Midsummer is the biggest holiday in Sweden. I put out a droprig on the boat dock from midnight till early morning. Birds have become very quiet this time of year but the Blackbirds are well into their second clutch of the season and continue to sing. A heronry nearby means that Grey Herons pass by now and then. Other birds that can be heard are Common Gulls, Icterine Warbler and more.

Halvan, Runmarö. June 21, 2025.
Zoom F3 + Clippy EM272 spaced 1 m apart

Swedish Midsummer

In this totally unedited and unprocessed clip, you will hear a tightly-packed series of different kinds of vehicles, terrestrial and aerial, passing through the space (through, around, and above the Adelaide Parklands Interstate Railway Terminal) in a fairly short period of time (four minutes and fourteen seconds). In essence, it was a real blessing that they all passed by in this brief interval, rather than during the subsequent interval when I was recording the Indian Pacific. Just one of the big problems about recording the Indian Pacific within the inner city environment of the interstate terminal is the interfering background noise from other vehicles: cars (including ambulances and police cars with sirens blaring), motorbikes, trucks, trains (diesel and electric), helicopters, light planes, and jets (taking off from or landing at the nearby airport). This particular night's recording of the Indian Pacific was really very special: no wind (hence minimal windshielding - check out the track photos for the Indian Pacific recordings), and ALMOST no background noise while the Indian Pacific was passing the microphones. This is truly akin to winning a million dollar lottery! Although one doesn't end up with a million dollars, one does obtain a very satisfying recording - even it if may not be quite 'perfect' according to one's own inner intended ideal.

Although what is heard in this present recording - a concise panoply of urban vehicle noise - is not quite the kind of soundscape I would normally seek out to record, given the context of a recent series of experiments with the Lewitt 640 TSs in a mid-side arrangement, this particular passage of (sound) events caught my attention. There's something about it that I find at once somehow 'natural' (in terms of the technical representation of the sounds, soundscape, sound space, overall), and yet also somehow quite aesthetically intriguing. I was testing the omni polar pattern for the mid mic, and listening very carefully, because a lot of my recording is done with omni mics in AB array, usually with a fairly wide spacing. So, I was particularly curious to compare the soundfield of the omni AB array to that of a mid-side array with an omni mid mic. (I have some more things to say about omni AB compared to omni mid mic in mid-side in the notes to another recording, to be posted later.)

This track is the original clip, with no editing and no processing, other than resampling 96/32 wav to 96/24 flac, and normalising to 0 dB. Normalisation was needed because of some intense low frequencies while a freight train was passing at some distance behind the rig. I was surprised at how sensitive the 640 TSs were to these low frequencies, something that I'm familiar with when using the small-diaphragm omni MKH 8020s; but I guess it makes good sense, for a large diaphragm condenser microphone in omni mode.

The title 'The Full Catastrophe' is just a very oblique and playful allusion to a line spoken by Anthony Quinn, playing the role of Zorba in the movie 'Zorba the Greek', in Michael Cacoyannis's somewhat filtered and watered-down adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis's great novel, 'The Life and Times of Alexis Zorba (Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά)'.

2025.05.15 Omni Mid. "The Full Catastrophe". Parklands Interstate Terminal.

Given that I had only one 640 TS to use as mid microphone, and had to switch between polar patterns on this one microphone for the purpose of comparative polar pattern recordings, it was naturally impossible to do properly parallel (simultaneous) recordings. Here, I've compiled a series of recordings made of passing electric trains, using different polar patterns. But there's a further complication. There are two tracks dedicated to electric trains: one nearer, and one slightly farther, from the position of the microphones. Trains travelling from left to right are on the farther track; trains travelling from right to left are on the nearer track. Even on the same railway track, no two trains sound exactly alike. So this is by no means a precise comparison. Even so, I do think that it provides some useful auditory 'feel' of differences between the various polar pattern settings for the mid mic, while using the 640 TSs in mid-side array.

2025.05.15 Polar Patterns Comparison. Electric Trains. Parklands Interstate Terminal.

When high frequencies start to disappear with older age it is good to have a backup. Here I put out a droprig less than 1 m away from a singing bush cricket on our porch.

Håga, Uppsala. July 28, 2025.
Zoom F3 + Clippy EM 272 spaced 1 m apart

Great Green Bush-Cricket at my porch

In my favourite pond thrushes (fieldfare, blackbird, song thrush) come down to take a morning bath before the sweltering heat of the day.

Högbyhatt, Uppsala. July 28, 2025.
Lewitt 440 Pure in ORTF + Zoom F3

Thrush bath in the early morning

Maintenant que les martinets sont partis ce sont les palabres des Hirondelles rustiques (Hirundo rustica) qui animent les soirées.

Chatter on the wires
Now that swifts have left, the babble of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) enlivens the evenings.

Palabres sur le fil

Noise test - Rycote CA-08, Rycote OM-08, Audio Technica BP4025, Superlux S502, Clippy

clippy

Clock ticking in a quiet room - Rycote CA-08, Superlux S502, Audio Technica BP4025

Superlux S502

Airport Brnik Slovenia
MKH40 Sennheisers
Zoom F3 recorder

Airport Aeroplanes passengers Jet Heli Propeller Landings Takeoff

Field sound recordist and archivist of vanishing sounds in natural Iandscapes. Highly commended in the Sound of the Year Awards 2024 - Best Natural Sound.

Swedish Midsummer

Bo Söderström

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