording practice.

Introduction to Freestyle field recording

Freestyle field recording is a flexible approach to recording nature and wildlife sounds outside of the studio or any controlled environment, developed by George Vlad. While traditional methods are prescriptive and rigid, Freestyle field recording encourages deliberate experimentation and a very organic workflow.

Listening session at the House of Lords in Westminster

I recently received an invitation to play some of my soundscapes and to tell stories about conservation. While there’s nothing unusual about that, the setting was definitely novel for me.

A collection of Owl sounds

Owls are awesome and worth learning about. What better place to start than a curated selection of owl recordings, captured by your favourite wildlife sound recordist!

The 2025 Soundscape Fund

How can field recording make a difference for conservation and environmental causes? I get this question a lot, and one of the answers is here. Once a year I team up with Thomas Rex Beverly and Andy Martin to raise money for environmental NGOs.