Friends:
I've posted an mp3 at
http://homepages.uc.edu/~pelikas/Warblers1.mp3
Sorry, it is something like 6 min and 9.3 MB (I could lean on it a bit
more or send it to you some other way. If you're willing to listen to
it and if size is a problem, let me know.)
This is an experiment to make a recording from which people can learn
bird songs. There's a background recording that was made in stereo,
and then I've mixed in recordings of 7 species of (new world)
warblers, each shifted slightly away from equal volume in the tracks
and usually with the quieter track having an approx 1 ms delay to
simulate coming from different directions.
The recordings of the individuals birds were mono from a single
microphone in a parabola. The mono recordings of the species were made
within about 500 meters of the location of the background stereo
recording, and all were made within 10 days of May 1st (though in
different years).
I used a compressor like function to slightly reduce the loudest parts
of the warbler's songs and allow me to increase the background (and
noises in) the background stereo recording.
Overall there's about 15 or 20 species of birds that can be heard in
the recording, but the 7 main warblers, in order of appearance, are
Yellow Warbler, Pine Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Cerulean Warbler,
Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush, Kentucky Warbler. (All but Nashville
breed near where I live.)
When I have something I like, I'll make another version in which a
voice if added in identifying the birds as they sing for the first
time; then ship out the pair of recording to folks as a "quiz" and
"answers".
I'd REALLY APPRECIATE any suggestions you can offer about how to
improve this mix --- about the basic idea of this sort of thing, how I
might improve the overall idea or my execution of it, and how badly
you feel I've damaged the "stereo" effect by mixing in mono
recordings. What would make it better? How important do you think
seasonal and geographic coherence are for this sort of thing?
In deference to comments people made here a while ago about how
unrealistic it is to provide recordings without anthropogenic sounds,
I've included / left in (towards the end) a passing airplane and a
backing dump truck.
Thanks in advance!
Steve Pelikan
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