Sound recordings
Dec
29
2023
AWSRG Victorian Gathering, 11/12th Nov 2023
by Roslyn Oades
Creeping along the hilly, dirt road to Strangways in regional Victoria, I was quite unsure what to expect.
I signed up as a member of Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group several years ago during Melbourne lockdowns. I’d enjoyed listening to their recordings, reading their articles, following group email exchanges, and on one occasion attending a fascinating online listening party, with audio accompanied by spectrograms. But, to be blunt, I was mostly an online AWSRG lurker. When it came to their in-person field excursions, I felt too much of an imposter to attend. However, on this occasion, the gathering was only a couple of hours from home, so I decided to take the plunge…
Following the directions I’d been sent, I took a left at the old ‘Land for Wildlife’ sign and pulled up at a charming mud-brick house surrounded by bushland. I was greeted by Andrew Skeoch, the AWSRG’s president, whose insightful new book I’d just begun reading. Andrew had generously opened his home to an enthusiastic group of AWSRG field-recordists for the weekend – both novices and experts alike. I fell into the novice end – highly curious, and with a lot to learn.
My adventures in sound over the next two days blew my mind. Our friendly group of around a dozen included several musicians, audio engineers, academics, a sound designer, a bird watcher and a few other field-recording novices like myself. One thing we all had in common was a passion for nature recordings and the technology that allows us to document natural environments with fidelity. The weekend was full of generous exchanges of knowledge, artistic sharing, close listening, ample food and warm company – while also managing to be very relaxed.
Highlights included experiencing one of Vicki Hallett’s responsive environmental music improvisations on clarinet in the bush at dusk on Saturday:
Earlier in the day, we’d also been introduced to the work of the Bowerbird Collective – two classical musicians who (by a serendipitous coincidence) were performing a duo concert of environmentally-themed music nearby in Maldon that afternoon. After they’d dropped by to join us for lunch and speak about their work, we attended the concert which featured nature audio and video woven among the live music.
The following morning, several of us rose early to record the dawn chorus, each using our own recorders, allowing a comparison of equipment. A small group of Brown-headed Honeyeaters chipped in the canopy overhead, while a Scarlet Robin, Bronzewing Pigeon, Magpies, Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and White-throated Treecreepers called not far off.
Back in Andrew’s studio, we compared our recording methods and learned about audio processing techniques using Isotope RX.
I came home from my adventure in Strangways feeling inspired, nurtured and energised – and with a new list of listening and reading materials to dive into. I was so appreciative of this opportunity, and in particular, the warm hospitality and generosity of spirit I encountered among the AWSRG community. I look forward to attending another gathering in future, and recommend any fellow AWSRG lurkers to do the same.
Sep
1
2020
Ambisonic vs SASS vs Iso-Binaural vs MS – Microphone rig comparison
There are a range of approaches to making audiophile, stereo recordings of natural soundscapes. Some of these technologies have been around for many decades, while others are more recently developed.
Last year, Doug Quin and Andrew Skeoch had the opportunity to put four state-of-the-art rigs to a side-by-side test.
Each array uses top-end microphones, deployed in the following configurations:
MS (mid/side): Pair of Sennheiser MKH 30 + MKH 40 in Røde blimp. This has been an industry standard option in film and TV for many years. (DQ)
Ambisonic: Soundfield SP200 Ambisonic, upright in Røde blimp. Ambisonic is a new technology offering multi-channel recording from a single microphone, with the ability to simulate various array patterns when decoded in post. (DQ)
SASS: pair Sennheiser MKH 20s in original Crown SASS head. The SASS has been described as quasi-binaural array. While the original Crown units are no longer available, many sound recordists have made DIY versions. (AS)
Iso-Binaural: Pair Sennheiser MKH 8020s, ~20cm apart, oriented 180º with convex baffles. This is also a quasi-binaural array, capturing a spherical soundfield with a light and versatile rig. It is a custom DIY design – info here. (AS) more »
Nov
28
2018
Freshwater Listening Concert
Recently, several AWSRG members – Leah Barclay, Bob Tomkins, Vicki Hallett, Melinda Barry and myself – joined interested folks from near and far for a weekend of environmental listening and creative sound making in central Victoria.
The event was titled ‘Freshwater Listening’, an initiative of acclaimed sound artist (and also AWSRG member) Ros Bandt. The venue was Australia’s first – only? – ‘Acoustic Sanctuary’; as Ros has designated her property near the small village of Fryerstown, near Castlemaine.
Apr
27
2018
Here’s the buzz on recording bees!
by Vicki Powys
I knew about buzz pollination from watching David Attenborough’s Life of Insects on TV a few years ago. Some bees could buzz at a certain pitch to release pollen from certain flowers. “Middle C…”, said David Attenborough, “…the pitch has to be Middle C”. I was intrigued as I’d never heard about this before.
Then one spring morning in 2016, on my woodland property in Capertee Valley, New South Wales, yellow guinea flowers began to bloom and I could hear the conspicuous flight hum of a very large and shiny black bee. It buzzed loudly as it settled on each flower, before zooming off to the next one. This was a female Australian carpenter bee Xylocopa aeratus, and I was keen to get a photo and to record its buzz.
Female carpenter bee Xylocopa aeratus buzzing a guinea flower Hibbertia obtusifolia, Capertee Valley NSW, 8 November 2016.
I waited amidst the low-growing guinea flower shrubs, seated on a folding stool, camera and recorder at the ready. It became a daily ritual – at dawn each day I’d go off to watch bees buzzing. As well as the big, black carpenter bees there were also smaller native bees, all buzzing the guinea flowers and collecting pollen. I took photos and made videos with my Lumix pocket camera, and recorded the buzzing sounds on my Olympus LS10, using its built-in mics or a Sennheiser ME66 gun microphone.
My bee recording kit – folding stool, Lumix DCM-TZ60 camera, Olympus LS10 audio recorder and Sennheiser ME66 supercardoid microphone in pistol grip.
Of course I was keen to know if all my bees buzzed at Middle C, so I analyzed the recordings to find the fundamental pitch of the pollination buzz for each bee species. For this I downloaded free Praat software, and learned how to use it from a YouTube video.
My findings were exciting! These Capertee Valley bees buzzed at a wide range of frequencies – up to one octave either side of Middle C! The pitch of the buzz did not relate to the size of the bee, nor to the size of the flower.
Audio: Female carpenter bee, Xylocopa aeratus. The higher-pitched pollination buzz alternates with the flight hum.
30 October 2016, 7.19 am EST, ME66 gun mic to Olympus LS10.
Mar
13
2018
Is birdsong music?
Birdsong is often exquisitely beautiful, yet many people argue that it is purely functional. It certainly enables birds to attract mates, declare their territories and communicate with individuals of their own species. Musicologist and composer, Hollis Taylor, has spent many years closely studying the songs of pied butcherbirds.
Jan
18
2018
Huon Peninsula Soundscape, Papua New Guinea Rainforest
The Perspectives on Listening Symposium in Brisbane this last December gave me the incentive to edit up a soundscape from our recent trip to the Huon Peninsula in Papua New Guinea.
Leah Barclay invited myself (Andrew), Tony Baylis, David Stewart, Rod Thorn and Sue Gould to form a panel to discuss the trip and how we approached our sound recording. David, Rod and Sue were unable to attend, but Tony Baylis and I showed images and contrasted our individual field techniques and results. My impression of our one hour session was that many in the audience were particularly fascinated to hear of Tony’s bioacoustic field work.
Meanwhile, I edited this soundscape as an installation on multiple headphones so participants could immerse themselves in the rainforest during breaks in the symposium program.
The edit is compiled from seven sources, each about five minutes in duration, and representing aspects of the various altitude ranges to which we trekked and recorded.
Location sources are:
A – Hill forest (~1100m)
B – Mountain forest (Camp Astrapia) (~2000m)
C – Mountain forest (Midway Camp) (~2150m)
D – Cloudforest (Camp 13) (~2800m)
Timings are for approximate transitions.
0:00 1. Predawn insect chorus with Sooty Owl, Feline Owlet Nightjar and Papuan Boobook (B)
4:20 2. Dawn chorus with Regent Whistler, Lesser Melampitta and Ornate Fruit Doves (C)
10:10 3. Regent Whistler song (B)
16:40 4. Greater Ground Robin song (D)
21:30 5. Huon Bowerbird by its bower (D)
27:10 6. Emperor Bird of Paradise, with Cicadabird and Growling Riflebird (A)
33:40 7. Dusk cicada chorus, with Papuan Woodcock dusk flight calls (D)
I’ll be publishing extended recordings for free listening on our Listening Earth website in the near future, and will post specific links here.