Photo by Frank Kraljic
Audio Production/Location Sound
soundscape Art/writing
Originally from northern England, I was an ecologist, environmental research scientist and project manager, before developing a love for audio over 15 years ago. I got my start in local radio, then moved onto making immersive, sound-rich audio documentary features for clients like BBC Radio, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and many podcasts. After some initial training in location sound recording, I’ve worked with independents such as Alan Hall (Falling Tree), Matt Thomspon (formerly of Loftus Productions), and Peregrine Andrews (Moving Air).
I also produce educational podcasts, museum, internet & travel audio guides, and supply custom location sound for tv, movies, theme parks and audio games.
Wired to record while crewing on a yacht passage from Punta Arenas to Cape Town across the South Atlantic
Photos: (1) I am forever grateful to KUYI Hopi Radio for my first opportunity to produce and present a radio show: Modern Jazz from the Mesas https://www.kuyi.net/ (2) The sound of the American freight train featured on my first audio documentary for BBC Radio Four (3) Recording from the back of a motorbike on Banpo Bridge in Seoul, South Korea (4) Riding across the Andes - later made into a travel documentary for London’s Resonance FM
Sound Kit includes:
Sound Devices digital recorders; an old school SQN 4-channel mixer
Sennheiser, Rode & Danish Pro Audio mics & DolphinEar hydrophone
Rycote windshielding and binaural dummy head arrays
Binaural stereo
I use this dummy head to record in binaural stereo - to give an immersive sense of being located in the center of the sound field on headphone playback.
I’ve recorded in a wide range of environments - the singing sand dunes of the Mohave desert, while crossing the Andes on horseback, cycling across Korea, in the rain forests of Panama and in the urban jungles of Shanghai & Seoul.
More details on my approaches and the equipment I use are available in these articles:
https://flypaper.soundfly.com/discover/10-of-the-most-interesting-field-recordists-working-across-aesthetic-boundaries/
and
https://www.creativefieldrecording.com/2016/09/14/a-month-of-field-recordists-diane-hope/
and
shanghai sounds guide
What's it like to explore the Asian mega city of Shanghai with your EARS?
Vibrant soundscapes from bustling main streets, street markets, quiet lilong alleyways after midnight, water towns and river banks, parks and playgrounds, to the interiors of giant skyscrapers and Buddhist temples
Hear more at Shanghai Sounds Guide (in English & Mandarin):