I love Richard Nelson’s enthusiasm from his Encounters North Youtube clip (below). He shares an idea I’ve never had before- take a simple cooking wok and mount a microphone pointing inwards. The parabolic effect gathers sound as it bounces off the curved sides of the wok and focuses it all into one place- right into the microphone.
Recording sound is relatively easy. Most smartphones have medium-quality microphones, but investing $150 in a digital recorder and microphone results in amazing quality. No tripod, fill lighting, film crews or heavy extra lenses. Press record.
The way we experience sound is so different than our other human senses. “Sound was our first sense that is turned on”. (Jay Allison) We still haven’t been able to replicate human touch (I’m looking at you, “shiatsu massager”) or smell. Sight and speech are great, but we need sight to move and work and live. I love sound because it can supplement our other senses. I think intense amazing sound transports me immediately to a memory or a thought. With reading or conversation, I eventually will get to memories- sound seems to take me immediately there.
“Voices of Glacier Bay” Soundscape Project has amazing sounds that I am enjoying. Two producers sought to document and catalog the “voice” of the park- and it is beautiful.
On a given day, [Glacier Park] visitors might hear an astounding assortment of sounds: glacial ice exploding into a tidal inlet, wolves howling along a wave-washed shore, loon cries echoing between forested islands, humpback whales blowing in a calm bay, hermit thrushes singing among high boughs…
I love it! Richard notes in his Encounters Podcast how we live in an increasingly urban society. This is true. I think I try to sidestep the true fact- I am very far away from “nature” where I live. I may think my house opens into a pasture, but in truth the “nature” I experience in my backyard is actually a fenced-in plot of dirt that domesticated horses use to eat hay. Now I really appreciate the work my parents did to bring us out into nature at Los Coyotes (I think this is a small area in the Anza Borrego State Park). I keep thinking where around my house I can find nature, but I can imagine there will always be that him of the city in the background.
Enjoy Richard Nelson’s enthusiasm to enjoy recording the outdoors:
