Waves On Beach With Smooth Rocks 2

Waves On Beach With Smooth Rocks 1

Thunderstorm in Amazonia, Ecuado, a small selection from a longer recording.

Ecuador Thunderstorm Sample

Ecuador Thunderstorm

This is one of my favorite places in the area where I record my Northern Europe ambiences. A rather small, almost square swamp with sparse pine and birch trees, in the middle of a forest. The place has fantastic acoustics with a beautiful distinct echo and diffuse tail due to the sparse trees. During my first of the 2 expeditions this spring I recorded a lot of crystally transparent night and early morning ambiences in this place, I had a chance even to catch the trumpeting flight calls of a swan flying over right above the swamp and then a chorus of swan calls forming an otherworldly drone, reminding a chorus of mermaids. 
Working now on converting all these treasures into publishable libraries. Here’s an example of an early morning 4 AM 4th of May recording with woodpeckers’ drumming communication and a cuckoo in this natural concert hall. In the second half some large bird makes some gentle snorting or moaning sounds CLOSEUP to the right side and then flies by with swishy wings flapping. Recorded with Nevaton MC50 Quad into Sound Devices MixPre 10 II, mixed to stereo for this example.
There were freezing temperatures at nights at this time, but this swamp, covered with fresh evergreen moss, emits a fantastic flower-like fragrance all year around. Also, I suddenly remembered for myself that the cover photo for our first library “Northern Europe Forest Meadow Ambiences. Summer” was taken right here in July of 2018.
All rights reserved. Copyright Dmitry Chernov, LARX Audio.
If you want to use this recording in your productions/creations, please contact us through the contact form at our website https://larxaudio.com

Forest Swamp May 4th  04 AM Woodpecker Cuckoo ST

Swainsons Thrush and flying insects are busy in a thickly forested area in the mountains of Montana.  I recorded this a couple summers ago.

Swainsons Thrush And Flying Insects In Montana Summer Forest

Insects and frogs call throughout the night in the cloud forest near a small stream, and some wind gusts pass through the canopy, shaking rain drops down.  The rain was light and falling through the foliage.  I recorded this with a Double Mid-side system.

Costa Rica Cloud Forest Night Chorus Near Small Stream with Gentle Rain and Wind

Cactus Dodger

I enjoyed recording some winds recently, in this section there are some grasses, loose sand, and occasional birdsong, and various tones from the shape of the spot where I had the mics

Desert Wind with Grasses and Sand

The Red Deer Rut (Brame du Cerf) recorded in the heart of the  the Orleans Forest, the largest Forest in France. 

Zoom F3 + 2 x Sennheiser MKH8020s
23.09.2023

Red Deer Rut - Forêt d'Orleans, France

This is a long recording from a ridge near the ocean, so the surf is in the background, there is bird and animal activity at dusk and dawn, and a big thunderstorm rolls in.  The Yellow-Throated Toucan is very active, and the Scarlet Macaws, Tinamou, and Mantled Howler Monkeys are also calling at dusk. I removed one section of a few minutes where the rainfall was so heavy it started leaking through and hitting the mics but otherwise left this recording intact.  I used my Sennheiser Double MidSide system with a Sound Devices MixPre recorder.

Dusk To Dawn Costa Rica Osa Peninsula Coastal Forest Thunderstorm

Just a few miles away and a little farther up the mountains from Thirtymile Meadows (https://soundcloud.com/soundeziner/20190714_thirtymiledawn) can be found Long Swamp, a very large, highly biodiverse wetland complex.
Like the wet meadows, swamps in this area form through the collection of meltwater of the preceding winter. Unlike the shallow bowls of the meadows, though, the swamps form in the shallow creased valleys between rising prominences. Sometimes the water drains away into a creek at the end of the of the valley, but they are just as likely to simply seep slowly into the topsoil to re-appear elsewhere as a natural spring. Long Swamp does both.

This morning Long Swamp was playing host to Lincoln's Sparrows, Wilson's Snipe, Wilson's Warblers, woodpeckers, Willow Flycatchers, Olive-Sided Flycatchers,Western Tanagers, White-crowned Sparrows, Hermit Thrushes, American Robins, Ravens, Cedar Waxwings, Warbling Vireos, Northern Flickers, a large mammal that wandered through around the 2h46m mark, and another around 4h47m.

I'd like to say that this was a true long, unbroken soundscape, but I did find the need to remove three aircraft that buzzed through over the course of five hours. Other than that, there was very little done to clean this recording. Bordering the Pasayten Wilderness to the West, Long Swamp is a nearly pristine environment.

Beginning around twenty minutes before first light in the last few minutes of Nautical Twilight, it's easy to see that some birds are early risers. Wilson's Snipe are are crepuscular, so we can expect to hear the swoop winnowing of their tails, but I was surprised to hear the high fluting of Hermit Thrushes and buzzy "zip-pew!" of Willow Flycatchers already filling the air. Barely nine minutes into the recording and a White-crowned Sparrow practices the first part of his song to our left. Fifteen minutes later and we hear the morning tuk-tuk laughter of an American Robin. By First Light at 0434 (22 minutes)we're able to hear the "Quick! Three beers!" of Olive-Sided Flycatchers and the distant trilling of Lincoln's Sparrows. Through this period chipmunks have been scattering about, already signaling their territory with rapid fire chitters.
Around 0459 (25 minutes) a Western Tanager begins to come into focus. Sounding like lazy Robins, they are easily confused. The easiest way to hear the difference is to learn the general cadence. Tanagers pause after every 5-10 "lines". Robins, however, sing in blocks of 4-6 "lines", but barely pause before plowing through.
With so much activity already occurring around us, the 0513 sunrise (1h01m) goes by barely noticed.
What I truly love about listening to a place like Long Swamp is the ebb and flow of life. Whether it's woodpeckers hunting too the fluted tunes of Hermit Thrushes at 3h54m or the chipmunk taking over just a minute later at 3h56m, the  frustrated "kyew" of a Northern Flicker at 4h37m or the fast zoom of a large insect or hummingbird at 4h25m, there's always activity, the literal humming and buzzing of life. It goes on all around us every day wherever we are. Tucked inside our dense, noisy urban and suburban homes it's easy to forget and to believe that humanity is life. Far from those urban centers, though, stripped of noisy cars and cellphones and H/VAC systems and airplanes are places like Long Swamp, where natural life continues unabated or stressed by the rigors of anthropogenic sounds.

Long Swamp also appears on my blog, here: http://soundeziner.com/2020/05/long-swamp/

Long Swamp Dawn

Field Recordist / Sound designer
Shhhhh. Listening to nature.

To license sounds or for all other inquiries: info@andymartinsound.com

#naturesound #naturesoundscape #fieldrecording #naturesounds #savequiet #listentonature #soundscape

Long Swamp Dawn

Andy Martin, Field Recordist

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Andy Martin, Field Recordist

Andy Martin, Field Recordist

Andy Martin, Field Recordist

Andy Martin, Field Recordist

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