Hi Kevin,
Hard to say. One advantage of recording urban thunder from this
position is that it affords a relatively unobstructed "sonic view"
forward and to either side, which minimizes the kind of close
reverberations from buildings, etc that would be found on closer to
the street in a city. (There are still, of course, reverberations
from the wall just behind the mic array). So I suspect the high
vantage point does helps open up the spacial image, and the result
certainly sounds like what I think thunder in a city sounds like (to
me at least).
On the other hand, I very rarely find myself hovering 50 feet up and
three feet in front of my window (and certainly never during
thunderstorms!), so this is not a position that replicates the way
anyone actually experiences the soundscape in real life (with the
possible exception, perhaps, of people jumping off of roofs).
-matt
On Aug 2, 2009, at 17:21, Kevin Colver wrote:
> Very nice stereo effect. Do you think some of that is because you
> recorded it from so high off the ground? I've often wondered if I
> should be recording some soundscapes from much higher off the ground.
> Kevin
>
> On Aug 2, 2009, at 10:45 AM, Matt Blaze wrote:
>
>> No microphone comparison here, and nothing particular spectacular.
>> Just 12 minutes of a moderate thunderstorm over Philadelphia, PA, as
>> heard three feet outside my fifth floor window in Center City (with
>> the aid of a boompole).
>>
>> One of my favorite subjects is nature imposing itself on heavily man-
>> made environments, and so I really enjoyed Emanuele Costantini's
>> London Thunderstorm last month. Traffic, car alarms, people yelling
>> and so one are normally sounds we don't associate with nature, but in
>> recordings of storms I think they provide a nice context, especially
>> when the man-made sounds are reactions to the weather. So I guess
>> this is my contribution to the genre (although in a blind test you
>> might mix up which recording was made in London, thanks to the sound
>> of bell tower at the end of mine...)
>>
>> Recorded with a M-S pair of Sennheieser MKH-800 mics (wide cardioid &
>> figure-8), a Nagra VI recorder, and a Rycote blimp with a Remote
>> Audio
>> "Rainman" cover, with the mics on a boompole about three feet outside
>> a window, about 60 feet above the street, in driving rain and about
>> 10mph wind.
>>
>> http://www.crypto.com/audio/t-storm-urban-20090802.mp3
>>
>> -matt
>>
mab blogs at http://www.crypto.com/blog/
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