sound mind studio » frogs

Weekend with new mics

admin — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 22:44:08 +0000

Some time ago I was out in the mountains for a weekend having great time with my family. And my mics too.
Being very busy recently, supervising and designing sounds for a feature I didn’t have much free time left, but here is what I managed to record then.

It was the first time when I took out my new mics – hydrophones and contact mics made by Jez Riley French.
I have Aquarian H2a hydrophone which I liked. It’s a heavy duty mic, so I have tried it in rough conditions – recording in boiling water or freezing it. It always worked great. What is nice is that it’s quite heavy so it’s easy to dip it in rapid current streams.

But I was shocked by the quality of sound of JrF hydrophones – they have wide frequency range and much less internal noise than H2a.
I was amazed with the sound of tadpoles – they sound like they would like to devour my mics. It could work nice for sound of piranhas.
Here are tadpoles in pond, recorded with both hydrophones:

And another take with a pair of JrF hydrophones, much more intense:

And some samples of recordings in a mountain stream – I’m always fascinated with variety of sounds which I can get in one location with hydrophones, changing its position slightly:

There is never enough birds in the library. Listening to the birds singing is totally relaxing experience for me. Plus I love recording sounds with natural reverb of places.

I left my Neumann MS rig on balcony, recording dawn chorus from 4am. It’s stunning to listen how forest wakes up. And always something unexpected happens:

Later I found this beautifully singing cuckoo in the forest:

And Tawny Owl at night (it was very distant, so I had to use RX on it):

During the day I did comparison test between my trusty Sony PCM D50 (mics in wide position) and Zoom H6 (with MS capsule) recording thunders and rain. They sound quite similar, yet Sony sounds brighter.

During the windy day I attached DPA 4060s to the tree branches to record super close perspective of leaves rustle. Being omni mics they record less wind rumble than cardioids making them good choice for this kind of recording.

As a bonus I recorded heating radiator hiss in a house we stayed with DPAs and a pair of JrF contact mics. Below are different takes of DPAs, JrFs and a mix of them.

Spring Frogs

admin — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 22:03:10 +0000

Recently, having a weekend out in the mountains and scouting around with a microphone, I came across to this sound. From the distance it sounded like a quiet traffic noise, or distant train. When I moved closer to it, it came out that it was frogs mating in the pond.
All the pond was full of spawn. I regretted that I didn’t take hydrophone with me, it could sound interesting from that perspective.
Anyway, I will go back there later this year and see how it will sound then.

Saturday Night Frogs

admin — Mon, 20 May 2013 02:15:35 +0000

Recently I found out that I don’t have any good frogs sounds recorded by myself. Last time when I was in a forest nearby my home doing some mic tests (where I record throughout the year), I found out that frogs already started croaking. I planned to go there last saturday evening to record them. This was supposed to be a short trip to that spot. Fast and easy job.

It is a perfect moment to record frogs, since there are no crickets yet. But… I couldn’t find that exact spot, so I started driving throughout the forest, looking (listening?) for any frogs. It was after the sunset already. The first thing I heard was a single chripy sound. So I grabbed my recording kit and followed that direction. Soon I learned that this kind of sound can be heard from a long distance. When I get to the source of sound, even though I had a head lamp I couldn’t find it despite the fact I heard it coming from the puddle in front of me. So I’m not sure what it was exactly, but here’s what it sounded like (recorded very close):

Funny, but it sounded almost like data transmission, modem-like. It also turned out to be a good source for processing. After pitching down it sounds similar to classic cartoon sound for running or even Jetsons vehicle. It inspired me to play a bit with its pitch.
I regret I didn’t take hydrophone. It might sound interesing recored from under the water. Will try next time.

The second frog spot was much harded to get into. After wading through the bushes with spikes, and wet, muddy area I finally get there. It was worth it. The sound came from a water ditch, which was full of wildlife. Many kinds of waterside birds, frogs and so on.

Here’s a sample:

Listening to it through the headphones, I felt like being in the jungle.

Next I moved to the meadows nearby, where I picked up nice frogs chorus:

There were many distant dogs barking. But after some time I heard that:

Have no idea what it was (high dog whine?). I love that kind of moments, when something unexpected happens and I can follow it.

Close to that place, I found a riverbank with marshes around (love google maps).

Patience pays off, since after 5 minutes this beautiful bird started vocalizing:

To finish this amazing session I walked through wet high grass, to the riverbank, where frogs were croaking:

This sound also turned out to be a good source for processing. It has its natural oscillating tonality, so after a bit of processing it can become alarm, sci-fi tone or GUI data scanner.

So I went there to record one frogs pond and came back with so many and diverse sounds.
Love field recording!

All sounds recorded with Neumann KMR81 & KM120 MS kit straight to Sound Devices 702.