A SongCatcher in the Wild - Natural Aural Imagery
- Thread starter mfrench
- Start date
mfrench
Senior Member
billfort;n55767 said:
This is the Consort, from last night. The hall is St. Andrews in Encinitas.
I recorded the tracks at 24.96
I got inspired by threads in two forums. One at AK, and the other at another site, which is a pro studio recording forum that I have posted in about 8 times in 12 years. At that recording forum, there are a couple of blowhard snob engineers that use Neumann Binaural Heads (KU100 ?), and are extremely outspoken and belittling of anyone elses opinion, or gear.
The AK member wanted to find interest in exchanging binaural recording files of how their listening space sounded.
So, between reading and aprticipating in those two threads, my interest for binaural piqued. I've not run a true binaural protocol recording since the late 80's, most likely, instead utilizing the HRTF variation.
rambling....
It seems like binaural is a bit of a buzz word cliche thing at present; lots of talk about it.
So, last week, or so, I broke out the Senn. Head, and the DPA mini omnis, and had a go at seeing how they fit.
The DPA mini omnis are small enough to fit into the ear canal of the Senn Head.
with the frequency response grids on - a bit of a tight fit, and not deep into the ear canal:
With the freq. response grids off - A far better fit, and much deeper into the ear.
You can barely see the capsule peaking out in the little gold glint deeper in the ear canal:
I went with the freq. response grids off, which also gives the mics a bit of an emphasis in the upper reaches.
Attachments
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mfrench
Senior Member
Gude in the wild, this afternoon.
The black box is the road kit box for the Senn MKE2002 Binaural Stereo Kit. It holds the mics in an internal road kit box, the head, and some attachments that the mics utilize in setting them up; a chin stablilizer that sets the mics angle for binaural in a triaxial mounting scheme, and a battery pack hanger).
According to the owners manual, the black box is also intended to act as a chest cavity to anhance bass response.
This is the first time in my 35 yers of owning this kit that I've used the box in this capacity. It was loaded with polar fleece blankets and the towel that I wrap the head in for traveling. The head is firmly attached to the box with a screw and fender washer, as one integral unit.
The right side is aimed at that huge bass, and the front of the box is aimed at the mids section. All of those seated violins are capabale of substantial lows.
The box is also isolated from the stage floor by a trio of Sorbothane isolating pucks, to prevent stage noise, like footfalls.
The black box is the road kit box for the Senn MKE2002 Binaural Stereo Kit. It holds the mics in an internal road kit box, the head, and some attachments that the mics utilize in setting them up; a chin stablilizer that sets the mics angle for binaural in a triaxial mounting scheme, and a battery pack hanger).
According to the owners manual, the black box is also intended to act as a chest cavity to anhance bass response.
This is the first time in my 35 yers of owning this kit that I've used the box in this capacity. It was loaded with polar fleece blankets and the towel that I wrap the head in for traveling. The head is firmly attached to the box with a screw and fender washer, as one integral unit.
The right side is aimed at that huge bass, and the front of the box is aimed at the mids section. All of those seated violins are capabale of substantial lows.
The box is also isolated from the stage floor by a trio of Sorbothane isolating pucks, to prevent stage noise, like footfalls.
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That was a lot of work, Mike, and very much appreciated.
Thank you.
Thank you.
mfrench
Senior Member
billfort TubeHiFiNut
You guys are most welcome. Glad to do it.
Now all you need are some minimalist stereo recordings, ehh?
You guys are most welcome. Glad to do it.
Now all you need are some minimalist stereo recordings, ehh?
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You mean like a DSD copy of a straight-up DSD recording of a live un-amplified performance, done with a simple pair of mics placed front-and-center? Maybe really interesting music played in a real nice acoustic space with huge dynamic swings from a whisper to a kick in the chest, the kind of thing that really pushes what your system is capable of?
That would be cool.
That would be cool.
billfort;n60018 said:You mean like a DSD copy of a straight-up DSD recording of a live un-amplified performance, done with a simple pair of mics placed front-and-center? Maybe really interesting music played in a real nice acoustic space with huge dynamic swings from a whisper to a kick in the chest, the kind of thing that really pushes what your system is capable of?
That would be cool.
Ditto.
mfrench
Senior Member
Today is my 35th anniversary in live stereo recording, starting at 1982-10-17 Santa Fe NM Grateful Dead
It started almost by accident in Santa Fe New Mexico, where I'd traveled to from Provo Ut -> SLC -> back of friends pickup through to SIlverton Co. We picked up a hitchhiker in SLC, who was holding a sign to southern colorado. He hopped in, and off we went. He was on his way to the shows as well. He had arranged to stay in SIlverton, and invited us to stay there to.
There I met some crazed Deadheads, who sized me up, and said we can use someone like you! ?!?huh?!?
Next day we all convoy to the show in Santa Fe. We get into the concert grounds early, and they arrange a blanket, and stuff starts piling onto the blanket.
Show time finally arrives, and the band comes on stage. Suddenly that pile of stuff under the blanket emerges as several of the same tape decks all chained together, and up comes a mic stand with a pair of mics on it. I'm shoved directly behind the mic stand, given the shoosh sign, and, supplied with all of the goodies that I could want, as long as I stood there silently behind the mics.
This was all really new and intensely interesting to me, especially all of the synched meters and pulsing lights of the tape decks, the synchronization and efficiency of flipping tapes on a half dozen taped decks all at once.
And, dang if these werent the coolest tape decks ever,... you could continue to pass signal thru them even when you were flipping the tape - Sony TC-D5M. A "defect" in transport design allowed you to hold down the record button, and then push stop. The record button stayed engaged, while the transport dropped away allowing the tape flip, while still passing signal downstream. best design defect ever!
By the time that the lights came back up, I was addicted to this live music stereo recording thing.
After the show, we all parted ways, and I never got to hear that tape. I tried to get in touch with the guys that had the gear, but no return. They lived in the mid-west states region, and, no hopes of a casual drop-by to pay a visit or anything.
In March of '83, i broke my foot in Utah, and had to return back to the family compound in southern california, in a cast, on crutches. I healed, and, got a job in a piant store. One day, this guy comes in, and we loooked each other up and down with a strong familiarity. It was him. He had moved his family out to southern california, and just happened to be in the same south county region as my family, and in the same store. We struck up a conversation, and, made arrangements to come by and have a beer. On arrival, he handed me a copy of the concert recording that we did in Santa Fe. That did it. Addiction feeling reignited. I started learning the art of recording live music under his tutoring, and the rest is a blur of concerts.
35 years later, and still learning and tweaking. I just did my first mix of more than four channels this weekend, a 6 channel monster; actually, three two channel recordings mixed together, because I can; and I think I like it.
So, happy listening to all!
Ima be spinning some tunes today!
It started almost by accident in Santa Fe New Mexico, where I'd traveled to from Provo Ut -> SLC -> back of friends pickup through to SIlverton Co. We picked up a hitchhiker in SLC, who was holding a sign to southern colorado. He hopped in, and off we went. He was on his way to the shows as well. He had arranged to stay in SIlverton, and invited us to stay there to.
There I met some crazed Deadheads, who sized me up, and said we can use someone like you! ?!?huh?!?
Next day we all convoy to the show in Santa Fe. We get into the concert grounds early, and they arrange a blanket, and stuff starts piling onto the blanket.
Show time finally arrives, and the band comes on stage. Suddenly that pile of stuff under the blanket emerges as several of the same tape decks all chained together, and up comes a mic stand with a pair of mics on it. I'm shoved directly behind the mic stand, given the shoosh sign, and, supplied with all of the goodies that I could want, as long as I stood there silently behind the mics.
This was all really new and intensely interesting to me, especially all of the synched meters and pulsing lights of the tape decks, the synchronization and efficiency of flipping tapes on a half dozen taped decks all at once.
And, dang if these werent the coolest tape decks ever,... you could continue to pass signal thru them even when you were flipping the tape - Sony TC-D5M. A "defect" in transport design allowed you to hold down the record button, and then push stop. The record button stayed engaged, while the transport dropped away allowing the tape flip, while still passing signal downstream. best design defect ever!
By the time that the lights came back up, I was addicted to this live music stereo recording thing.
After the show, we all parted ways, and I never got to hear that tape. I tried to get in touch with the guys that had the gear, but no return. They lived in the mid-west states region, and, no hopes of a casual drop-by to pay a visit or anything.
In March of '83, i broke my foot in Utah, and had to return back to the family compound in southern california, in a cast, on crutches. I healed, and, got a job in a piant store. One day, this guy comes in, and we loooked each other up and down with a strong familiarity. It was him. He had moved his family out to southern california, and just happened to be in the same south county region as my family, and in the same store. We struck up a conversation, and, made arrangements to come by and have a beer. On arrival, he handed me a copy of the concert recording that we did in Santa Fe. That did it. Addiction feeling reignited. I started learning the art of recording live music under his tutoring, and the rest is a blur of concerts.
35 years later, and still learning and tweaking. I just did my first mix of more than four channels this weekend, a 6 channel monster; actually, three two channel recordings mixed together, because I can; and I think I like it.
So, happy listening to all!
Ima be spinning some tunes today!
Thanks for sharing your that story.
mfrench
Senior Member
And, as if by some cruel hoax,...
... a fresh evil slice of hell,...
The recent forum software change-over scrambled this thread. So, a number of hours were just spent straightening things out, again.
Happy listening!
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mfrench
Senior Member
Some SongCatcher sightings in the Wild,...
Grateful Dead taping section October 1987 Shoreline Amphitheater Mountain View/San Jose Ca - Inaugural Grand Opening concert.
What a dump!
Literally speaking.
The place was built on a reclaimed land fill, "dump" land. They had not properly vented it, and, there were methane flashes up in the lawn area during the concert,... imagine some hippy trying to light a spliff, and having a blue flash in front of his face - I saw the Jerry-god, man,.. I'm not tripping
Me, rigged as what I called, Quasi-Binaural, and what would later be called, HRTF Stereo, or, Head Reference Transfer Function Stereo.
The inaugural Tapers From Hell gathering.
The long hair with no shirt,... Looks like a street urchin, no?
Nope. Trust funder. He went to Japan in 1987, and brought back probably a dozen of the just released, but, not yet to the North American market, the new Sony TCD-D10 portable DAT recorders. The first of their kind to hit the states, complete with instruction manuals in japanese.
Tending to the Sony TC-D5M in the field; Same deck in the red bag, the blue bag, the green bag, the cable leading back to the guys with the other D5m's and WM-D6C, the new small portable cassette decks.
And,my dear friend, Lenda the Good Witch.
I met her a month before at Dead shows in Angels Camp; Santana, David Lindley, Grateful Dead, for two days.
She made me believe in real magic.
Grateful Dead taping section October 1987 Shoreline Amphitheater Mountain View/San Jose Ca - Inaugural Grand Opening concert.
What a dump!
Literally speaking.
The place was built on a reclaimed land fill, "dump" land. They had not properly vented it, and, there were methane flashes up in the lawn area during the concert,... imagine some hippy trying to light a spliff, and having a blue flash in front of his face - I saw the Jerry-god, man,.. I'm not tripping
Me, rigged as what I called, Quasi-Binaural, and what would later be called, HRTF Stereo, or, Head Reference Transfer Function Stereo.
The inaugural Tapers From Hell gathering.
The long hair with no shirt,... Looks like a street urchin, no?
Nope. Trust funder. He went to Japan in 1987, and brought back probably a dozen of the just released, but, not yet to the North American market, the new Sony TCD-D10 portable DAT recorders. The first of their kind to hit the states, complete with instruction manuals in japanese.
Tending to the Sony TC-D5M in the field; Same deck in the red bag, the blue bag, the green bag, the cable leading back to the guys with the other D5m's and WM-D6C, the new small portable cassette decks.
And,my dear friend, Lenda the Good Witch.
I met her a month before at Dead shows in Angels Camp; Santana, David Lindley, Grateful Dead, for two days.
She made me believe in real magic.
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mfrench
Senior Member
HRTF in probably late 1988/89:
Me, rear row, center, with a discrete studio tucked up in my hair at this point.
I was experimenting further with my baffled omni experiments, recording this band, and for reggae master Joe Higgs on this night (with his request/permission), on a night when security said, NO RECORDINGS!
explains the shit eating grin on my afterglow face.
One of my major considerations was to be able to get my mics over the audience head, without being obtrusive. Worked, check.
Me, rear row, center, with a discrete studio tucked up in my hair at this point.
I was experimenting further with my baffled omni experiments, recording this band, and for reggae master Joe Higgs on this night (with his request/permission), on a night when security said, NO RECORDINGS!
explains the shit eating grin on my afterglow face.
One of my major considerations was to be able to get my mics over the audience head, without being obtrusive. Worked, check.
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mfrench
Senior Member
And, HRTF, as of 12-16-2017,... still stuffing the high-fidelity stuff up in my hair.
Two channels of HRTF stereo, and two channels of wide-DIN stereo in my lap.
This is what I call the Invisible Rig. It is a brand new experiment in low profile high-fidelity recording, invisibility as a hifi stereo technique. This is done with the full knowledge and consent of the choir.
The choir director came back thrilled with the result.
The lap bag wide-DIN pair:
And, the old hippy emerges, in his present HRTF configuration, and shorter, far more gray hair (that is thankfully still playing the game with me).
Wait for it,.....
wait for it,....
wait for it,....
And the kid to my left: The Devils Spawn.
But thats another story.
Two channels of HRTF stereo, and two channels of wide-DIN stereo in my lap.
This is what I call the Invisible Rig. It is a brand new experiment in low profile high-fidelity recording, invisibility as a hifi stereo technique. This is done with the full knowledge and consent of the choir.
The choir director came back thrilled with the result.
The lap bag wide-DIN pair:
And, the old hippy emerges, in his present HRTF configuration, and shorter, far more gray hair (that is thankfully still playing the game with me).
Wait for it,.....
wait for it,....
wait for it,....
And the kid to my left: The Devils Spawn.
But thats another story.
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mfrench
Senior Member
OK,... I've debated on this since I posted the reply above.
As I was typing that out, I received an email from the choir artistic director/conductor of that concert. It made me smile, so much so that I need to boast before I bust wide open.
This recording has a couple of firsts for me,...
> First solo choir recording
> First time recording with this Invisible technique experiment.
From what it seems, he liked this experiment. Maybe it might be broken out, polished up, and, tried again.
Mike,
I finally got a chance to listen to these. We're in Ohio visiting family and so I only have my laptop and earbuds (and no Dragonfly DAC). Wow!! I agree with Jeff - this recording quality is phenomenal. It very much feels like I'm sitting in the audience at a live concert. The ambient sounds only add to the effect. After all, this isn't studio recording. I have never had a choral concert recording sound this live and "real." The depth and breadth of the sound is remarkable, and the nuance and detail is just breathtaking at times. Of course I gave you some challenges with the placement of the percussion (especially the stupid tambourine right in your face) but I knew that going in and had to sacrifice the recording some for the sake of the live experience. But even with that, it's just so, so good! Even Carol of the Bells - with everything coming from behind the mics - sounds fantastic.
I don't know if Jeff mentioned, but I was very disappointed with the audio that our videographer produced for our last concert, so much so that I couldn't post anything online. But I am very eager to share these recordings publicly (with your permission and proper attribution, of course.)
After listening through everything, I've been doing some cropping editing to get ready to post them, and I catch myself just listening instead of cropping. A thoroughly enjoyable experience. (And that's saying something, because usually I do NOT enjoy listening to my own concerts since I just focus in on the mistakes). But I find myself just enjoying all the wonderful sound. I don't think I've ever before had a recording put me right back in the moment as much as this is.
Thank you again for sharing these! You are welcome to come and play around with Jeff at any of our rehearsals if you ever want. And I would love to have you record us in the future. (Our next concert is April 14...)
Merry Christmas!
Eric
As I was typing that out, I received an email from the choir artistic director/conductor of that concert. It made me smile, so much so that I need to boast before I bust wide open.
This recording has a couple of firsts for me,...
> First solo choir recording
> First time recording with this Invisible technique experiment.
From what it seems, he liked this experiment. Maybe it might be broken out, polished up, and, tried again.
Mike,
I finally got a chance to listen to these. We're in Ohio visiting family and so I only have my laptop and earbuds (and no Dragonfly DAC). Wow!! I agree with Jeff - this recording quality is phenomenal. It very much feels like I'm sitting in the audience at a live concert. The ambient sounds only add to the effect. After all, this isn't studio recording. I have never had a choral concert recording sound this live and "real." The depth and breadth of the sound is remarkable, and the nuance and detail is just breathtaking at times. Of course I gave you some challenges with the placement of the percussion (especially the stupid tambourine right in your face) but I knew that going in and had to sacrifice the recording some for the sake of the live experience. But even with that, it's just so, so good! Even Carol of the Bells - with everything coming from behind the mics - sounds fantastic.
I don't know if Jeff mentioned, but I was very disappointed with the audio that our videographer produced for our last concert, so much so that I couldn't post anything online. But I am very eager to share these recordings publicly (with your permission and proper attribution, of course.)
After listening through everything, I've been doing some cropping editing to get ready to post them, and I catch myself just listening instead of cropping.
A thoroughly enjoyable experience. (And that's saying something, because usually I do NOT enjoy listening to my own concerts since I just focus in on the mistakes). But I find myself just enjoying all the wonderful sound. I don't think I've ever before had a recording put me right back in the moment as much as this is. Thank you again for sharing these! You are welcome to come and play around with Jeff at any of our rehearsals if you ever want. And I would love to have you record us in the future. (Our next concert is April 14...)
Merry Christmas!
Eric
mfrench
Senior Member
Thanks!
OK,.... How about a long story, and, some nature recordings?
In case some of you miss hearing what flowing water sounds like, rather than the solid ice form.
Trying something different here. A nature ambient recording.
Moving Waters
I stuck this one into Community Audio at Archive.Org, because its not music. And, I don't have to ask for permission, because its my recording of nature. It is Audio, and being offered to a community.
Rationalized well enough?
Go.
I used to live in this trailer park in Laguna Beach. Its bit of notoriety was it being the final resting place of the Long Trailer from the Ricky and Lucy movie.
Well, there was that, and, we had this gazillion dollar view, looking out over the Pacific Ocean, with an uninterrupted 180º panoramic views, and, immediate access to the beach. It didn't suck.
Treasure Island Trailer Park in its prime:
The beach, had a small isolated horseshoe shaped cove that had two bits of massive solid rock formations that were a bit like giant aggregate concrete, very cementious like; you wouldn't want to fall on them; cheese grater comes to mind. It also had layering of sandstone that are weak. The ocean ate at the sandstone layers, and caused erosion of the cliff face, and caused a natural arch to form, and be pushed back to its present location..
Over millennia, the arch was pushed back by wave action eating at the cliff face, aided by the softer layer of sandstone erosion.
This erosion area formed what we called the Grotto.
I'd go down there fishing, and swimming, and always loved the sound of the grotto.
The grotto is shielded by a massive solid stone formation on the open ocean side. On one side is open ocean, and on the backside of this same masive stone formation is the Grotto.
Sadly, the trailer park, and all of its charm was sold to a conglomerate, who built a mega-hotel, and spa, with some contrived name with a faux accent.
Sarge and I moved on from paradise,....
I got a hankering to go and capture all of that Grotto goodness one night. So, I packed my rig, and headed to the coast.
Rig: DPA4022 -> Grace Lunatec V3 -> Sony PCM-M1 DAT (yeah, were reaching back quite a way here).
So I threw my recording bag over my shoulder, and hit the beach to the south of my destination; PROBLEM!!.....
I had to cross a coastal stream where it hit the ocean, normally either not there, or, ankle deep. Not this friggin time.
It was flowing fairly hard, and, much to my surprise and near panic, very quicksand-like when I got to mid steam, already over my knees, before hitting bottomess sand. Literal quicksand.
Fuck! I've crossed this stream a million times, and never gotten the tops of my ankles wet, and now suddeny, I've got a creek to my right, and ocean waves to my left, and I'm sinking,... with a $8k recording bag over my shoulder, and I'm waist deep in water and sinking.
I thrashed and thrashed, and finally made my way out of it,... and forward to my objective, the Grotto, about a half mile north,.....
The rest, mostly uneventful, except that I walked out via the resort, to avoid sinking in quicksand again.
The Pond Waterfall,....
That is the return flow from my goldfish pond that I recorded the next morning to burn off more tape. I did a couple of different perspectives.
The Grotto scene,....
The tracks mentioned below, were recorded at a higher tide than the above image. Tracks 1&2 were recorded from the group of rocks in the shadow of what I'll refer to as the "massive stone shield rock". Those tracks are listed below:
1) Inside the Grotto pt.1
2) Inside the Grotto pt.2
These tracks are from where the water enters the grotto, behind the massive shield stone formation. The mics were on the furthest right rock in the shadow, behind the large shield rock formation.
Inside the grotto, at low tide, and the cementious stone
These, ^^, are the deep noise making, glorpy passages and channels that were making noise at the higher tide, when I was recording.
This girl would have been deeply underwater at the time of these recordings. I was trying to record the sound of water moving in and out of these cavities.
3) Inside the Grotto pt.3
4) Inside the Grotto pt.4
These tracks are literally water flowing deep under the cliff, in an extended channel that extends under the earth, and is the force that is carving the arch stone.
That channel starts at the bottom left corner of the image, in the image above ^, and diagonals towards the arch opening. You can see it takes dead aim at the arch. If yuo look at the very bottom left corner of the image, you'll see a crack, and it has sand in it. My mics are into that crack, capturing that sub-ssurface noise.
These tracks have some amazing deep natural bass notes going on. They are giant air bubbles and water flowing and gurgling in an underground tidal tunnel, that I mic'd from an opening along its side.
Wet? You ought to feel like you're swimming in a grotto with these tracks.
The massive stone shield monolith, and the cliff face that form the grotto:
The grotto at a closer tidal level to what the recordings were done in:
The "Open Ocean" tracks were recorded from where uyou see the items on the massive stone shield formation.
That shield stone is where I did the open ocean sampling from, and right where that stuff is on the rock, to the right of it, away from the edge (it was nearing midnight, FWIW).
The Grotto is immediately behind that shield stone face. The under cliff grotto crack is to the right of the image, as a black shadow.
5) Facing Open Ocean pt.1
6) Facing Open Ocean pt.2
After sampling the grotto, I went up onto the massive shield stone formation, in the foreground, and, focused the mics out over the ocean.
There are waves breaking along an abrupt reef face, and across the reef shelf.
7) Waterfall pt.1
8 ) Waterfall pt.2
This is the return flow for my goldfish pond that I built. I built the return flow intentionally to make a lot of gurgling noises, to provide the patio with some white noise to cover traffic, and other life noises.
I labeled the DAT as Moving Waters, many years ago. So, I'm sticking with it.
Moving Waters
Ambient Recordings by Mike French
TFH — A Journey to the Impact Zone
DPA4022 stereo pair XY-stereo 90º Coincident Stereo
Grace Lunatec V3
Sony PCM-M1 DAT
https://archive.org/details/MovingWaters
OK,.... How about a long story, and, some nature recordings?
In case some of you miss hearing what flowing water sounds like, rather than the solid ice form.
Trying something different here. A nature ambient recording.
Moving Waters
I stuck this one into Community Audio at Archive.Org, because its not music. And, I don't have to ask for permission, because its my recording of nature. It is Audio, and being offered to a community.
Rationalized well enough?
Go.
I used to live in this trailer park in Laguna Beach. Its bit of notoriety was it being the final resting place of the Long Trailer from the Ricky and Lucy movie.
Well, there was that, and, we had this gazillion dollar view, looking out over the Pacific Ocean, with an uninterrupted 180º panoramic views, and, immediate access to the beach. It didn't suck.
Treasure Island Trailer Park in its prime:
The beach, had a small isolated horseshoe shaped cove that had two bits of massive solid rock formations that were a bit like giant aggregate concrete, very cementious like; you wouldn't want to fall on them; cheese grater comes to mind. It also had layering of sandstone that are weak. The ocean ate at the sandstone layers, and caused erosion of the cliff face, and caused a natural arch to form, and be pushed back to its present location..
Over millennia, the arch was pushed back by wave action eating at the cliff face, aided by the softer layer of sandstone erosion.
This erosion area formed what we called the Grotto.
I'd go down there fishing, and swimming, and always loved the sound of the grotto.
The grotto is shielded by a massive solid stone formation on the open ocean side. On one side is open ocean, and on the backside of this same masive stone formation is the Grotto.
Sadly, the trailer park, and all of its charm was sold to a conglomerate, who built a mega-hotel, and spa, with some contrived name with a faux accent.
Sarge and I moved on from paradise,....
I got a hankering to go and capture all of that Grotto goodness one night. So, I packed my rig, and headed to the coast.
Rig: DPA4022 -> Grace Lunatec V3 -> Sony PCM-M1 DAT (yeah, were reaching back quite a way here).
So I threw my recording bag over my shoulder, and hit the beach to the south of my destination; PROBLEM!!.....
I had to cross a coastal stream where it hit the ocean, normally either not there, or, ankle deep. Not this friggin time.
It was flowing fairly hard, and, much to my surprise and near panic, very quicksand-like when I got to mid steam, already over my knees, before hitting bottomess sand. Literal quicksand.
Fuck! I've crossed this stream a million times, and never gotten the tops of my ankles wet, and now suddeny, I've got a creek to my right, and ocean waves to my left, and I'm sinking,... with a $8k recording bag over my shoulder, and I'm waist deep in water and sinking.
I thrashed and thrashed, and finally made my way out of it,... and forward to my objective, the Grotto, about a half mile north,.....
The rest, mostly uneventful, except that I walked out via the resort, to avoid sinking in quicksand again.
The Pond Waterfall,....
That is the return flow from my goldfish pond that I recorded the next morning to burn off more tape. I did a couple of different perspectives.
The Grotto scene,....
The tracks mentioned below, were recorded at a higher tide than the above image. Tracks 1&2 were recorded from the group of rocks in the shadow of what I'll refer to as the "massive stone shield rock". Those tracks are listed below:
1) Inside the Grotto pt.1
2) Inside the Grotto pt.2
These tracks are from where the water enters the grotto, behind the massive shield stone formation. The mics were on the furthest right rock in the shadow, behind the large shield rock formation.
Inside the grotto, at low tide, and the cementious stone
These, ^^, are the deep noise making, glorpy passages and channels that were making noise at the higher tide, when I was recording.
This girl would have been deeply underwater at the time of these recordings. I was trying to record the sound of water moving in and out of these cavities.
3) Inside the Grotto pt.3
4) Inside the Grotto pt.4
These tracks are literally water flowing deep under the cliff, in an extended channel that extends under the earth, and is the force that is carving the arch stone.
That channel starts at the bottom left corner of the image, in the image above ^, and diagonals towards the arch opening. You can see it takes dead aim at the arch. If yuo look at the very bottom left corner of the image, you'll see a crack, and it has sand in it. My mics are into that crack, capturing that sub-ssurface noise.
These tracks have some amazing deep natural bass notes going on. They are giant air bubbles and water flowing and gurgling in an underground tidal tunnel, that I mic'd from an opening along its side.
Wet? You ought to feel like you're swimming in a grotto with these tracks.
The massive stone shield monolith, and the cliff face that form the grotto:
The grotto at a closer tidal level to what the recordings were done in:
The "Open Ocean" tracks were recorded from where uyou see the items on the massive stone shield formation.
That shield stone is where I did the open ocean sampling from, and right where that stuff is on the rock, to the right of it, away from the edge (it was nearing midnight, FWIW).
The Grotto is immediately behind that shield stone face. The under cliff grotto crack is to the right of the image, as a black shadow.
5) Facing Open Ocean pt.1
6) Facing Open Ocean pt.2
After sampling the grotto, I went up onto the massive shield stone formation, in the foreground, and, focused the mics out over the ocean.
There are waves breaking along an abrupt reef face, and across the reef shelf.
7) Waterfall pt.1
8 ) Waterfall pt.2
This is the return flow for my goldfish pond that I built. I built the return flow intentionally to make a lot of gurgling noises, to provide the patio with some white noise to cover traffic, and other life noises.
I labeled the DAT as Moving Waters, many years ago. So, I'm sticking with it.
Moving Waters
Ambient Recordings by Mike French
TFH — A Journey to the Impact Zone
DPA4022 stereo pair XY-stereo 90º Coincident Stereo
Grace Lunatec V3
Sony PCM-M1 DAT
https://archive.org/details/MovingWaters
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