Description

Recording Ho Chi Minh City Sound Effects

If you haven’t been to Ho Chi Minh City yet then get your headphones ready, sit back, and listen to the crazy sounds this city has to offer!

In January 2019 I rented a motorbike and traveled from the south to the north to record sounds. My goal was to create a huge Vietnam library with recordings captured in all the regions. At this time I also used the new (at the time) Zoom H3-VR for recording ambisonic sounds in addition to my stereo setup.

My time spent in Ho Chi Minh City

Before starting my 2-month journey, I spent four days in district 3 of Ho Chi Minh City. Recording around the city offered its own challenges like avoiding music with blasting loudspeakers. For example, if I tried to record traffic sounds, just a few streets away a shop would turn on their loud speakers and then it’s over. This happened more times than I can count which could be quite frustrating!

Another situation that I often encountered was friendly and very curious locals asking me I was doing while I was recording. The language barrier made it difficult for me to explain what exactly I was doing so I would respond with “Tôi thu âm” which means “I record sounds”.

One of the best parts of Ho Chi Minh City is that security is everywhere and always present. Look out for the people in the blue shirts because they almost always a security guard keeping an eye on things.

What I recorded in Saigon

During my time in the city, I decided to focus on creating a traffic sound library. That means you can expect a lot of crazy traffic sounds filled with honkings, motorbikes, trucks, cars drive by, and ambulance sirens. The sounds were recorded on super busy roads, small side streets, fast highways, from a distance, and very close drive-bys.

Besides traffic, I recorded a train pass by on a small railway crossing with the majestic and loud train horn and the warning beeping signal coming from the barrier.

Also, I obtained many crowd sounds from places like Cathedrale De Notre Dame, the Central Post Office of Ho Chi Minh City, and at the train station during nighttime.

One of my favorite recordings was from the container harbor which I found on accident while roaming on a little walkway along the Saigon River! You can hear great mechanical sounds produced by a crane moving the containers, a tug boat passing by and also some underwater hydrophone recordings! I had to try out my Priezor which is an electromagnetic field antenna by LOM and sounds were abundant everywhere!

Four days in Ho Chi Minh City was clearly not enough time! If you’re looking for more sounds from Vietnam check out an entire premium Vietnam Sound Library which includes EVERYTHING I recorded during the 2-month journey across the county!

Review & download the metadata here!