LAS VEGAS, NEVADA РAPRIL 2010: Belgian Film Sound Engineer Philippe Vandendriessche has invested in a SoundField ST350 portable microphone for use on location to complement his existing SoundField ST250. A well-known figure in the Francophone film industry for over 25 years, with a library of self-recorded effects and sounds extending to over 75,000 recordings, Vandendriessche was nominated in 2008 for a C̩sar film award (the French equivalent of the Oscars) for Best Sound in the French film S̩raphine. He acted as chief sound engineer, using the SoundField ST250 to record ambient sound for the film.
Since the early 1990s, Vandendriessche has been an owner and fan of SoundField’s microphone systems. He incorporates the use of the SoundField systems in his microphone technique course at the IAD film school (Institut des Arts de Diffusion) in Louvain-la-neuve, Belgium, and in his role
as leader of the sound recording course at the Royal Conservatory in Mons. “I’ve used the ST250 to make many recordings,” he explains. “Recently, I used it on Turi Finocchiaro and Nathalie Rossetti’s musical documentary Yiddish Soul, and also for all of the ambient recordings in Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s feature film Odette Toutlemonde. SoundField B-Format recording holds no secrets for me, and I’ve taught many young engineers all about how to use these mics. The ST350 allows me to capture soundscapes, quiet atmospheres, and the sound of cities. When recorded in B-Format, these archives have a lot of extra value, because you can choose the format afterwards – mono, stereo or any type of surround. I also use my SoundField mics to capture electroacoustic concerts, where the placement of the music in the audio soundscape is an important part of the piece.”
SoundField’s multi-capsule microphones capture sound in their proprietary B-Format, a four-channel format which may be decoded to mono, phase-coherent stereo, quadraphonic or surround sound in a variety of multi-channel formats using their software or hardware decoders. The choice of output format may be made years after the original recordings if required. The ST250 was SoundField’s portable location recording microphone until 2006, when it was replaced by the upgraded ST350. Half the weight of its predecessor, 12V battery-operable, and capable of being used on long cable runs from its associated hardware processor, the ST350 was the obvious choice for Vandendriessche, who took delivery of his after finishing work on Séraphine in 2008. “The ST350 is more compact, and its capsule heating system allows me to work in more difficult climates,” he adds.
Since buying the ST350, Vandendriessche has used it on various projects to record additional ambience. He has also used it on the set of Le Facteur Chance, a TV drama directed by Julien Seri, a fictional documentary that will be released in 2010. Vandendriessche’s next film, the short, Nawewe, on which he acted as chief sound engineer in Burundi during the summer of 2009, will be released in 2010.
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