Why Field Recording Is as Much About Memory as It Is About Sound

This one isn’t really technical, and probably better described as rambling, so buyer be warned…

In 2016, as part of a work project, I traveled to China to demonstrate some technology I had developed. The project was a lot of fun for a younger engineer in his 20s, it allowed me to see a lot of different places while following the trade show booth. The China trip though, was my first visit to Asia, and became the first real trip I took a nice camera along on.… Keep reading

FieldLog Updates – September 13th, 2025

Greetings all!

Here are the things I worked on this week with FieldLog. Feature sets are getting there, but still in very much a testing phase. Bug reports and additional feature requests are still very much appreciated.

Android

  • No release this week

Web App

  • Added reordering to Kits
  • Fixed reordering of recorders and mics
  • Refactored CSS of gear to reuse code from takes
  • Added some extra basic user analytics, to track how much you’ve been recording lately
  • Added Persistent Web App functionality!
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FieldLog Web Goes Mobile: Using FieldLog offline without the app

I am excited to announce that FieldLog now supports Progressive Web App (PWA) technology, bringing you a mobile app experience without needing to download anything from the App Store. While not a complete replacement for a native app, it gives you the most important features to you regardless of connection status!

This new feature is hot off the presses, so please reach out if you are having any issues!

What is a Progressive Web App (PWA)?

A Progressive Web App is a web application that uses modern web technologies to deliver an app-like experience directly through your browser.… Keep reading

FieldLog Updates – September 6th, 2025

Greetings all!

Here are the things I worked on this week with FieldLog. Feature sets are getting there, but still in very much a testing phase. Bug reports and additional feature requests are still very much appreciated. This week included the soft launch of the app, with posts on the reddit.com/r/fieldrecording self-promo thread and on airwiggles. Need to find some new ways to get the app out there more.

Android

  • Released version 1.4.6
    • Added ability to pick a photo instead of just take a new one for gear (mics, recorders, kits)
    • Added gear image syncing
    • Various refactors and clean ups
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How to Organize and Tag Field Recordings

If you’ve spent any time field recording, you probably have had similar pain to me: Folders full of ZOOM0001.wav and TASCAM_2025-09-01.wav, with no clue what’s actually inside those files without clicking and listening. Months later, that recording of “birds at dawn” might as well be “busy airport.”

I got frustrated with this exact problem — so much so that I ended up writing FieldLog. I was kind of jealous of my Fuji camera’s GPS tagged photos with their full EXIF data.… Keep reading

Why FieldLog Uses the Word Take

When I started building FieldLog one of the earliest design decisions was awkwardly simple: what word should I use to describe each captured sound file?

In the world of audio, two terms compete for this role: take and recording. Both have long histories, and both are technically correct. But I went with take.

The Split Between “Take” and “Recording”

In audio culture, these words come from different lineages:

  • Recording grew out of archival, ethnographic, and broadcast traditions. It simply means captured sound, whether a dawn chorus, a radio interview, or dictation.

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Mastering Recording/Take Metadata: A Guide to UCS Tags, Free Tags, and Notes in Field Recording

Field recording is as much about capturing the context as it is about capturing the sound. When you’re deep in a session—whether you’re documenting urban soundscapes, recording foley in the wild, or capturing that perfect bird call at dawn—the metadata you log can make the difference between a usable library and a digital graveyard of unnamed files.

Field Log offers three powerful ways to annotate your recordings: UCS tags, free tags, and notes. Each serves a different purpose, and understanding when and how to use them will transform how you organize, search, and recall your field recordings.… Keep reading

Welcome to FieldLog!

Thank you for stumbling on this little corner of the internet. My name is Houstin, and I’ll be your guide into this site and all its accompaniments. Let’s start with an FAQ, shall we?

What is FieldLog?

FieldLog is an app (currently online and Android) that allows users to log metadata from Field Recording activities. It allows users to track their gear (recorders, microphones, and kits which are various combinations of the two.) More importantly though, it allows for the logging of takes or the recordings themselves.… Keep reading