The last 2 recordings here sound great! What were the differences between recordings?

The European fire-bellied toad is, in fact, a frog. (No fire, either.) However, this is more than compensated by its satisfyingly fun-to-say Latin name: Bombina bombina. They also produce antimicrobial peptides in their skin secretions – the even more fun-to-say ‘bombinins’. 

Native to eastern mainland Europe – recorded here in the protected land of Poland’s Barycz Valley Landscape Park – they use their internal vocal sacs to produce their “whoop” call: the mournful, slow-motion honk immortalized here. Imagine the sound that clowns might make when they cry and you won’t be far off.

Bombina bombina mysterious call

Rooftop Morning Seagulls And Crows, Istanbul, Turkey

Street Vendor On Megaphone, Da Nang, Vietnam

Northwestern University Library - Vent

Rotary Gas Meter

Recorded on the land of the Peramangk people.
Deep, slow, careful listening required.
Read the Playlist description for more information: https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/sets/2023-iron-curtain-autumn-and-summer

2023.03.16 Iron Curtain. Early Autumn.

An hour before sunrise in a secluded valley mire in Dartmoor National Park. Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) are performing their "winnowing" courtship display, flying up and diving downwards so their tail feathers vibrate with a distinctive thrumming sound. Tawny Owls and Cuckoo call across the valley.

Recorded on 1st May 2023 with 2 x AT4022 microphones in an Olson stereo array (www.trackseventeen.com/mic_rigs.html) and a Sound Devices 722 recorder.

May Day Snipe

This is a very high-gain recording, the forests are so quiet in this part of Sweden, I like the idea of really opening up the gain.  MixPre3 the gain set to 74db, with a pair of Lewitt 440's.  Recording 4000.

Stream (1) -  12 May 23 - 11am - Dalsvallen

At the crossroads of day and night, diurnal birds meet nocturnal animals for a precious hour. Thus the black-crowned night herons, doves, ducks meet the roar of the deer, the fleeting bats and the tawny owl, in a unique and precious soundscape in the heart of the forest of Orléans, the biggest forest in France

Crépuscule Automnal À L'étang Du Ravoir (Automn Nightfall At Ravoir's Pound)

Recording I made while waiting in a parking lot to get out until the rain shower was over.

Rain on the roof of a car - interior

PodCast

Rain on the roof of a car - interior (September 21st, 2023)

Another test of the Sony PCM-A10 at different gain settings using external microphones (Clippy EM172 stereo pair). Recordings of two different subjects at low and high gain to compare the recorder self-noise. Tracks normalised in post afterwards. Recorded at 24/48.

Clip 1: Indoors with windows shut. Birds audible through the windows. Recorded at input level 5.
Clip 2: Same as above recorded at input level 25
Clip 3: Outdoor ambience recorded at input level 5.
Clip 4: Same as above at input level 20 (highest I could go without the sparrows clipping the recording!) 

A gain setting of 5 on the PCM-A10 is very, very low in case it isn't clear. There was virtually nothing registering on the meters while I was recording.

I hear zero difference in noise for the recordings at very low and very high gain settings. This is incredible as it means you can set your levels very conservatively to avoid clipping and increase levels in post later with no fear of losing the signal in the noise.

Sony PCM - A10 Gain Test

Stereo soundscape recordings. Sometime nature, sometimes people, sometimes machinery. Sometimes quiet things like a single branch creaking in the wind on Dartmoor, sometimes odd moments in the city. Mostly local, but sometimes travelling. 

Sony PCM - A10 Gain Test

Douglas Langley

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Jared Blake

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