Recording made on 20th June 2012, with Sony PCMM10 with Rycote Mini Windjammer, quite low down on seaward side of Penally Hill (Boscastle harbour, Cornwall, UK) close to where it leads on to Penally Point, with the sea coming right up to the cliffs. This is very rugged rocky terrain, and normally the Atlantic swell coming in here is much bigger and thus sounds much more spectacular; on this occasion it is very small. Even so, you can hear the repeated heavy thumps and 'whoomphs' as the waves hit the end of various clefts and small caves in the cliff. The heavier sounds are mostly coming from one particular small cave that is on the left in this recording, but there is also another source of such thumps (a bit less dramatic) somewhere below the recorder and to the right. If you listen to this recording with good speakers or headphones that have an extended lowfrequency response you will hear some very nice 'earthquake' frequencies in the thumps and 'whoomphs'. I look forward to eventually recording at this spot with big waves crashing in. By comparison then this recording would sound like a vicar's tea party :) Please note that the volume level of this recording has been carefully adjusted for listening purposes, and ALL my recordings so far are meant to be listened to with a volume setting that would give a realistic level for playback of CLASSICAL music (a large but not exceptional symphony orchestra). If you have the right volume setting, you should not need to change that setting from one recording of mine to another.(Later note: This recording with better sound than here is on one of my commercial CDs, and can be found in my eStore.) Please remember to give this recording a rating http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/meicon_wink.gif
描述:Recording made on 21st October 2012 with a Sony PCMM10 on a Hama minitripod, using the builtin microphones. http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/shagrockperranporth500x375.jpg This photo of Shag Rock was taken while this recording was in progress.N.B. The sea and Shag Rock are bigger and further below than they look, because this is a longfocus shot. This recording was made on the very steep and rather precarious grassy slope below the rather exposed coast path a bit southwest of Perranporth, Cornwall, UK, which contours the main cliff slope from near Cligga Head to Droskyn Point, at which latter point you are in Perranporth proper. I had walked on the coast path from Portreath, and had been looking forward to this spot because on certain previous walks I had heard the surf really thundering here. Actually on this occasion, the sound was a bit too chaotic for me to think of it quite as 'thundering', but there was a lot of very deep booming and rumbling, with periodic heavy thuds, as the surf had vigorous and indeed dramatic arguments with the cliffs here that were in its way. I placed the recorder on a very low drystone wall running down the slope, with top completely covered with vegetation, and the minor headland with Shag Rock connected to its tip was ahead and somewhat to the right. This grassy slope ends just a little further below, in sheer and indeed more or less undercut cliff, so that the big waves make big rumbles and thumps as they hit the cliff (invisible to me on the steep slope above). However, that is not all that is happening, because quite large rebound waves keep interacting with new incoming ones, with the result that we hear sudden almost eruptive disturbances of the incoming waves. I'd wanted to make a full halfhour recording of this, but it was getting towards sundown and I was concerned that my return hitchhike from Perranporth to Exeter be not much delayed, so I intended to record for only ten minutes. However, as the sound was so thrilling there, I compromised by extending that to 16 minutes (though still rather regretting it not being a full half hour, and regretting so still more once listening to the recording back at home). Roughly halfway through the recording a light aeroplane passes over, which seemed annoying at the time, but actually in the recording it does give a little sense of perspective and so serves a reasonably positive function. Possibly because the recorder was very close to a vegetated surface, I found that the recording did not reproduce the very low frequencies at all strongly, and so, guided by the frequency spectrum graph in Voxengo's Span plugin, I used a straightline graphic EQ in WavePad to give a fair boost to the low bass, and uploaded the recording as 168105. Since then I experimented further, and this version replaces that one, with a more effective shaping of the bass boost, and also a small additional treble lift, the total effect adding considerably to the power and detail and sense of spaciousness. The recording now comes much nearer to what I actually heard. (Later note: Following further recordings at this location, I now think I was mistaken about that, and the EQ was unnecessary apart from that to correct for the Rycote Mini Windjammer, and thus I now view this recording as it now stands as significantly overtrebly because the recorder was not that close to the sea, and the amended bass, while sounding nice, has not really got the thundering 'welly' that has come out so well in my subsequent recordings there.) Please note that only very good speakers / headphones with a very extended bass response will do this recording real justice. Also, it may sound unpleasantly boomy on speakers that have any sort of boominess (like my computer speakers). Please also note that the volume level of this recording has been carefully adjusted for listening purposes, and ALL my recordings so far are meant to be listened to with a volume setting that would give a realistic level for playback of CLASSICAL music (a large but not exceptional symphony orchestra). If you have the right volume setting, you should not need to change that setting from one recording of mine to another.(Later note: This recording with better sound than here is on one of my commercial CDs, and can be found in my eStore.) Please remember to give this recording a rating http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/meicon_wink.gif
描述:Recording made on 11th November 2012 with a Sony PCMM10 on a Hama minitripod, using the builtin microphones covered with a Rycote Mini Windjammer. I have used a graphic EQ profile in WavePad to compensate for the slight muffling of the sound caused by the Windjammer. http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/shagrockperranporth500x375.jpg This photo of the Shag Rock headland was taken during my previous recording there.N.B. The sea and Shag Rock are bigger and further below than they look, because this is a longfocus shot. This recording was made on the very steep and rather precarious grassy slope below the rather exposed coast path a bit southwest of Perranporth, Cornwall, which contours the main cliff slope from near Cligga Head to Droskyn Point, at which latter point you are in Perranporth proper. It was made at exactly the same spot as http://www.freesound.org/people/Philip20Goddard/sounds/168716/, with the recorder pointing in the same direction. As in that recording, I placed the recorder on a very low drystone wall running down the slope, whose top was covered with vegetation, and the minor headland with Shag Rock connected at the headland's tip was ahead and somewhat to the right. This grassy slope ends just a little further below, in sheer and indeed more or less undercut cliff, so that the big waves are in a state of pandemonium as they hit the cliff (invisible to me on the steep slope above). However, the state of the sea is quite different from when I made that previous recording here. Then the sea was relatively smooth apart from a big Atlantic swell, which was tending to start breaking before meeting the cliffs. This time the swell itself was probably not quite so large, BUT the sea as a whole was much rougher, and the tide was higher, so that none of the waves were breaking before meeting the cliffs, apart from the odd transient local eruptive 'breakings' where a rebound wave interacted with an incoming one. One thing that mystified me was the absence of obvious deep booms and thumps from the undercut cliff immediately below me in this position because (a) they were quite a feature in the previous recording here and (b) before I arrived at this spot this time I had looked across the line of cliffs and had seen a real continuous mayhem occurring just there, with repeated violent eruptions of spray as the waves hit the cliff, and with distinct 'whoomphs' clearly audible from something like half a mile away (i.e. in addition to those coming from the Shag Rock ructions) but as it was undercut I wouldn't be able to see any of that once at that spot, but at least I should have been hearing those 'whoomphs', which, as I say, seemed to be lacking this time. However, the sea made up for that by giving a whole succesion of dramatic eruptions of spray, with heavy 'whoomphs', as it kept hitting Shag Rock and the attached cliff of that little headland. The plumes of spray regularly shot up to or higher than the top of the cliff there. Also, some of the 'whoomphs' are strangely extended. Each of those was accompanied by a violent jet of spray shooting up at a 45 degree angle back over the sea. I guess there might actually be a blowhole there responsible for that. It was a bit bold of me to be making this recording at all, for, at 4.30 in the afternoon in early to midNovember, the light was already fading, and by 5.0 the dusk would really be deepening (requiring care on the exposed and rather stony and uneven track) and, once I'd got to Perranporth I still would have to hitchhike (in the dark) back to Exeter. I cut out about 45 seconds of the recording, at about 2 minutes in, because of a loudly conversational couple of walkers passing by on the track above. I would not mind the odd quiet human noises, but this was too obtrusive. This recording actually has continuous very gentle wind noise in the microphones but most of the time it is impossible to tell how much of the gentle booming and rumbling is from the sea on the cliffs and how much from the wind. However, the frequent discrete heavy booms and rumbles are at least almost all not wind gusts but the sea yet again hitting the cliffs. Please note that only very good speakers / headphones with a very extended bass response will do this recording real justice. Also, it may sound unpleasantly boomy on speakers that have any sort of boominess (like my computer speakers). Please also note that the volume level of this recording has been carefully adjusted for listening purposes, and ALL my recordings so far are meant to be listened to with a volume setting that would give a realistic level for playback of CLASSICAL music (a large but not exceptional symphony orchestra). If you have the right volume setting, you should not need to change that setting from one recording of mine to another.(Later note: This recording with better sound than here is on one of my commercial CDs, and can be found in my eStore.) Please remember to give this recording a rating http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/meicon_wink.gif
描述:http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/shagrockperranporth500x375.jpg This recording was made on 5th January 2013, on the very steep and rather precarious grassy slope below the rather exposed coast path a bit southwest of Perranporth, Cornwall, which contours the main cliff slope from near Cligga Head to Droskyn Point, at which latter point you are in Perranporth proper. It was made at exactly the same spot as http://www.freesound.org/people/Philip20Goddard/sounds/168716/, with the recorder pointing in the same direction, and with a similar but slightly bigger swell. As in that recording, I placed the recorder on a very low drystone wall running down the slope, whose top was covered with vegetation, and the minor headland with Shag Rock almost against its tip was ahead and somewhat to the right. This grassy slope ends just a little further below, in sheer and indeed more or less undercut cliff, so that the big waves are in a state of pandemonium as they hit the cliff (invisible to me on the steep slope above). I had an earlier start for my hike this time, owing to a more favourable hitchhike from Exeter to Portreath, and I was aiming to squeeze in a full hour's Shag Rock recording this time before it got too dark to be sensible to continue. However, it worked out a bit differently, because once I had got this recording under way, having first done a 'with' and 'without' test with my new Rode Deadkitten windshield, I wandered down a rather vague narrow, exposed and quite precarious little track descending obliquely to the left as one faces the sea, to see if I could find a yet more interesting spot to make a recording. In particular I had noticed that very often the heaviest and most thundering breaking of waves tended to be a bit to the left of where my regular recording position was facing. Anyway, I concluded that it was worth terminating this recording and commencing another in that other position, some way down there to the left and altogether closer and more exposed to the 'action'. This recording, therefore, is a little warmerup for you before you get hit by the second one :) This recording made with a Sony PCMM10 on a Hama minitripod, using the builtin microphones covered with a Rode Deadkitten. There was a force 3 to 4 breeze coming from the left, and without the windshield the wind noise was really intrusive and enough to clip at times (I cut that bit off the recording). With the Deadkitten I could not detect any wind noise at all. What a wonderful macho sort of feeling it gives me, to be able to let the world know that I'm using a dead animal to shield my microphones from the wind :) http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/arrowlongright.gif Please note that all recordings from 5th January to 2nd Feb 2013, inclusive (i.e. including this one) did not receive any correction for highfrequency attenuation caused by the new Rode Dead Kitten windshield. Subsequently I was able to work out a graphic EQ profile to apply to all recordings that used that windshield, and have applied it retrospectively but I have no plans to go through the hassle of reuploading here the recordings that originally missed out on that correction. Therefore, copies of recordings made in that period, including this one, which I supply on CDs or as licensed copies for commercial use, will have better sound quality and will sound clearer, more 'present', and with more precision of detail than what you hear from here. Please note that only very good speakers / headphones with a very extended bass response will do this recording real justice. Also, it may sound unpleasantly boomy on speakers that have any sort of boominess (like my computer speakers). Please also note that the volume level of this recording has been carefully adjusted for listening purposes, and ALL my recordings so far are meant to be listened to with a volume setting that would give a realistic level for playback of CLASSICAL music (a large but not exceptional symphony orchestra). If you have the right volume setting, you should not need to change that setting from one recording of mine to another.(Later note: This recording with better sound than here is on one of my commercial CDs, and can be found in my eStore.) Please remember to give this recording a rating http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/meicon_wink.gif
描述:http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/shagrockperranporth500x375.jpgA real corkerThis recording was made on 5th January 2013, yet again on the very steep and rather precarious grassy slope below the rather exposed coast path a bit southwest of Perranporth, Cornwall, which contours the main cliff slope from near Cligga Head to Droskyn Point, at which latter point you are in Perranporth proper but with a crucial difference this time, and let me say right away that, at least for me, this one is the highest in the 'wow' stakes of all my recordings so far. I had an earlier start for my hike this time as compared with my previous hikes when I got Shag Rock recordings, owing to a more favourable hitchhike from Exeter to Portreath, and I was aiming to squeeze in a full hour's Shag Rock recording this time before it got too dark for it to be sensible for me to continue. However, it worked out a bit differently, because once I had got my recording under way, at my usual spot on a very low drystone wall, this time I wandered down a rather vague narrow exposed and quite precarious little track descending obliquely to the left as one faces the sea, to see if I could find a yet more interesting spot to make a recording. In particular I had noticed that very often the heaviest and most thundering breaking of waves tended to be a bit to the left of where my regular recording position was facing. Anyway, I concluded that it was worth terminating the currently running recording and then to commence another in that other position, some way down there to the left, much closer to the actual cliff top and altogether closer and more exposed to the 'action'. The action around Shag Rock (to right), although still audible, is therefore somewhat more distant, BUT not only is the recorder now altogether closer to the thundering 'action' of the waves, often with tremendous eruptions of spray as powerful rebound waves meet the bigger incoming waves, but also now it is getting significant whoomphs from another spot on the cliff a bit further to the left, where plumes of spray frequently shoot up to as high as the recorder (though, thanks to an undercut immediately below the recorder, nothing came up quite that high at the recording position, otherwise I'd have retreated a bit for the sake of the recorder). Curiously, what seemed to be the loudest wallop of them all was not caused by a wave hitting the cliff at all, but by two breaking sections of a particularly big wave coalescing and evidently trapping a large volume of air under a fair weight of water, causing effectively a small explosion. What is really striking about this soundscape is that it feels so powerful and indeed menacing not just through brute force of sound but through the graceful and elegant movements of the water, as though this were some gargantuan ballet performance. In order to avoid one having to turn up the volume for this recording for the correct sound level, I adjusted it to a level at which a small number of thump / whoomph peaks clip somewhat, but I haven't been able to detect those clipping points in my own listening test, and so am happy to have made that compromise. This recording made with a Sony PCMM10 on a Hama minitripod, using the builtin microphones covered with a Rode Deadkitten. There was a force 34 breeze coming from the left, but it appears that the Deadkitten has been fully effective in eliminating any noticeable wind noise. http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/arrowlongright.gif Please note that all recordings from 5th January to 2nd Feb 2013, inclusive (i.e. including this one) did not receive any correction for highfrequency attenuation caused by the new Rode Dead Kitten windshield. Subsequently I was able to work out a graphic EQ profile to apply to all recordings that used that windshield, and have applied it retrospectively but I have no plans to go through the hassle of reuploading here the recordings that originally missed out on that correction. Therefore, copies of recordings made in that period, including this one, which I supply on CDs or as licensed copies for commercial use, will have better sound quality and will sound clearer, more 'present', and with more precision of detail than what you hear from here. Please note that only very good speakers / headphones with a very extended bass response will do this recording real justice. Also, it may sound unpleasantly boomy on speakers that have any sort of boominess (like my computer speakers). Please also note that the volume level of this recording has been carefully adjusted for listening purposes, and ALL my recordings so far are meant to be listened to with a volume setting that would give a realistic level for playback of CLASSICAL music (a large but not exceptional symphony orchestra). If you have the right volume setting, you should not need to change that setting from one recording of mine to another. Oh, and finally (now the monkey tells us), I have yet to get a recording of a really wild sea here That will clearly be quite some recording challenge when it eventually happens (i.e., if it is to be done really well) :)(Later note: This recording with better sound than here is on one of my commercial CDs, and can be found in my eStore.) Please remember to give this recording a rating http://www.broadhorizonnature.co.uk/meicon_wink.gif