Field notes on this project will be added, here, a little later.

Exploring mid-side for my nature field recordings

Two Days on the North Side of Ben Nevis Lochaber Scotland Autumn 2023

A shepherd whistling and shouting instructions to his dogs as they attempt to retrieve a number of sheep, 'hell bent' on throwing themselves off the cliffs high up towards Coire na Ciste. 

September 10th 2023

MKH 8040 ORTF + MixPre 3ii

High Country Shepherding

Two Days on the North Side of Ben Nevis Lochaber Scotland Autumn 2023

Climbers can be heard traversing the CMD arete while the Ptarmigan are feeding amongst the scree of Coire Leis. 

September 10th 2023

MKH 8040 ORTF + MixPre 3ii

Distant Species

A wide and deep, gently rhythmically hypnotic, mallee heathland dawn, from an evening to morning recording made with a mid-side rig utilising an omnidirectional mid microphone. (Relaxed listening with good quality headphones with flat frequency response, especially open-backed, at a moderate volume, is ideal. But what you hear, and how you hear it, depends, most of all, on what you're listening for, and  how you're listening. This is not a 'pop' recording (and no apologies for that).)

Recorded respectfully on the land of the Ngargad (Ngarket) people.

Track photo: taken at the recording location, in Ngarkat Conservation Park, on the second morning of recording.

2025.09.13 Ngarkat Dawn. Early Spring.

Sitting on a blanket on moist grass in a clearing between two forests.
The pine forest is behind, the eucalypt forest is in front.
Left is east, right is west.
The sounds from in front blend with those from behind, both to the left and to the right.
The variable breeze pervades throughout.
The sky above is ever so gradually lightening, and all around, beings are awakening.
Like forever, the natural mystery of Mind is happening.

(From an ongoing series of recent exploratory field recordings with a mid-side rig, this one with cardioid mid microphone. This track is an excerpt from a longer recording.)

@Bandcamp

2025.11.02 A Dawn between Two Forests. Spring.

Although my ideal is to make and share nature recordings free of anthropogenic machine noise, I'm not averse to sitting through first light and dawn in natural places that I know very well will be noise-polluted - simply because I want to hear (and record) dawn choruses in such places, even if I will never, or rarely, share such recordings publicly. At different places, and at different times, dawn choruses are always quite different. Despite intrusive and discordant noise, I still want to experience and to hear what the birds and other animals will say (express, manifest) in such places, and how that will sound in each such physically different space. I feel that I owe them the respect and the effort to set up my recording gear, settle down, and listen and record through the darkness into first light and dawn. I don't wish to avoid, ignore or spurn them just because they have no choice but to exist and to  live their lives in the midst of abrasive human noise. To the contrary, I feel it's deeply important to experience, acknowledge, and respect their lives, their lifeworld, the reality of their way of being, precisely because they are not fortunate enough to live freely and naturally, there where they are and must be. Before I leave, after sunrise, I always thank them, and apologise to them for what the species to which I belong has inflicted upon them (and upon itself), and pray for their future protection and well-being.

This, then, is one of those rare occasions when I have decided to post an excerpt from just such an attended dawn recording, mainly because I find it fascinating and informative, and amusing. To my mind, it provides yet more evidence that Blackbirds (which aren't native to Australia, but released here by English settlers) and native birds don't really get on very well. The conflict or competition is not physical or violent, but expressed through 'voice' and creativity. In this instance, the Blackbirds seem to be ousted and chased away by some extremely vocal and virtuosic Grey Shrike-thrushes. (I should point out that I don't think of what birds do with their 'voices' as 'song' or 'music'. I think that such a notion is merely a somewhat fanciful human interpretation and imposition.)

Another, lesser, reason for posting the excerpt is because it is another exploratory mid-side recording (with a super-cardioid mid mic), made in parallel with an ORTF recording (with a pair of cardioids), which hasn't been posted, here.

2025.11.12 Dawn at Cudlee Creek. Spring. (Excerpt. Mid-Side.)

ORTF: 8040s (preamp gain 65 dB).
Mid-Side: 8050 and 8030 (preamp gain 65 dB; both channels at 0 dB in M-S decode).

Parallel raw clips to illustrate the difference in recorded levels between the ORTF rig (first clip) and the M-S rig (second clip), both recorded on the same recorder and both with 65 dB preamp gain. (Note how the Boobook Owl pauses its calls during the loudest and nearest part of the jet's passage.)

In all of the subsequent parallel clips, the ORTF recordings have been given +5 dB gain, which brings them very close to the same loudness level as the decoded M-S clips. Both rigs are similarly self-noisy under higher gain settings: neither is ideally suited to extremely quiet nocturnal ambience recording. (According to the manufacturer's specs, all three types of microphone have a self-noise equivalent of 13 dB (A-weighted).)

ORTF and Mid-Side (Parallel Recordings). 1. Boobook and Jet.

2025.11.12 Dawn at Cudlee Creek. Spring. (Excerpt. ORTF.)

CLOCKChim_Lepper Grandfather Clock Westminster Chimes

. (2025)

Buy via Bandcamp

Of that Last Night near Islaz

Audio Montage All Mechanisms

One of many recordings on my “Heidelberg sound map.” Please feel invited to visit the entire soundmap: https://heidelberg-hoeren.de/soundmap

I deeply love to record and to listen. My everyday life is filled with urban sounds and noise. So I always wait impatiently for opportunities to get away from man-made sounds and to deeply listen to and record nature. But these opportunities are far to rare. So I asked myself: why not record the sounds that I encounter in my every day life and make a soundmap of my home town Heidelberg? It took me nearly two years until the site was ready to go online, but it was great fun and trained my listening a lot. 


Heidelberg sound map teaser: the annual fireworks display

This year's best of is divided in two parts: forest and lake/wetland! In this recording you will hear in turn:

MARCH
Tawny Owl
Raven
APRIL
Common Crane
Capercaillie lek + female
MAY
Grey-headed Woodpecker
Bumblebee
Willow Warbler
Dunnock
Mistle Thrush
Whinchat
JUNE
Nightjar
JULY
Red-backed Shrike

All recordings from the county of Uppland with varying recording techniques.

Best of 2025 forest

This year's best of is divided in two parts: forest and lake/wetland! In this recording you will hear in turn:

APRIL
Slavonian Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Lapwing
MAY
Sedge Warbler
Whooper Swan
Penduline Tit
JUNE
Bittern
Great Reed Warbler
Curlew
Fire-bellied Toad
JULY
Starlings murmuration

All recordings except the Fire-bellied Toads from the county of Uppland with varying recording techniques.

Best of 2025 wetland and lake

Nth of Lillingstone Lovell, dawn (AT4025) 0330¬0430 - 2023_07_08

Ongoing experiments, tests, and comparisons involving field recording gear and rigs, made for my personal practical experience and use. In case they might also be helpful or useful for other field recordists, I will be posting them here.

𝔈𝔵𝔭𝔩𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤, 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔟𝔩𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔢𝔯, 𝔞𝔰 𝔞𝔫 𝔈𝔳𝔢𝔫𝔱, 𝔞 𝔐𝔬𝔡𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞 𝔇𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔅𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔤.

2025.11.02 A Dawn between Two Forests. Spring.

𝕳𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕭𝖊𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘

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