Description

Recording racing car sound effects at the Formula One weekend in Singapore

This 3-day event includes two training days and one race day. I recorded the free training of the Porsche Carrera Challenge near Marina Square on Friday evening. The challenge on this day at this particular location was avoiding the moderator’s voice interrupting the amazing fast car sounds. However, I managed to cut out all the talking parts and mixed the sounds together (which are included in this library.)

I ended up moving locations to a balcony area to get closer to the track and away from the speakers where I recorded 5 minutes before curious people started talking to me. Then I found the dream spot with only meters away from the race track, no loudspeaker of the moderator and no crowd! From here I recorded the free training of the Ferrari 488 Challenge and later on the second training of the Formula One racing cars when it was already dark.

The Big Race Day!

My scouting of the ideal location provided the best preparation for the racing day! Another reason why I chose to record at this spot was the effect that the cars created after shooting out at top speed of the nearby tunnel.

After the race, I kept the recorder on to capture an incredible fireworks show. The reverb between the skyscrapers and the city gave me goosebumps.

The equipment used to record this car racing sound effects library

I knew these cars are incredibly fast so I needed to have the microphones further away from each other. With one pair of DPA 4060 (omnidirectional microphones, small and super handy), I attached them to my rig, then the rig on a boom, and the boom on my tripod. This setup can be extended up to three meters in the air which gave me the opportunity to record above.

I also fixed the USI Pros to a barrier with a space of three meters away apart. For the recorder, I used my Zoom F8n.

Being in Singapore when the F1 race happened was an absolute dream! Especially, attending when Lewis Hamilton finished the race and watching the fireworks happened with no music and almost no people!