Abyssinia Bothy Sound

I recently spent a week wild camping in Scotland with my brother Curtis (who also took some lovely photos). I was keen to gather some Ambisonic recordings and find out if I could hack the outdoor life. I've never really been a fan of camping as I'm a bit too used to my home comforts, but the lure of potential new sounds to record was strong enough, and it turned out to be an enjoyable, if not completely successful trip because we had a fair amount of wet weather which made recording difficult and sometimes impossible. I'd initially planned on getting lots of Ambisonic recordings (even if my brother did think I was mad to carry such an amount of gear in my pack), but I think I ended up preferring the recordings I made with the simple stereo spaced pair setup. I also got a recording of the wind howling through a fence near a remote mountain Bothy we stayed at one night. I used a pair of JRF contact microphones, which record the physical vibrations of an object rather than sound waves moving through the air like a traditional microphone. I love contact mics as they always surprise in the hidden sounds they uncover. 

I think I'm hooked on wild camping now too!

Listen below. Headphones recommended. 

Ambisonic Recording in Scotland

I had the pleasure of recording on the East coast of Scotland last week for a project for Salesforce Trailhead. I used the brilliant Sennheiser Ambeo microphone, which records 4 channels and allows for post processing in to various stereo microphone configurations, binaural and most versions of surround. Whilst the technique has been around since the '70s, it has gained in popularity in the VR world recently as the positioning can be linked to head movement within a virtual reality environment. It is one of the only microphone systems that records vertical as well as horizontal, and captures a truly immersive sound space.

Below is an excerpt of a longer recording I made in the rock pools near Dunnottar Castle. (you can just make me out in the image below) The microphone was placed so that water was bubbling and moving all around it and lapping against the rocks. This version is encoded in to the binaural format, which requires headphones to fully appreciate the 'surround' effect. 

What is so exciting about this recording technique, is the amount of flexibility once back in the studio. If I wanted to, I could choose to encode this same recording in any number of stereo mic configurations (and directions) or full surround. I'm seriously considering creating some library collections and I'm already planning another trip to Scotland to spend an extended period recording on the West coast. 

Photo by Clive Howard/Blue Canary