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Re: Finding Quiet Places to Record

Subject: Re: Finding Quiet Places to Record
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 22:27:26 -0400
bbystrek wrote:
>
> Any suggestions on finding quiet places to record habitat orientated
> soundscapes and in Southern New England?  Getting away from traffic
> and airplanes is a huge challenge out here.  It's nearly always
> necessary to carefully edit out each intrusion.  I feel a little
> guilty about it, but I try to do it without interrupting a given
> creatures call when it appears in the foreground.

Depending on the frequency of the calls you are dealing with, cutfilter,
notch filters and other such that remove some frequencies can work
wonders. Though the recording won't sound quite as natural. Some of the
noise removal software is pretty good now too.

There are charts of the main airplane corridors, check with the FAA for
that. But, note that you have to be a long ways away from a corridor to
cut the noise entirely.

Other than that it's just going and listening, lots of map study. Time
of day makes a difference if you have a choice.

> Is there any sort of noise survey data out there or public use?
> Perhaps something that can integrate topographic data along with
> aircraft flyways and traffic speed/volume.  You would think there
> would be some sort of noise modeling systems for highway planning use
> to be able to estimate the effects relative to the local topography.
> It's funny, sometimes you can be high upon the top of a hill, and
> hear every human voice in the valley below.  While at other times the
> land is just such that either a highway is sunken below grade as it
> passes through a section of ledges and you would not even know it's
> there.

Many years ago I did noise modeling for traffic for environmental impact
statements. The models we had available then did not take terrain into
account. I'd check what EPA is requiring in the way of EIS models for
noise as a possible source of programs.

I have my doubts there is any sort of mapping on more than a local
level, like the immediate area around a airport or such like. And it's
probably based on either a measurement study or one of the
non-topographic models. Noise is not much paid attention to.

Walt



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