With a few members of the Nature Sounds Society and since our original plan at Yosemite fell through, it was still closed, we tried our contact with a private picnic area nearby.
The area was very lush as you can see, we camped nearby. My mics overlooked a small agricultural pond. We were actually in a gated community with some really nice homes as well as ranches. There were cattle, roosters and dogs not too far away.
All in all it was surprisingly dense in sound, a first year bear cub was also seen.
~~~~~~~~~~~!WARNING, LOUD SOUND AT 60 SECONDS!~~~~~~~~~~~~
Out at an area close by again, one that is currently open and easily accessible. This is the Pine Creek Unit, part of the Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge. This was a backpacking shakedown test to see if I could get a six channel recording system into a backpack. It works but I need to figure out where a tent and food will go. What you see above is a quad array of Sennheiser MKH 8090 (low fuzzies), sub-cardioid microphones; above it is a Jecklin disc (high) with two omni mics in it. Below you are only going to hear the quad array, if you have four speakers. If not you’ll have to settle for stereo.
We are just heading into the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic surge here in California. I needed to get my new recording rig out locally to confirm that I can backpack it (yes), not damage it while traveling (yes) and fit all of my necessities (tent, sleeping bag, etc.) (probably). My backpack in the the far right middle of the photo.
The crackling you hear is from the power lines above, this is in Chico, California’s Bidwell Park and the city rumble is heavily rolled off the bottom end. One can hear park users in the distance. It is a quad recording so if you can figure out how to listen to four channels please enjoy the immersion
I recorded in the same place about 10 years ago as outlined here. That was stereo, this is a quad with a sub-cardioid (MKH 8090), into a SD MixPre10 II.
One of the first field recordings with my quad sub-cardioid array. There is a lot going on in this, listen for the fly-overs towards the end, see if you can hear the wings buzzing.
Quad Array with MKH 8090
I put together throughout the last few months. The array is an Ambient “A-Ray” which allows great flexibility in mic placement. I am still figuring out how to transport it gracefully in the field.
World Listening Day was spent at Lassen Volcanic National Park! We shared some sounds of the Park with interested visitors and had a great reception. Thanks to the rangers and other volunteers for their support and hospitality.
Didn’t escape without recording though, here is a little snippet of Pirate’s Pool at the Bumpass Hell:
Some of you know that I’ve been making some recordings for the National Park Service at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Over the next few weeks I will start posting some snippets of what I have found.
Dream Lake (above) is an area that has been under restoration since the man-made dam was removed in 2011. As the water drained several streams that fed the historic lake converged to form a new habitat.
Boiling Springs Lake (above) represents the prime call of what Lassen Volcanic Park is known for: bubbling, gurgling, hydrothermal features. This is a good example of what Bernie Krause calls “geophony”.
The 30th annual Nature Sounds Society Workshop was held the last weekend in June this year. We had a small but eclectic and energizing group of participants and presenters.
Steve Sergeant gave us his take on recording in surround, his method advocates for the use of height channels. The new feature film audio formats such as Atmos use loudspeakers in the ceiling to achieve this immerse effect.
In June of 2013 the Nature Sounds Society hosted the annual field workshop in the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern California. Preeminent recordist Lang Elliot was there to inspire us to great recordings and update us on his latest projects. Along with Lang, his collaborator Marie Read wowed us with her great images and stories of wildlife photography.
Dan Dugan, Steve Sargent and I put together the ever popular microphone directivity session (above) while other attendees were learning how to make their own windscreen with Sharon Perry. If you ever get a chance it is a weekend well spent.
I’m sorry I didn’t get a photo of the beautiful site at Yuba Pass, I was so tired, as soon as the mics started rolling I fell asleep:
I was on a scouting trip to the northeast corner of California, checking out the Warner Range and other recording opportunities. I was in Cedarville having a greasy breakfast a a local joint which had a little buzz going that morning, it wasn’t just the coffee. I found out that one of the large ranches was transporting 200-300 head of cattle to their Summer grazing grounds up in the mountains. This involved a cattle drive through the middle of downtown. Since by the time I got out of breakfast the herd was fast approaching, I pulled out the microphones and this is what I heard:
As I continued exploring the area I had several other opportunities to drive through the same cattle swarm. Good thing I wasn’t in a hurry.
This year was a bountiful one at the San Francisco State University High Sierra Field Camp. In addition to the wonderful location there were many recordists with diverse interests ready to record or try recording for the first time. A documentary film about the Soundtracker, Gordon Hempton, was presented by it’s filmmaker Nick Sherman, keep your eye out for it on the festival circuit. The film was an excellent portrait of one of the foremost nature recordists in the world.
Also John Muir Laws was in attendance providing a much welcome background and context about the natural world (which I sorely need). John is the author of the definitive field guide(s) to the Sierras. John introduced us to drawing techniques and suggested we look behind the names and explore the systems that work together to create the ecosystems that we live in.
All in all it was a wonderful weekend, many old friends and new were made and remade. Some other links from the weekend are below. For now enjoy a clip from Carman Valley:
Back in January of 2010 my daughter Eleanor was born. Amidst the excitement of labor and delivery I had a previous commitment to provide recording services for a concert of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus performing at the Harlen Adams Theatre on the campus of Chico State. The day after Eleanor was born I loaded into the theatre with fourteen microphones and a few direct lines. We recorded 16 channels of audio on a double system: one computer and one “Radar” for backup. Dr. Kathleen McGuire conducted the 100 member chorus to a capacity crowd. Everything was originally recorded at 24/96. Mark Speer mixed and Ashley Moore (AMOR Music Productions) mastered the project.
Here are some samples of the recording, the CD is out of print but the full recording seems to be available on Amazon and Spotify.
Make Your Own Kind of Music/New World Coming (Excerpt)
My Rising Up (Excerpt)
California Here I Come (Excerpt)
All samples are property of Golden Gate Performing Arts Inc. and used with permission.
The sound you are about to hear is one that fascinated me the first time I took a walk in Bidwell Park. In January I recorded it, reported to be the third largest urban park in the US, Bidwell Park is located within the city limits of Chico, CA near “Lake” Oroville and the Oroville Dam whose power travels along said lines. The crackling that is heard is an effect called corona discharge [Wikipedia] and is caused by the interaction of power and humidity or other particles in the air surrounding the lines (as I understand it).
As you can hear the city of Chico is on the right side of the image, it is somewhat heavily rolled off to provide a more pleasant listening experience.
On January 29th after 21 hours of labor (and about the same amount of compressed audio recording) we heard this very first sound:
Nicole and I are proud parents. I won’t share the rest of the recording with you. Surprisingly, none of the nursing staff gave me trouble about having a large microphone in the room, I guess it’s less equipment than those who bring video in. I think I would find video less intimate and actually easier to watch than listening to the sounds of a woman laboring and delivering.
It brings tears to my eyes hearing these first cries again.
Thanks for allowing this diversion from the usual content.
Apologies for a missed opportunity this post: in our haste to get to Lassen Volcanic National Park for a much needed weekend getaway we left the camera at home so you will just have to visit on your own or look around here. Well the weekend getaway nature of this trip put recording on the back burner but it was a good opportunity to scout the area before lugging recording gear in…but I decided to lug gear anyway. We headed out from the Warner campground, a dusty national park campground that seems lightly visited, it’s just a mile or so from the trailhead to the lake itself.
I situated the mics and myself between two bubbling mudpots, much to Nicole’s concern and encouragement. There were plenty of other footprints where I was setup so I wasn’t too worried, though I did notice that the ground was physically warmer in some places, weird. Shortly after hitting “record” a curious couple spent a long time exploring the relatively small area frequently calling out to find the other. A Spotted Towhee was foraging in the area some calls and wingbeats can be heard..
UPDATE: I decided to mix and post my recording at Terminal Geyser, which is not really a geyser but a steam vent, at first it was a little boring to listen to but once I mixed in the 154° (67°C) bubbling stream I decided it was worthy:
Sunday Morning we had an early 4:30am start up at Yuba Pass, dawn chorus, there are a few pretty loud Song Sparrow calls (at 3:19-LOUD) early in the recording also woodpeckers, and many others that I have yet to identify. The microphone array you are hearing is ORTF, though I also recorded a rear Blumlein pair. Please post if you are interested in hearing it.
Late morning as the group dispersed we visited Madora Lake which seems to be a stream fed lake though it may be a man-made spring. This stereo track was derived from a 4 channel, double MS recording. There are American Coots, Red-winged Blackbirds, Bullfrog and a persistently chipping that seemed to be a MacGillivray’s Wabrler. After this successful recording location and a small picnic lunch the 2009 Nature Sounds Society workshop came to a close. The recording below was originally part of a double MS recording on the gregga tree.
At the end of June I attended the annual workshop put on by the Bay Area based Nature Sounds Society. Although this years workshop was lightly attended it allowed greater flexibility and mobility in selecting recording locations and activities. Dan and Sharon led us through through the expected amazing sessions that touch on art, education, listening, activism and hands on construction.
I have been to the workshops in past years but this year was a bounty of new recording locations surrounding the Yuba Pass/Sierra Valley area of Northern California.
Friday night we had a interesting presentation by hummingbird researcher Chris Clark on the tail noises that occur during mating.
Saturday Morning:
Sierra Valley 4:30 am brought out a bunch of tired lightly caffinated recordists to the usual spot at Marble Hot Springs, the scenery did not dissapoint. Somehow I felt that the diversity of species was not a large as it had been in previous years but it was still an enjoyable morning. I think you hear in this recording Wilson’s Snip, Marsh Wren, American Bittern, Red-winged Blackbird among others. This is an ORTF soundscape using Schoeps MK-21 sub-cardioid capsules.
The time is 6:20, we are still in Sierra Valley at the Marble Hot Springs Bridge, the predominant callers are Cliff Swallows, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Bullfrog, American Coot, Western Meadowlark, and the domesticated cow (distant). This is an ORTF soundscape using Schoeps MK-21 sub-cardioid capsules.
After breakfast in a picturesque mosquito covered highway rest area we were off scouting a new recording location. It was reported that Carman Valley is in the process of having it’s wetland restored in collaboration with the local ranchers (and land owners). Most of the recording at this location is a pastoral morning soundscape, but the end of the recording the Scrub Jays were acting up, so that is what you get to hear. From my perspective this will be a popular stop on future recording trips. This is an ORTF soundscape using Schoeps MK-21 sub-cardioid capsules.
I have been out recording the last several weeks, just not finding the time to post here. Because of it’s proximity I have been exploring Gray Lodge more fully. This time of the year it means getting up pretty early, even though I only live 50 minutes away it means leaving at 4:00am or so to capture the dawn chorus. Which is precisely what I have done this week.
Every time I visit I hope to find out something new, the second recording you hear is a reminder that the wildlife area is surrounded by working agricultural fields, which need to be seeded which in the case of rice is done by bi-plane, at 5:30 on a Sunday morning. I would assume this is a similar process to crop dusting.
The first recording is the earlier recording, there is some distant traffic, trains and you can hear the bi-plane begin. There are occasional Wild Turkeys and American Coot among the Red-winged Black Birds Marsh Wrens and others, if you can identify anything please let me know and I will update, thanks. This is an ORTF recording using Schoeps MK21 capsules.
First Recording:
The recording below is an Jecklin recording using DPA 4006 capsules.
Second Recording (caution loud planes throughout, unedited except for some rolloff):
This last weekend I finally made it out for an overnight trip to a local private ranch I have had my eye on. After obtaining permission from the owners I spent a beautiful night in California’s Coastal Range foothills. As you can see from the photos everything is still green from the spring rain, in a few weeks it will start to turn a shimmering gold. The oak trees show in these pictures The weather was partly cloudy and I was hoping to catch some frogs at the man made watering hole for the cattle that call this land home. In the evening recording you will hear some Pacific Chorus Frogs over a bed of Spring Field Crickets. This is an ORTF recording using Schoeps MK21 capsules.
I used the Gregga Array to support two stereo pair of mics the left side is a rear facing Jecklin disc and the right is a pair of MK21 Sub-cardioid micsin an ORTF configuration in a windscreen. Note how the wide stance of the tripod allows a very stable platform for the two arrays, no worries about cows tipping them over. In the background you can see my yellow GPS and weather station.
The next morning came too early after a fitful night of sleep, I had not counted on the moon being full and bright. The cooing of Mourning Doves and the territorial call of the Western Meadowlark. An early morning motorcycle broke the peace. This was recorded using the Jecklin disk barrier with some DPA 4006 omni mics.
I headed out this morning to scout an area known as Gray Lodge Wildlife Area which is managed by the California Department of Fish & Game. The weather was pretty overcast on the way out and I was hoping for a bit of sun. I didn’t get any sun but I got to use my trusty microphone umbrella. Most of the migrating waterfowl that I had seen on my initial visit a few weeks before was gone, but the American Coots, Northern Shovelers and of course the Mallards were still there.
