Field Recordings

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SD27 Ravens

There are few sounds more calming and soothing than the sound of water, especially when filtered through a medium that subtly dampens the high frequencies. Recorded with Sound Devices Mixpre 6ii and Sennheiser MKH 8020. Long version at https://youtu.be/-yfO4qiTRrA

The sounds of sailing II

The 'Big Wing' ended the 2021 Battle of Britain Air Show at Duxford. A single Spitfire did aerial manoeuvres while the formation of 11 Spitfires and 4 Hurricanes grouped up for several flypasts. 

Recorded about 60m back from the front of the spectators area, using a homemade stereo ambient sampling system (SASS) with Primo em172 capsules, going into a Zoom F6. For comparison with the binaural Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset which I used to get a closer recording (also uploaded). 

Spitfire And Hurricane Big Wing - Duxford Airshow 19-09-21 - Primo EM172 SASS array

Location on google maps: http://goo.gl/QgGmwX

From the Album, Kerikeri: Downunder 
available at http://naturesounds.co.nz

River

Flock of chaffinches and bramblings at roosting, subjects are well placed on both right and left sides; there are birds both in flight and still on the tree branches. Between 1.20 and 1.25 seconds, you can feel the fledging of a pheasant from left to right sides.
This recording clearly brings out the stereo effect that we can get with the HiSound Stereo parabolic microphone system, built with 2+2 Primo EM172 capsules PZM placed no longer directed against the disc separator (baffle), but on the same plane with the baffle itself. This allows to have a high frequency response higher than the traditional PZM system, as the capsule directed against the baffle constitutes an obstacle to the passage of small sound wave.


HiSound STEREO Parabolic Microphone - Chaffinches and Bramblings calls - Primo EM172 Sony M10

Free field recordings. Go ahead and download.

All recordings are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0) which means you are free to share, copy, remix or otherwise transform the sounds for commercial or non-commercial use, on the terms that you give appropriate credit when using the recordings.

You can also purchase a user license of the library, then you do not need to give credit + you will receive a link to the complete library (no need to download each file individually) and your contribution supports WWF.

More info:
https://www.luftrum.com/free-field-recordings

Saltbæk Strand Handheld Blimp (Sound Devices 702 + DPA 4060)

An international mix of fluid ambient and concreté sounds and textures from Spencer Doran (Visible Cloaks). 

TRACKLIST: 
Tsukasa Suzuki - Telephone Singer
Lury Lech - Ukraïna
Unknown Burundi Singers - Duo De Jeunes Filles / Solo De Femme
Patricia Escudero - Valse du chocolat aux amandes (Erik Satie, 1891)
Michel Chion - La machine á passer le temps
Other Music - MN.2
Ricardo Mandolini - Cancion De Madera Y Agua
Raviv Gazit - One
Lena Platonos ‎– Γκάλοπ
Pep Llopis - El Vell Rey de la Serp
Clannad - Ocean of Light
Suso Saiz - Nada de lo que Sucede
Hiroshi Yoshimura ‎– Soft Wave For Automatic Music Box
Lino Capra Vaccina - Vocis
Todd Barton - The River Song
Nóirín Ní Riain - An Caoineadh
Inoyama Land - Tide
Nuno Canavarro - Antica/Burun


MIXTAPE: Spencer Doran from Visible Cloaks

Background sounds of a Cattle Egrets(Bubulcus ibis) colony with Mauritanian (Berber)Toads (Amietophrynus mauritanicus) and Mediterranean Tree Frogs (Hyla meridionalis).

Recorded at Barrage Imi-N-Laârba, near Aït Ourir, Morocco on the 14th April 2015 with a spaced pair of omni mics into a Sony PCM M10.

Frogs, Toads And Cattle Egrets

Sounds recording of Hanoi, Hoi An, Hue - Vietnam 2015

Vietnam

A selection from THE BALLAD OF JOB - a jazz oratorio.

Some Cliff Is In My Way - (from THE BALLAD OF JOB)

A mix of unprocessed recordings made January and February 2017 during a residency at Platform in Vaasa Finland. While much of the Bothnia environment appears static and frozen, closer observation reveals  subtle shifts in the flows in the constant movement ice. As you can imagine, the conditions for recording were not easy with temperatures ranging from -5˚C to -17˚C, sometimes accompanied by wind and snow. Except for the first bit, all the recordings were made with a Tascam DR100 MKIII and a pair of Primo EM172 omnis. Special thanks to Platform and the ever generous Stefan Backas for guidance and knowledge of the region. Further reflections on my residency can be found on: http://maaheli.ee/main/bothnia-ice-flows-platform-residency/

Bay of Bothnia ice flows

Early morning as a large flock of starlings leaves the roost.

Winter murmuration # 2

Large pig frogs lead the croaking chorus of multiple species searching for mates in the flooded saw grass prairie along PaHaOkee Road in Everglades National Park, Florida. Southern cricket frogs "clack-clack" in background.Wide stereo field recorded in ORTF with pair of Line Audio CM3 cardioid microphones feeding a Sound Devices MixPre 3 recorder. February 2018.

Pig Frogs Pa Hay Okee

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DPA 4060s - Wind Harp - AB

Agitation & Robin

Stream an original ambient piece here:
https://soundcloud.com/rjsfoundsounds/the-retired-cosmonaut-pt-ii-hamtramck-1914
Stream relaxing rain sounds here:
https://soundcloud.com/rjsfoundsounds/24-mins-of-tranquil-rain-thunder-pt-twofield-recordings-for-sleep-relaxation
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My 8th mix, "Anchor States", represents my second attempt at making a "sleep" collage. Unlike my mini anthology of ambient, this project uses beats but still maintains a peaceful, soothing atmosphere. The tone here is a bit more orchestral and sounds less electronic on the surface, even though many of these warm, organic drones are made with computers. Ambient main-stays Biosphere, Gas, and Stars of the Lid make appearances, as do lesser known artists like Loscil, Manual, and The Sight Below. All together you get a unique 53 minutes to zone out, relax, or fall asleep to. 
Feat:
Loscil - Endless Falls / H.I.A. & Biosphere - Cannon Hill / Tal - Tal’90 / Biosphere - Spindrift / Andrew Thomas - I Am Here Where Are You & A Thousand Pinholes in a Black Paper Sky / Gas - Untitled 3 (Konigsforst) / The Sight Below - At First Touch & Shimmer & Further Away / Ulf Lohmann - Java / Stars of the Lid - Requiem for Dying Mothers, pt.1 & Anchor States, pt.1 & Even (Out)+ / All - Alles Fliesst Nichts Bliebt / also w. Sufjan Stevens, Animal Collective, Manual, and various field recordings /

Anchor States [Ambient Sleep Mix w. Loscil, SotL, Sight Below & more]

2019.10.07 Eucalypt Forest Preludes. Early Spring. Night. No. 3.

Release on clear vinyl in ed of 250 31st July.
https://snvariations.bandcamp.com/album/notes-from-the-forest-floor-line-of-parts

Line Of Parts Georgia Rodgers (excerpt)

Comparison of nature soundscape microphone arrays by Andrew Skeoch and Doug Quin. 

4 microphone rigs were set up side by side, all axis aligned: MS (DQ), SASS (AS), Soundfield SP200 Ambisonic (DQ) and Iso-binaural (AS). 

All recording onto Sound Devices 7 series recorders at 24bit, DQ at 48kHz, AS at 44.1kHz. DQ's raw levels were quite low. The MS rig was close to the ground (see pic)

MS: Sennheiser MKH 30 + MKH 40 in Røde blimp
SASS: pair Sennheiser MKH 20s in Crown SASS head
Ambisonic: Soundfield SP200 Ambisonic, upright in Røde blimp
Iso-Binaural: Pair Sennheiser MKH 8020s, ~20cm apart, oriented 180º with convex baffles 

Location: Wet sclerophyll forest in small gully, Lower Gellibrand River, Otway Ranges, Vic. 18th February, approx 7am (post dawn chorus)

The ambisonic microphone can be rendered into almost any configuration, using Harpex proprietary software. DQ created several different renders as examples of what it can do. Screen shots of the software settings for reference. The MS rig has been decoded to stereo wide. 

In preparing edits,  DQ's files were down-sampled to 44.1 and everything to 16bit. Levels are subjective; all files have been normalised referencing the noise floor. This means some of the ‘noisier’ mics have been attenuated slightly to balance, thus reducing peak birdsong levels.

Nature Soundscape Microphone Comparison

Iso-Binaural

Spectral Vectors was created for 'Come Hell Or High Water', a monthly series of live events on the Thames foreshore at Poplar, organised by Anne Bean, Hayley Newman, Harriet Latham and others. It takes as its starting point the idea of ghosts of the Thames; river revenants in the form of lost sounds of previous times from the river's busier industrial past, such as ship's horns, tugboat horns, foghorns and other industrial sounds. 

Expanding on this theme, the idea of things lost/buried/hidden/removed came to mind. Documentary radio footage relating to sunken unexploded WWII ordnance and tragic drowning was combined with recent field recordings of mine made with contact mics attached to cabling beneath Millenium Bridge at St. Paul's, amplifying sounds hidden to the naked ear, when the bridge is animated by foot traffic, wind coursing through it and sun warming it. 

Hydrophone recordings also capture hidden sounds – various vessels passing, sounding thin and insubstantial as wind-up bath toys from a submarine perspective. Delving deeper, recordings made inside Greenwich foot tunnel feature; resonant metallic sounds buried beneath the river itself echo along the tunnel's length.

Municipal greed and acts of resistance also form part of the documentary material with Bob Hoskins enlightening Barry Norman in 1982 about various development scams along the river, Malcolm MacLaren talking about the Sex Pistols' 1977 riverboat gig, and riverboat men going on strike. This footage is animated by the addition of lost ship's horns, populating the river with a lively, boisterous presence.

My first forays into field recording began whilst on summer work in the 1980s, when I bought a secondhand recording walkman, and my first recordings were made on the Thames at Vauxhall, capturing, amongst many things on a busy summer river, the sound of a speedboat whizzing past, dopplering downriver. This can be heard later in the piece, just after Hoskins says, “...regenerating the river.. bringing it back to life..making it a playground for the wealthy.”

The piece ends with recordings I made on a visit to Rainham Marshes in Essex in 2017, as the pace slows down and distant perspectives come into view. Sounds from the far shore can be heard, lending a widescreen feel, with the low hum of industrial barges drifting languidly past. Larks enter the frame, endlessly improvising metres above me as I sit on landfill overlooking the Thames estuary, while pigeons flap busily around the concrete barges, sounding like distant handclaps. 

These concrete barges were the site of a particularly memorable TV appearance by Bow Gamelan (on Channel 4's Alter Image in 1986), playing on and in the barges and in advancing tides (up to their necks at one point). Invoking the spirits of Paul Burwell and z'ev, whose ashes are scattered in the Thames, I improvised on a large cylindrical metal item on site near the barges. An extract from this enters low in the mix, panning back and forth across the stereo field, before quietly exiting. 

The main intention of my trip to the barges was to record myself improvising inside them. Traveling out from Battersea, I timed my visit at low tide. Despite this however, the exposed ground around the barges was way too treacherous to negotiate; I would've sunk up to my knees in squelchy sand. So near and yet so far... 

The piece opens with a pitch-shifted combination of older ship's horns and foghorns, which hove into view, as though summoned from the depths. These reappear to close out the piece, very low in the mix, as though already departing and quite distant; sinking back into the depths.

In memoriam: 

Paul Burwell 1949 – 2007

z'ev 1951 – 2017

Many thanks to Ian Rawes (www.soundsurvey.org.uk) for directing me towards freely available and immensely valuable BBC archive recordings.

The piece is freely downloadable for transfer to other listening media.

Spectral Vectors

GOES
                                                     TO
                                                  SHOWS

Field Recordings

MANSFIELD