This is the final part that will conclude my series on different ice movements captured this winter. In Pt. 1 you could hear ice building up during early winter. In Pt. 2 ice movements was captured in the depths of winter, from a couple of different perspectives.
In the third part you’ll hear a captured moment in the disintegrating process of ice, going from solid to liquid form.
Geek note: Aquarian H2a + Sennheiser ME64 -> Sound Devices 702
Last week I had some chances to capture sounds of ice down by the lake, this time from some different perspectives.
First out is a recording I made last Saturday with my NT1-A’s in a stereo array. It’s recorded just after midnight. The conditions were good, with temperatures dropping to below -15° Celsius and no wind. The only disturbing element were an aircraft that just wouldn’t go away. I tried to wait it out for more than an hour but finally gave in and made the recording anyway, hence the low-frequency hum coming from the right. As in the case with my earlier ice recording this year I did some cut and paste this time as well, the original recording spans about 30 minutes. I really find some of these sounds to be very nightmarish.
Please use headphones
Geek note: 2xRøde NT1-A’s (ORTF, 17cm spacing, angled 110°)-> Sound Devices 702
The other three recordings were made yesterday. As me and Matilda were on our way home after a day of ice skating on the lake I noticed some intense ice movements. At home I switched the skating gear in favour of the recording gear and then headed back down to the lake. The sun was setting as I arrived and some guys that had been out ice fishing on the middle of the lake were leaving. So I went over there and used one of their holes to get below the sheet of ice with my hydrophone. These recordings are not manipulated in any way, the activity going on where so intense I could actually feel the ice moving underneath me.
First of is a short recording made with the hydrophone as a contact mic. As you probably notice the microphone’s self noise is very evident due to high gain:
Geek note: Aquarian H2a (+contact mic adapter) -> Sound Devices 702
In the second recording the hydrophone is lowered about 10 cm’s into the water, centering it in the 20 cm thick layer of ice. Be advised that some of the sounds in this recording are very loud.
Geek note: Aquarian H2a -> Sound Devices 702
In the last recording the hydrophone is lowered about 1 meter into the water, positioning it about 40 cm’s below the sheet of ice.
Geek note: Aquarian H2a -> Sound Devices 702
Of these three hydrophonic recordings I’m most fond of the last one as you’re able to hear distant sounds as well as close by cracks very clearly. It’s also a bit warmer to the tone than the second one. I just wish I had a second hydrophone for stereo recordings.
Snow and ice. Winter has finally come. I think that one of the more encouraging sounds to record this time of year is ice. Ever-changing through unending variations, ice always brings you new dimensions to listen to. This is evident through the captures of ice by the recordists working with BBC’s series Frozen planet. My contribution is a bit more modest:
You might need to turn up the volume a bit, use headphones for best result
Geek note: Aquarian H2a -> Sound Devices 702
The sounds heard above are all recorded using a contact mic on the frozen lake just next to our cabin. The original recording is about one hour, the two and a half minutes above is the result of some rearranging, cut and paste and a load of fades. No effects were added, except some slight hiss reduction in post as I had to crank up the gain quite a lot while recording. There’s one layer of sound playing at a time. Even though there where extended moments of “silence” during the hour or so I recorded there where also some very lively minutes with cracks and lots of ray guns going off.
Yet another visit in Blekinge as I was spending last weekend at Matildas parents place. We had planned on visiting Tjärö, a pretty large island in the archipelago of south-east Sweden, so I brought a hydrophone with me to record some underwater sounds. Here’s a short clip of the ferry docking just before we went back to the mainland:
On our way home I used the hydrophone as a contact mic and placed it on the floor of the railway carriage and recorded a fifteen minute drone between two stations.
The sample below is from a passage when going from travelling with full speed to slowing down before entering Kristianstad:
Geek note: Aquarian H2a -> Sony PCM-D50
As you might have noticed I haven’t updated the blog for a while as I’ve been busy lately working on a couple of projects leaving almost no time to go out sound hunting.
Anyway, here’s a sign of the oncoming spring; a drifting ice floe down at the marina in Limhamn recorded underwater with a hydrophone.
The thumping sounds you hear comes from the floe slowly nudging against a boulder in the breakwater.
Geek note: Aquarian H2a-XLR -> Sony PCM-D50 (using a XLR->3,5mm adapter)
Starting out tomorrow I’m going for a short hike in Blekinge over the weekend, hopefully this will give me the opportunity to get some nature recordings for a sound installation I’m working on as well as some stuff to post here.
I’ve been playing around a bit with an Aquarian H2a hydrophone that I recently added to my collection of mics.
Image from Aqaurian audio
Below you can hear two recordings of heartbeats made with the contact mic adapter attached.
My heartbeats
Matildas heartbeats
In the last recording presented here the hydrophone with the attached contact mic adapter were placed at the bottom of a sink full of water that was drained.
Geek note: Aquarian H2a (contact mic adapter attached, xlr -> 3,5 mm adapter used) -> Sony PCM-D50 (plug in power on)
inovember 