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Re: Sounds to record in Fall / Autumn

Subject: Re: Sounds to record in Fall / Autumn
From: "Rob Danielson" danielson_audio
Date: Fri Oct 9, 2009 12:36 am ((PDT))
At 3:08 AM +0000 10/9/09, Steve wrote:

>  Yeah --- I've noted too that the sound of the woods changes a lot
>as the leaves fall, though I bet we still have more leaves here than
>in Wisconsin! Perhaps a time-lapse recording would demonstrate this
>effect but I'm not ready to do that this season. And, some care to
>match other conditions would be required.

Right, you'd need a loud, full Hz range control sound source pretty
far away. I did a quick and dirty ear and spectral comparison using
minimal night ambience before and after leaving last Spring.  The
most obvious difference seemed to be attenuation in the 600-2000 Hz
range for distant sounds-- maybe 2-4 dB?  Auditorily, its what you'd
expect, fewer spatial depth cues with the leaves. I was surprised
that localization accuracy for sounds at a distance wasn't more
affected, though.


>  Still, it'd be fantastic.
>
>When Rob says "A very slight breeze will go along way in
>establishing the seasonal mood." I agree 100% but my hope is to
>record it really zipping along --- enough so one can hear mid-sized
>branches clacking together. Simply because that's the experience I
>associate with being out in November in a nice Beech-Maple stand
>here. Maybe a few Crows or a Pileated as well.

November becomes so windy that I'm starting to savor calm days and
nights already.

Trees swaying and branches colliding makes me think of the vibrations
and stresses inside of the trees. The motions of trees in the wind is
like the motions of hair cells in our ears. Bernie, Richard Lerman,
Carlo Giordani others have wedged piezo mics into trees. How about
micing/mixing a number of trees?  Richard (of megalithia) has
published a schematic for a piezo buffer circuit that seems to
significantly improve the sound quality of these devices:
http://www.megalithia.com/sounds/tech/piezo/opamp.html And there's
Richard Lerman's 1990 DIY plans (.pdf) http://tinyurl.com/yfno6hq

The Fall wind is up, the animals are laying low. Time for this mammal
to get some sleep. Rob D.


>Anyone else have Fall (Northern Hemisphere) aka approaching winter
>projects planned?
>
>Cheers!
>
>-


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