At 6:26 PM -0800 11/5/09, Lily Plants wrote:
>
>I love this clip of Fall sounds. It's so alive. makes me think of
>more simple sounds such as Philip Glass and a sound piece of compost
>composting.
>
>Questions re sounds from most loud to most soft:
>1. what are the inconsistent leaf sounds? animals? how large?
Hi Lily--
There are several mammals moving through the fallen leaves, grass and
brush. The loudest ones are white tail deer in the center rear, left
rear and right front. They walk, tromp the ground and snort a few
times. A squirrel is also bounding through the leaves at times in the
left front. There's most always a few rabbit browsing at night but
maybe they're keeping a lower profile with the owls around?
>2. is water dripping?
I didn't notice that! There is a very small spring trickling nearby
both mic rigs. The water that is most audible for me is in the Right
Rear about mid way. I believe an animal could be dribbling water as
it drinks from the small stream.
>3. what accounts for the soft, consistent crackling?
I love that part too. For the most part, very minute natural sounds.
The mics have low self-noise [7dB(A)] and there's lots of gain
applied (about 84dB total). The percussive sizzle, mostly in the Left
Front, might be moisture condensing on the leaves causing them to
curl, settle and "tick." The Front rig is under a large oak tree
whose leaves fell very recently. Nearby small mammals perhaps voles,
mice or chipmunks seem to be producing some very soft stirrings. It
would be tough to notice these sounds if there was any local hubbub.
>4. is there a low rumble in the clip or is that gain from my gear?
There is lots of very low frequency energy in the setting and in the
recording which is usually the case unless one records 20 or more
miles away from main roads and can somehow escape air traffic. One
rumble I recognize is a calf barn exhaust fan that is 1.5 miles away
Center Front. I think a corn combine might be working in a distant
field in the direction of the Left Front, perhaps 2-4 miles away.
There's no EQ applied under 90 Hz so all of the low pitch sounds you
hear are coming from considerable distances. Thankfully, there's no
local car, truck or air traffic within a couple of miles during the
take-- which is rare. For a sense of scale, the coyotes to the Left
Rear are about a 1.5 miles away. Here's the 4 channel array marked on
Google map: http://tinyurl.com/yf33fd2
>Lastly, what kind of speakers and placement do you use for your own playback?
I use a standardized 5.1 speaker arrangement
http://www.genelec-ht.com/documents/images/faq/faq30_3.jpg with the
speakers a little more than 6 feet from my mixing position. The
studio is sound-treated; the speakers are Mackie 824's. The studio is
located in a rural setting with very few obtrusive sounds so I can
play and monitor the recordings at lower levels and still hear
considerable detail. Rob D.
>I'd appreciate a comment to any of those questions.
>lily
>
>________________________________
>From: Rob Danielson <<type%40uwm.edu>>
>To:
><naturerecordists%40yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Wed, November 4, 2009 10:30:17 AM
>Subject: [Nature Recordists] Re: Sounds to record in Fall / Autumn
>
>Hi--
>Some of my favorite ingredients that I associate with Fall in the
>Upper Midwest (USA) under a nearly full moon last night:
>
><http://tinyurl.>http://tinyurl. com/ybqyeeh
>4 channel surround QuickTime (5 mins, 9.5 mb)
>
>Those with stereo monitoring should hear the front and rear channels
>folded together.
>The file is well-saturated to lessen the negative impacts of AAC
>compression so you'll need to adjust playback to a level that seems
>suitable to you. Rob D.
>
>= = = =
>
>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. 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.
>>
>>Anyone else have Fall (Northern Hemisphere) aka approaching winter
>>projects planned?
>>
>>Cheers!
>>
>>--- In
>><naturereco rdists%40yahoogr oups.com>naturerecordists@
>>yahoogroups. com,
>>Rob Danielson <> wrote:
>>>
>>> At 2:15 AM +0000 10/8/09, Steve wrote:
>>> > <snip>
>>> >I, too, would be delighted to hear what other people are trying to
>>> >accomplish this fall...
>>> >
>>> >Steve P
>>>
>>> Of course, there's a northern hemisphere bias to this being "Fall." ;-)
>>>
>>> I'm very lucky in that I've been able to monitor the Fall changes
>>> daily. If I had to venture out here in the upper midwest this time of
>>> year to do a few days of recording I'd consider that the coyotes are
>>> vocalizing a lot as the young ones learn to hunt, start to disperse
>>> and winter hunting territories are being debated. Prime times are
>>> typically 7-11 pm and then 2-4 am around here. Owls are teaching
>>> their young to hunt and there seems to be more conversation. They're
>>> also having more heated interactions, possibly over hunting grounds.
>>> The "dawn chorus" shrinks to nothing in the early Fall as long as it
>>> stays warm at night and the insects are singing strong. But after a
>>> few, cool nights in the 30's & low 40's, the birds that winter-over
>>> become quite vocal through the morning for some reason. This
>>> coincides with the on-set of leaf fall. I was out of town for three
>>> days when the winds had been strong. When I returned and resumed
>>> monitoring I was immediately struck by how much the acoustic space
>>> had "opened up" with the loss of only 20%-30% of the leaves. Of
>>> course, wind usually reduces animal vocalizing and can mask other
>>> events to a great degree. Wind forecasts here in the US seem to have
>>> gotten quite good so one might want to consider these before
>>> setting-out. A very slight breeze will go along way in establishing
>>> the seasonal mood. Activities at wetlands will increase soon with
>> > migrating water fowl. Rob D.
>
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