Water is always very surprising sonically. Walking along the sea shore, which mostly was rocky, I found this great sound of water and air injecting between rocks, splashing and gurgling.

Later on I came back with my Sennheiser MKH 815 to record it. I found out there large variety of gurgles and bubbles. Using microphone foam came out to be a good idea for water protection, letting me to record very close at the same time. The splashes varied from soft to intense, some of them were also very funny sounding.

On the other day, I took my hydrophones and MKH 815 to record some under and over the surface perspectives. I was recording on Zoom H6. I really didn’t want my Sound Devices recorder to get wet and the opportunity of recording 6 tracks at the same time looked promising.

It soon came out, that wading in water on sharp rocks holding a mic was a bit challenging.
Waves were so strong, that I couldn’t hold hydrophones still in one place, not bumping on rocks. Below is a mix of H6 internal XY capsules and MKH 815, fading into a pair of JrF d-series hydrophones mixed with Aquarian Audio H2a (kind of LCR hydrophones setup).

 
The gurgles reminded me of a fountain I recorded some time ago visiting medieval palace garden.
I love finding and recording sounds with character.

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.

I managed to record a few different ecosystems: field/meadow, over the ponds/close to the river and forests. It was a bit windy, but I used my car as a wind shield.
Standing still and listening is one of the best ways to rest for me.

Last years I was focusing on recording atmospheres of the empty city. Yesterday I have seen large flock of pigeons on a square in my city. They used to be fed there and drink water from the fountain. It sounded amazing even from the distance, I thought they will probably be there today too. I knew I have to record it.

I took a pack of sunflower seeds to feed them. When I arrived to the square and took it out, cloud of pigeons surrounded me. I recorded this great, close perspective flutter when they landed:

They were so used to the sounds and gestures of taking out the food, that they reacted even when I run out of sunflower and pretended that I’m pouring the seeds.

After some time they get bored, then I recorded take offs:

Pigeons fully deserved their payment.
Later, I moved to the park where I wished to record rooks and water birds close to the pond.

There were no rooks today, but I managed to record ducks:

And their nice take offs from the pond:

Getting up after just three hours of sleep today definitely paid off.

Arriving to new places I always enjoy complexity of acoustics. Reverberation between wooden cottages, reverb in the forest, in gorges, sound in the open air mountains top is interesting by its own. I love software reverbs, but reality is far more complex and interesting.

Staying in the mountain village, few times I got up early to record morning atmospheres. Living for some time so close to the nature, I learned how different parts of the day sound. Crickets, bugs, birds and other animals have very apparent daily activity.
I hiked on the hill close to the village to record distant atmosphere. I enjoyed so much how this perspective sounded. Being sound editor I think it’s very important, to experience acoustics and sounds by myself.

Here is the village at dawn:

Sitting few hundred meters away from the village I was amazed how asynchronous sounds are in the reality. It’s always difficult decision to be real or to be “in sync” when cutting sounds for distant shots.

I did a lot of bugs life recordings. Often I recorded on two recorders: one with Neumann KMR 81 / KM 120 MS kit for wide shot and the second one was super close DPAs 4060 lying in the grass.

Morning meadow:

MS:

DPAs:

I did the same in the evening, recording distant village and crickets:

MS:

DPAs:

Second part of my vacations I spent in Polish Bieszczady mountains, which are I think the wildest part of the country. But even there during the day, every 20 minutes or so plane passes. Sign of times…
I took the recorder and DPAs almost everyday with me, getting some great atmospheres and bugs sounds.

Natural mic stand:

In August, I spent two weeks in beautiful places, having recording kit with me of course.
There is no better place to rest for me, than close to the nature. So we decided to go to the mountains.
I learn, that being involved sound editor, every year my listening abilities evolves. I am noticing more specific sounds for the places I visit. And there is no better time than vacation, when there is no rush, to focus on experiencing the world around.
Because I recorded many sounds which I would like to show, I decided to split it in parts.
So this post will be about some interesting sounds and objects, which I found.

First we visited Slovakian mountains. I took some recording gear with me.
Hiking through gorges I enjoyed acoustics of high rock walls. There were many beautiful mountain streams and waterfalls. Here are some sounds of it recorded with hydrophone.

It’s always so surprising to me, how much placement of the hydrophone changes the sound. In one spot so diverse sounds can be recorded.

And here’s one which you can download for free:

Another sound I will always remember from this vacations is the cable railway interior. I did one recording of cable railway before. I liked it much and was very curious how it would sound recorded with contact mic.

So here is two track recording of it: contact mic and DPA 4060.

And another cable railway recording from the past:

Up on the mountains, it was very windy. Inspired by Chris Watson’s amazing wind on wires recordings released recently by Soniccouture, I wanted to try to attach contact mic to metal towers. I found a few, every of them sounding totally different.

Some time ago, I did the same, attaching contact mic and hydrophone in suction cup to lighting tower when there was heavy wind. Absolutely loved that eerie and resonant sound (Left channel – Barcus Berry contact mic / Right channel – Aquarian hydrophone in suction cup).

On the mountains top, there were small mountain pines, which grow above some altitude. Since it was very windy and it formed an obstacle for wind, it sounded amazing. I putted a pair of DPAs 4060 into it.

In the village we stayed, everyday I was woken up at dawn by the rooster. But who would thought how this tiny one will be sounding when pitched down (you can download it for free too):

More sounds to come soon…

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.