This is interesting,thank you. I am just starting with 32bit and experience the same limitations that you describe when normalizing. I am not exactly happy with it. When calling for advice on Facebook, many people advised me to always use 32bit and then normalize. I am not really covinved and ask myself if it is not better to try 24 bit as often as possible and to try to find a good balance for the loudness without clipping, even if some recordings turn aut to be a failure. What do you think?

↔ Ecology and Nature conservation ↔ Climate change and human energy management ↔ The human problem of war ↔

Technical notes: MKH 8020s AB 63 cm > MixPre-6 II. The jet was recorded at 96 kHz, 32-bit-float, with preamp gain at 45 dB. The maximum sample peak level was +33.27 dB. Since 32-bit-float recording provides virtually infinite headroom, there was no clipping; the waveforms are fully intact. However, to play the recording back at 24 bit depth, wave peaks must be reduced to 0 dB or less, because any peak above 0 dB will sound clipped. Normalising to 0 dB means that the highest peak is reduced to 0 dB: in this case, the entire recording - hence every wave peak - has to be reduced by -33.27 dB. The result is a fully intact recording, without any clipping. The problem is that the result just doesn't sound or feel anything like the actual sound event: it sounds, rather, as if the event were recorded from a great distance. Energy, proximity and viscerality are lost.

To regain a phenomenological realism, therefore, the normalised recording was loudness-adjusted; but increasing loudness naturally requires some degree of limiting to keep higher peaks at or below 0 dB and thus prevent the problem of clipping. There is definitely no clipping in the loudness-adjusted version; but, necessarily, there is some limiting. The overall result is far more phenomenologically faithful to the actual experience than is the merely normalised version. Which version a listener prefers may be a personal matter.

This version is the normalised (N) version (normalised to 0 dB). The other version can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/20221203-fa-18f-hornet-the-sound-of-the-brush-inking-the-character-sen-in-the-sky-phi-version

Background for Japan Kanji of the Year 2022: www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/c03833/

Credit for track image inset of Seihan Mori, chief priest of Kiyomizu Temple, painting the Kanji of the Year on December 12 in Kyoto: www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/12/1…022-kanji-war/

Bandcamp

2022.12.03 F/A-18F Hornet. The Sound of the Brush Inking the Character 戦 in the Sky. (N version)

Mi-août, les yeux tournés vers Cassiopée à guetter les étoiles filantes, accompagné d’un concert de Grillon testacé (Eugrillodes pipiens) : du grand spectacle !

In mid-August, all eyes on Cassiopeia constellation, watching for shooting stars, accompanied by a concert of Common Mountain-crickets (Eugrillodes pipiens): a great show!

© Ph.V.2005

Grillon testacé

https://combustaolenta.bandcamp.com/album/vertical-2011-2021

XXXII

I (2021) (Vertical is out on Combustão Lenta Records)

Cold nights and warmer sunny days causes stress on thick lake ice. As the ice freezes and melts on a daily basis, periodic cracking and pinging sounds can be heard, sometimes quite dramatically. This track is edited from an all night recording made at a lake in south Estonia, a "greatest cracks" if you will, from more than 6 hours of material.

Cracking Lake Ice

AGUSTA- A109S Grand Helicopter
Long hover

Recorded in 32bit 96khz audio-stereo
Photo: C Perkins

Full sets: aerobluesounds.bandcamp.com/

Original location recordings from the world of aviation
High quality recordings with minimal background distractions.

AGUSTA- A109S Grand Helicopter

tiefe Klangschale
deep sounding singing bowl

Klangschale 3

La neige fond et goutte le long de la paroi rocheuse et soudain une légère grêle tombe du ciel...

The snow melts and drips down the rock face, and suddenly a light hailstone falls from the sky...

240401 · 1:04 pm ·  Route Forestière de Béguerre (Vercors, France)

singing gong meditation, ghostly sounds

Recorded on 1 April 2024 with an Aquarian H2a hydrophone (9m cable) and Zoom F3 from a pedestrian bridge over the Wambuul Macquarie River at Shibble Bridge near Dubbo. This is a regulated inland river. Water flow is controlled by an upstream dam and downstream weirs. On this day, the river was very low, with the water level about 7 metres below the bridge. There's some underwater activity evident, probably fish—most likely invasive European carp, but the dominant sound is the whine of a pump running about 600+ metres downstream. Hundreds of these licensed pumps can be heard on this river, pumping water for stock and domestic purposes and irrigation of crops.

Whining river - Wambuul Macquarie

Coro mañanero en bosque nebuloso, El Salvador, 3 de abril de 2024. Equipo: dos micrófonos omnidireccionales EM272 de Fel Communications, grabadora: SoundDevices MixPre 3. Grabación normalizada a -6 db, SF 150.

Dawn chorus in cloud forest, El Salvador, April 3, 2024. Equipment: two EM272 omnidirectional microphones from Fel Communications, recorder: SoundDevices MixPre 3. Normalized recording at -6 db, SF 150.

Bosque Nebuloso Mesoaméricano

Raining Frogs And Dogs 240408

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Exploring hearing, the hearable, and the hearer, as an event, a mode, and a dimension of Βeing (τὸ εἶναι).

2022.12.03 F/A-18F Hornet. The Sound of the Brush Inking the Character 戦 in the Sky. (N version)

Hearing Beings

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