A sound recording is a representation of sonic impressions. Just like photo or a video recording represents a visual or audio-visual impression, so the sound recording represents sonic impressions. A sound recording is not an ‘imprint’ or a ‘copy’ of a sounding situation. The recording is the result of deliberate choices made by the recorder, of the technical specificities of the recording equipment and of the storage medium. Even though the “high fidelity” discourse often frames sound mediation as degrees of accuracy, there are many other aspects to sound mediation: we may talk about the accuracy of radio’s reproduction of a voice somewhere in a radio studio, or about the accuracy of the sound reproduction in a phone conversation. But even the highest fidelity in radio and phone mediation will not make the situation of someone speaking into our ear at a 2-10 cm. distance a ‘natural’ situation. What is produced in phone calls and in radio transmissions are particular representations of the voice, allowing us to listen in a unique and highly mediated way.

Sound recording is not about reproducing for the listener a “real” situation. It is about producing sound that works in specific ways: To communicate a message, to create a tension or atmosphere, to make people curious, engaged or disgusted…. Microphones are magic sticks or probes allowing us to experience something clearly, to zoom in or zoom out, to hear details that we never knew were there and to dissolve them in flows of sound.

The sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard works with sound recordings that let us hear the world in a new way: in Icefall (2013) he records ice melting in Greenland, in Through the Wall (2014) he records sound through the wall separating Palestine and Israel, in Sabulation (2009) he records the sound of singing sand in Oman. In bringing the listener close to the tickling of water deep inside the Greenlandic glacier he represents a sensual yet – in times of global warming – frightening reality. In an interview for the Danish art journal Kunsten nu, Kirkegaard says that “by experiencing sound we have never heard before we can wonder over the world and be present in it.” Kirkegaard places his microphones below the ice to catch sounds that can not even be heard standing on the inland ice. The microphones allow him to capture sounds that were not even accessible before, and make us listen to them. His recording process is about much more than just putting up a microphone and catching what he hears in a particular situation. Recording is about producing particular listening moments.

In narrative audio, sound should never just be there because it happened to sound at the moment of an interview. Sound should be used carefully to underline and illustrate the story. The Danish feature producer Stephen Schwartz, who taught feature radio for many years, uses the film camera as a metaphor for the microphone. When recording you need to make deliberate choices whether you want a total shot or a close-up, whether you want a moving or a still perspective. In phonography – as different from photography – you are often mislead by perception: our ears are incredible in their ability to distinguish between sonic perceptions and focus on what we want to hear.  The “cocktail effect” is the term for our ability to filter out all the noises and voices that are not important, and focus on what we want to hear: our conversation partner, or maybe rather the couple standing behind him? The ears' incredible capacity to filter out “unwanted sounds” often cheats sound recordists: we think that in putting up a microphone on the table in a room while having an interesting conversation will record and represent the conversation only – because we only notice the sounds of two engaged and clever voices – yet, what we hear while listening to the recording is a lot of noise and hum from electrical equipment in the room, some resonance from our voices in the room and maybe even a lot of movement, hands hitting the table etc.

In sound recording choices have to be made deliberately: If we want our listeners to listen to the conversation the microphone should be close to the mouths of speakers: 5-10 cm is a good rule of thumb. If we want to establish the room as an environment for the interview, a total recording should be made after hand, preferably with a wide-range stereo microphone.  Isolating the voices in one recording and the room in another recording also allow us to later mix the two as we want.

Actually the sound of silence or “clean sound” should always be recorded. Every room has its own sound, that is very much different from silence. A good 2 minute long clean sound recording (done before or after an interview) gives you some ‘room tone’ to edit in, if you for some reason need a pause or want to cover up some messy cuts.

Clean sound, the sound of what is presumably ‘nothing happening’, can also be the ground of artistic work. In Aion (2006) Jacob Kirkegaard recorded sound in the radioactive zone I Tjernobyl. As a technique to make the room tone more audible Kirkegaard played his recording from speakers in the same room, and recorded it once more. And repeated the process over and over again.