A summer dawn chorus at Strangways, central Victoria Australia.

You can hear the chipping of our numerous Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters waking up, the rich song of a Grey Shrike-thrush, a Yellow Robin, distant Kookaburras, the warm, booming calls of Bronzewing Pigeons, twittery reels from a Blue Fairy-wren, and the carolling of Magpies.

Australian bush summer dawn chorus

3 minute audio sample from the 80 minute nature sound album; "Mojave", available for download from www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=118

It is the still moments before dawn in the Mojave desert. 

The first birds begin calling in the dark, their voices drifting over the open plains. From rocky slopes come the echoes of a Coyote pack in full cry, while a pair of Great Horned Owls call as they patrol their territory. 

As the dawn chorus grows, we hear a variety of western desert birdsong; Sparrows, Cactus Wrens, Flycatchers and Thrashers. A community of Gambel's Quail call prominently as they socialise, and a tiny Hummingbird buzzes our ear.

Mojave, An American Soundscape - Album sample

Birdsong from an autumn afternoon at Mt. Kooyoora in central Victoria

A variety of woodland birds can be heard, including Spotted Pardalotes, White-browed Babblers, Fuscous Honeyeaters and Diamond Firetails

Kooyoora autumn afternoon

Morning rainforest sounds, about a month before the wet season was due to arrive, at Lacey Creek near Mission Beach, far north Queensland

Rainforest sounds near Mission Beach, Queensland

3 minute audio sample from the 80 minute nature soundscape; "Cloudforest - Malaysia", available for download from www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=120

A chain of rainforested hills run the length of peninsular Malaysia. Mists drift through these mountain forests, condensing and nourishing an abundance of epiphytes, mosses and ferns.

In the pre-dawn, a chorus of piping frogs and nocturnal insects gently fills the humid air. With first light, the wonderful diversity of birdlife found here begins to awake. Babblers chatter animatedly, and the whooping of Cuckoo Doves echo through the trees. One of the standout species of the forest is heard, the unusual buzzing call of a Fire-tufted Barbet.

A flock of Silver-eared Mesias pass by with much scolding and sweet singing, and the electric cries of a pair of Yellownapes carry through the treetops.

For all the tropical diversity, this recording is actually very easy on the ear. There is an organic pace to the changing soundscape; sounds ebbing and flowing gradually as the morning progresses.

'Cloudforest - Malaysia' - Album sample

Zebra Finches are very common native birds in the arid inland of Australia. You can hear their "nyi-nyi" calls, along with the piping of Pied Honeyeaters, and the calls of Little Crows.

Zebra Finches in the outback

A spring dawn chorus by a small dam, encircled by native woodland in central Victoria, Australia. Despite this being an abandoned mining site from 150+ years ago, now regrown, the biodiversity was outstanding, representing the range of birdlife species found in these forests. 

A Black Duck circled overhead for a few minutes at the beginning, followed by Eastern Yellow Robins heralding the dawn chorus. Among the variety of birdsong audible are Brown Goshawks and Painted Button Quail.

Dawn Chorus at Skenes Gully

2021-09-25 Skenes Gully Dawn Chorus

3 minute audio sample from the 188 minute nature soundscape recording; “ A Forest Trail to the Burmese Hills”. Listen to the complete recording:
http://www.listeningearth.com/play/album/106BurmeseHills.php
The forests of western Thailand are the meeting place of some of the world’s great bioregions, and home to a great diversity of unique flora and wildlife.

On the summit of one of these ranges, a forest trail threads its way into dense, tropical forest. In the predawn, a Collared Owlet is heard calling distantly against the background chiming of nocturnal crickets. In the darkness, giant beetles take flight, and their wingnoise is heard as they purr past nearby.

Soon, the sharp calls of a Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo herald the dawn chorus, as bulbuls, babblers, warblers and fruit pigeons begin waking. A red-cheeked squirrel scrambles up a tree trunk, giving incisive, spitting calls. With sunrise, light shafts through the humid air, and the songs of barbets, niltivas, pittas, scimitar babblers, laughing thrushes, pheasants, flycatchers, woodpeckers, sunbirds and mesias continue into the morning.

This recording will transport you to one of the most ecologically rich areas of the world. Imagine yourself listening among cool fernery, under a dense forest canopy, experiencing a morning alive with exotic birdsong.

A Forest Trail to the Burmese Hills

A Forest Trail to the Burmese Hills: Album Sample

Spacious birdsong and forest ambience from a rarely visited area in Orissa state, eastern India. 

Kotagar forest ambience, Orissa, India

3 minute audio sample from the 76 minute nature sound album; "Redwoods", available for download from www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=124

This album is presented in three scenes: a first dawn, an afternoon, and another dawn. The afternoon sequence is particularly spacious and relaxing, the dawn recordings fascinating and evocative. The ravens in these redwoods are rather characterful, giving all kinds of gargling and croaking calls.

We were so delighted to capture the sounds of Marbled Murrelets. These small seabirds  spend the day feeding at sea, before returning to roost high in a Redwood. They are a rare species, very endangered, and we are privileged to hear them as they wing seawards on their morning 'commute'.

Redwoods, An American Soundscape - Album Sample

3 minute audio sample from the 75 minute nature soundscape; "Yosemite - Mariposa Grove Dawn" by Dan Dugan, available for download from http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/p-126-yosemite-mariposa-grove-dawn

Dawn comes to the giant sequoias of Yosemite's Mariposa Grove, the largest trees in the world.

It is a June morning, the peak of the spring breeding season. The dawn chorus evolves minute by minute, as a variety of species wake up, sing and leave to go off for breakfast. The single note of the Mountain Quail excites the reverberation of the forest, revealing the space around us.

This album was recorded in a single take - unedited and unmixed.

"Mariposa Grove is away from the main Yosemite Valley, on the southern edge of the park. On my annual visits, I tried various locations in the grove before discovering a superb spot in the Upper Grove at an altitude of 6500 feet, free of creek noise. The place is magical. I return to it again and again, in all seasons."

'Yosemite - Mariposa Grove Dawn' by Dan Dugan - Album sample

Deep in a side canyon in the American desert, the modern world seems far removed.

3 minute audio sample from the 77 minute nature sound album; "Canyonlands", available for download from http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/p-127-american-soundscapes-canyonlands

Deep in a side canyon in the American desert, the modern world seems far removed.

Massive rock walls tower above, and the dry canyon floor descends over rocky escarpments toward the main valley, from where a distant rush of water can faintly be heard.

The song of the Canyon Wren is distinctive of this landscape, a falling cascade of notes amplified in reverberation off the hard rocks. It is spring, and despite the arid surroundings, birdlife abounds; warblers, vireos, ravens, towhees, sparrows and finches can all be heard singing. Hummingbirds flit within inches, and perform their unique songflights overhead.

Canyonlands, An American Soundscape - Album sample

The melodious song of a Blackcap is heard in a glade of Birch woodland in Sweden

'Birch Wood' - album sample

The reef-fringed islands of the Vanuatu group lie in the subtropical western Pacific Ocean. Their geographic isolation has lead to the evolution of species found nowhere else on earth.

Within earshot of waves breaking in the distance, this recording features the sounds of one of the Vanuatu's lowland rainforests.

3 minute audio sample from the 64 minute nature sound album; "Pacific Rainforest - Vanuatu", available for download from http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/p-129

Pacific Rainforest - Vanuatu - Album sample

These recordings were made by members of the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group during a weekend workshop in regional Victoria.

Each recording documents the same 2 minute sequence during the dawn chorus, with recorders/microphones in proximity to each other. Recording rigs range from simple and inexpensive to hi-end equipment, and this edit allows them to be compared, with a brief silence between each recorder. 

1. Sound Devices MixPre6-2, with DPA4060 omnis (Vicki Hallett)
2. Zoom H6, internal mics @ 120º (James Harris)
3. Sound Devices 702, with pair of Sennheiser MKH20s in SASS array (Andrew Skeoch)
4. Sound Devices 702, with pair of Sennheiser MKH60s in pistol grips, hand held (Andrew Skeoch)
5. Zoom H4N, internal cardoids (Melinda Barry)

awsrg.org.au

Info

5 field recording rigs compared

In the far north-east of Poland, extending over the border into Belarus, is the vast Białowieża Forest, containing some of the largest surviving fragments of the primeval forest of the north European Plain. This album comprises four tracks recorded at dawn and dusk in an area of mixed forest a little to the north-west of Białowieża village. 

The first track is over one hour of continuous dawn chorus, one of the richest I’ve ever experienced, under the towering presence of the old Stara oaks. A wide variety of forest birds make up the chorus, which diffuses into the resonant distance of this woodland soundscape. A collared flycatcher, one of the characteristic birds of the forest, can be heard singing for most of the way through the session; its atonal melodies seem to provide a unifying strand threading through the themes of other species. Black woodpecker activity is intermittent throughout, hammering, drumming and calling, and a pair of ravens comes and goes. 

Then there are three shorter tracks taken from nearby locations at dusk, where the spacious acoustic of this wonderful place is even more emphatic.

This is a 3 minute audio sample from the 97 minute nature sound album; "Bialowieza I - Stara Twilight", by Geoff Sample, available for download from http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=132

'Bialowieza I' by Geoff Sample - Album Sample

In the far north-east of Poland, extending over the border into Belarus, is the vast Bialowieza Forest, containing some of the largest surviving fragments of the primeval forest of the north European Plain. In this varied forest landscape, with its mysterious vastness, undulating from riverine swamps to drier plateaux, you become immersed in some of the most resonant avian soundscapes of European woodland. 

The area is low-lying and fairly flat, crossed by several slow-flowing rivers. Along some sections of these rivers there are quite wide corridors of more open habitat, with marshes, pools, sedge meadows and reed-beds, all interspersed with patches of shrubbery. These intergrading riverine habitats have an interesting mix of forest and wetland birds and remain lush with song for much of the day and into the night. The dampness and warmth in spring give rise to frequent overnight mists and heavy dews: mosquitoes thrive here, providing an abundant source of food for the insectivorous birds, but a challenge for any human visitor wanting to sit still for longer periods.

This album features a selection of scenes that have stuck with me: in the 10 years that have elapsed since my visits there, I keep returning to these recordings and still find them enthralling. Tracks 1 to 4, then 9 and 10, are all taken around the same clearing on the Narewka river just beyond the outskirts of Bialowieza village; tracks 5 to 8 are from further out along the riversides. The scenes take us through the course of a morning; then the final track is the evening chorus, roughly back where we began. All the tracks except the last (evening) are segued together, reflecting the continuity of locations, times and community. 

This is a 3 minute audio sample from the 82 minute nature sound album; "Bialowieza II - Riverine Scenes", by Geoff Sample, available for download from www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=133

'Bialowieza 2 - Riverine Scenes'  by Geoff Sample - Album Sample

I've included a short spoken intro to this recording. 

Family groups of Colobus monkeys call in the early hours at Mt. Meru, each group starting off the next in a kind of 'mexican wave' around the mountain. If you listen carefully, you'll hear distant groups begin, and the sound of their wonderful growling build as nearby groups join the chorus. The loud yapping calls heard at beginning and end are those of Northern Greater Galagos (Bush Babies).

Colobus Monkeys calling at Mount Meru, Tanzania - intro by Andrew Skeoch

The wetter region of far southwestern Australia is home to ancient, towering stands of Karri and Jarrah. These two eucalypt species have been highly prized for their timber, however significant relic forests remain in reserves. 

These forests flower in spring, producing an exuberance of nectar that attracts crazy flocks of lorikeets and numerous honeyeaters. Pumped up on sugar, they skitter around the canopy, calling extrovertly.

But among the partying, there is far more to hear: pardalottes pipe sweetly while gleaning among leaves, the cries of Black Cockatoos echo as they wing lazily between the trees, tiny thornbills and wrens twitter close by from the shrubby midstory, and flycatchers sing pleasantly between airborn forays in search of insects. 

This album comprises a single recording, taking you into the heart of these lofty forests on a sunlit, spring morning.

This is a 3 minute audio sample from the 78 minute nature sound album; "Karri and Jarrah - The Great Forests of Southwest Australia", available for download from http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/p-134

Karri and Jarrah, The Great Forests of Southwest Australia - Album Sample

This is an audio sample from the nature sound album: 'Dawn Chorus: Scandinavia' (70mins)

It is late spring in Scandinavia, and the chill, morning air pulsates with a rich dawn chorus. In the half light around 3am, the early chorus is dominated by thrushes; Blackbirds and Redwings calling from the dense forest undergrowth. Drifting across the still waters of a nearby lake are heard the voices of Black-throated Divers and Whooper Swans. Later, other forest birds join the morning chorus, including the lyrically-voiced Backcap.

The delicate birdsong of this album evokes the renewal of the European spring.

'Dawn Chorus: Scandinavia' - album sample

Hydrophone recording aquatic insects in Salt Caves Dam, late afternoon, during the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group's workshop at Baradine, NSW. 
Recorded using Aquarian hydrophones into Zoom H5. Recording by Leah Barclay

AWSRG workshop 2017

Hydrophone Recording from Salt Caves Dam, Pilliga Forest, Late Afternoon

3 minute audio sample from the 90 minute nature sound recording; “Tikarpada - An Indian forest stream”. Listen to the complete recording:
http://www.listeningearth.com/play/album/93Tikarpada.php

Tikarpada - An Indian forest stream

Tikarpada - An Indian forest stream: Album Sample

A new day begins in the Australian Bush. The melodious song of Magpies and the chuckling of Kookaburras may be heard among a beautiful tapestry of morning birdsong.

This recording brings to life the atmosphere of our unique bushland.

'A Morning in the Australian Bush'- album sample

Experience a walk in an Australian tropical rainforest.

Fruit doves call from high in the canopy, and exotic birds, such as the extraordinary Catbird, may be heard deep in the forest. Later, a restful symphony of night sounds gives way to the dawn chorus in a lush lowland rainforest.

'A Walk in the Rainforest'- album sample

Australia is a land of beautiful and unique birdsong.

From the familiar voices of bush and garden, to the secret song of the Redthroat; from a magical chorus of Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters, to a forest ringing with Bellbirds - This album is a journey around the continent, and a personal selection of our favourite songbirds.

'Favourite Australian birdsong'- album sample

3 minute audio sample from the 75 minute nature sound album; "Taiga - Europe's Boreal Wilderness", available for download from http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=104

Taiga - the great forests of the far north, the most extensive habitat on earth.

Here the landscape is vast; a mosaic of conifer forest and sodden peatbogs, threaded with streams and lakes.

As the blue light of midsummer dawn silhouettes the landscape, Tree Pipits and Willow Warblers sing melodiously from song perches atop tall conifers. Bramblings and small parties of Siskins flit overhead, filling the air with their delicate calls.

Across open ground drift the eerie calls of whimbrels and the sharp piping of a greenshank. Snipe display in flight, and ducks splash-land on open water.

As wind stirs the treetops, a lone redstart sings, its intricate trills fragile against the elements.

Taiga - Europe's Boreal Wilderness - Album Sample

Happy Budgies - The Sounds of Wild Budgerigars

Recorded in the deserts of Australia - the home of the Budgerigar - this album presents the calls and songs of wild Budgerigars.

Communally roosting Budgies awake at first light, chattering amiably, before fluttering off in small groups to feed. Throughout the day they are heard communicating socially while interacting, feeding and preening, including contented, quiet subsong. As well as Budgies, you will hear a range of Australia's inland birdlife.

Budgies are very social and vocal birds, and this recording is intended to bring health-promoting stimulation to pet birds and relaxing listening for their owners. 

'Happy Budgies'- album sample

A beautiful morning of birdsong unfolds in one of India's rare lowland forests.

Spotted Owlets give their last calls as the dawn chorus begins. Indian Scimtar Babblers are heard on all sides with their warm tonal songs, along with White-browed Fantails and the contrapuntal rhythms of Tailorbirds. Parakeets fly through the forest, Malabar squirrels call loudly, langur 'whoop's fill the forest, and woodpeckers drum overhead.

This recording will take you into a pristine wild place.

'Indian Jungle Dawn' - album sample

Deciduous woodlands are found across the Deccan plains of central India, and are home to some of India's most characteristic birdlife. This album comes from one unedited recording, with birdsong gradually developing as the sun rises.

We begin with White-browed Fantails, Prinias, Barbets, Bulbuls, Orioles and other small birds together weaving a melodic chorus. Among them, the quick drumming of a tiny Yellow-crowned Woodpecker sounds like a creaking door, while Alexandrine Parrots, Turtle Doves and Scimitar Babblers can also be heard. Later a pair of Indian Grey Hornbills fly in, and a troupe of Langurs call nearby.

This is a magic recording from a perfect morning, presenting a symphony of India's dry-country songbirds. 

'Indian Woodland Birdsong' - album sample

Hear Budgerigars in their natural habitat - the dry, inland of Australia.

Nesting in ancient, gnarled eucalypts by an ephemeral waterhole, Budgies can be heard calling as they socialise and fly off to feed. Nearby, prolifically flowering eremophila bushes attract Spiney-cheeked Honeyeaters, with their lovely wheazy calls.

Also to be heard are a great variety of desert birdlife, including occasional groups of Cockatiels as they wing overhead, Red-backed Kingfishers, Galahs, Magpie Larks, Mulga Parrots, Spotted Bowerbirds, tiny Diamond Doves, and delicately-coloured Pink Cockatoos.

A subtle and beautiful recording from the home of the wild Budgerigar.

'Budgerigar Country' - album sample

This album is our 100th Listening Earth album release, and to celebrate this milestone, we're returning to one of our most evocative nature recordings from the last 25 years.

In the small hours of the morning, a full moon illuminates a large waterhole at the entrance to Ormiston Gorge, in outback Australia. The landscape all around is epic and ancient; massive quartzite rock walls are silhouetted above sandy banks lined with pale-barked gum trees.

This permanent waterhole is a haven for wildlife, and here we listen into the night. A gentle breeze occasionally whispers through the leaves of the old ghost gums, while crickets chirrup from small reedbeds.

Subtle sounds come from all around, but the mesmerising focus is a Pied Butcherbird. It roosts unseen in a tree opposite, singing gracefully. 

The song of the Pied Butcherbird is renowned as being among the most musical in the avian world. But now, in the depths of the night, this bird is singing slowly, serenely, languidly, as though half asleep. And in this place, surrounded by an amphitheatre of rock, its voice echoes - one of nature's most sublime songs in a natural cathedral.

Listening Earth Album Sample

The Pied Butcherbirds of Ormiston Gorge

Pied Butcherbirds of Ormiston Gorge: Album Sample

3 minute audio sample from the 4 hour nature soundscape recording; “The Melodious Forest - Papua New Guinea's Uplands”. Listen to the complete recording:
http://www.listeningearth.com/play/album/102MelodiousForest.php

We call it birdsong, but only a few bird species have vocalisations that are truly melodic. 

The upland rainforests of Papua New Guinea are unusually rich in birds with melodic songs. These mid-altitude mountain forests ring with tuneful birdsong. 

Lesser Ground Robins are the most noticeable, singing loudly and sweetly with graceful, melodic phrases. Various other robin species each have their own simpler songs, some medium-pitched, and others so high as to sound thin and quite un-bird-like. Friendly Fantails (that is actually their species name) sing delicate, repeated, arpeggio patterns, while their cousin Black Fantails give boisterous cascades of notes. Whistlers, Pitohuis and Boatbills add to the layering of sounds. Meanwhile Spotted Jewel Babblers call from the forest floor, a steady chiming on a single note that acts like a tonal centre to the other species.

There are exceptions of course. Wahnes's Perotia creates textural contrast with loud and harsh screeches, while small groups of lorikeets skitter noisily among the treetops. Underpinning all these are fruit doves and pigeons with their lovely, booming calls.

So you can hear why I think of these as the melodious forests. 

This recording takes us to mountain rainforest approaching 2000 metres. This is well below the cloudforest, and many of the species here are unique to these mid-altitude forests. The album is one continuous, 4-hour recording, allowing us to hear the rich diversity of highland Papuan birdsong.

The Melodious Forest - Papua New Guinea's Uplands

The Melodious Forest: Album Sample

'Time for the Tarkine' is a professionally recorded nature soundscape, available for  **FREE ** download at:
www.listeningearth.com/tarkine

This is a 3 minute audio sample from the 75 minute album. 

Australia's Tarkine region of northwest Tasmania contains the largest expanse of temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere.

Here, hidden deep in river valleys and wild uplands, huge myrtle trees are festooned with epiphytes and mosses, and in their cool shade thrive an understory of tree ferns. These forests are ancient - they once covered the whole of Australia, and date as far back as the time of the dinosaurs and the primordial supercontinent of Gondwana.

Sadly, this region is under imminent threat of mining. There are currently 11 applications for large, open-cut developments pending, which the Australian government seems intent upon passing regardless of any environmental or social consequences.

Hence we've made this album freely available, so you can hear the wild voices of the Tarkine speak for themselves, and get a sense of what is at stake.

Download the complete album, grab your headphones, take some time & enjoy - and please - share this with friends.

Free

'Time for the Tarkine' - free 75 minute nature album to download

3 minute audio sample from the 79 minute nature soundscape; "Native Birdsong of New Zealand", available for download from www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=116

New Zealand has relatively few native bird species, however they are among the best songbirds anywhere. This album presents a soundscape which features most of them.

We begin in the predawn, experiencing a dawn chorus of Tuis and Bellbirds; without doubt the magical, silvery songs that eighteenth century naturalist, Joseph Banks, described in his journal as "certainly the most melodious wild musick I have ever heard". 

Joining the dawn chorus we also hear Whiteheads, Stitchbirds and Saddlebacks, each rare endemic species with distinctive voices. 

However it is the Kokakos that steal the show. They are so rare it is a privilege to encounter them. Their slow songs comprise pure tones, and which feel somewhat sad and mournful to our ears. Here a pair sing antiphonally, their voices carrying through the bush like the mythical sirens. 

Next, we visit New Zealand's ancient podocarp forests, to hear the magnificent Kakas. These playful, large cockatoos have exhilarating vocalisations; a variety of explosive rasps, liquid whistles, and intimate chuckles. We also hear native Robins in full voice, the delicate tinkling of the Tomtit, and the eerie wails of secretive Wekas. 

Moving to the South Island, we encounter species restricted to those cooler habitats, including Brown Creepers, Riflemen, and the increasingly rare Yellowheads. 

Finally, the iconic, nocturnal Kiwi. As dusk falls, the Tuis fall silent as the first Morepork awakes. A Kiwi calls close by, while another walks steadily towards us with shuffling gait through the leaf litter. Passing within inches, it moves off into the night. 

'Native Birdsong of New Zealand' - Album sample

3 minute audio sample from the 137 minute nature soundscape recording; “Zanzibar - Rainforest of the Spice Island”. Listen to the complete recording:
http://www.listeningearth.com/play/album/104Zanzibar.php

The island of Zanzibar lies a short distance off the coast of Tanzania. Despite Jozani forest being the largest intact area of primary forest on the island, it is still relatively small, making it all the more precious as a refuge for many rare species. Iconic among them are the endangered red colobus monkeys, found only on Zanzibar.

Entering Jozani forest after dawn, our first impressions are of distant birdsong, a gentle susurration of tree crickets and a sense of peace. The tangle of trees, vines and dense vegetation affords habitat for numerous species, and as we settle into listening more intently, these become evident. 

Green-backed camaropteras patrol the undergrowth and attract our attention by being very vocal. Eastern nicators sing back and forth to each other with rich melodies, while greenbulls burble warmly. Two species of tinkerbird create a soft background of steady piping notes, crowned hornbills appear with piercing calls, and forest weavers, attending to their ball-shaped nests suspended in the canopy, give the most unusual combination of crystalline whistles and buzzy tones.

Then the colobus monkeys arrive, doing their rounds of the forest and crashing through the foliage overhead, occasionally giving voice with exhilarating calls and wheezy social interactions. As they move on, we note several different species of sunbird as they too move around the forest, while the rich tones of tropical boubous echo through the forest.

Concluding with a final visit from another colobus troop, this spacious recording will take you to an exotic and biodiverse island rainforest off the coast of equatorial Africa.

Zanzibar - Rainforest of the Spice Islands

Zanzibar - Rainforest of the Spice Island: Album Sample

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

Ambi XY

Ambi XY 180

Ambi Omni

Ambi ORTF

Listening Earth offers an evocative range of natural listening experiences -  soundscapes recorded in wild locations around the world. 

Established 25 years ago by nature field recordist Andrew Skeoch and photographer Sarah Koschak, it is their passion to share the beautiful, unique and often fragile soundscapes of our living planet. 

"We hope listening will remind you of life in balance, and transport you to wild and often remote places."

Listening Earth

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