Sound in Víðgelmir Cave

Víðgelmir is a lava tube situated in Western Iceland in the Hallmundarhraun lava field, ca. 2 km. Southeast from Fljótstunga farm in Hvítársíða, Borgarfjörður. The roof of the lava tube has collapsed, creating two large openings near its north end which are the only known entrances. Viðgelmir is 1585m long, the largest part of the cave passage is 15.8m high and 16.5m wide making it by far the largest of its kind in Iceland. The cave has a wide entrance but narrows down in some places. An iron gate was installed at the first constriction in 1994 to preserve the delicate lava formations or speleothems which haven’t already been destroyed. Evidence of human habitation, probably dating to the Viking age, has been discovered in the cave and is preserved in the National Museum of Iceland. Long stretches of the cave floor are very rough and shouldn’t be navigated without a guide. Access and guided tours are provided at nearby Fljótstunga.
Lava tube caves are formed when a low-viscosity lava flow develops a continuous and hard crust which thickens and forms a roof above the molten lava stream. When the eruption subsides, the still molten lava moving beneath the crust will continue to drain downhill, leaving an open lava tube cave. Many other lava tube caves have been discovered in Hallmundarhraun (formed around 900 AD), most notable Surtshellir and Stefánshellir.(*)
This recording was made 30th of June 2012, close to the entrance, where ice from last winter was still melting. Water drops from the cave roof are falling into differenet places on the floor, in holes in the ice and on stones on rough surfaced floor.
Deeper in the cave there is no dripping water so it is completely quiet. For most people it could be an interesting experience. During the summer people can have guided tour in Viðgelmir, just contact Fljótstunga farm.

Download mp3 file. (192kbps / 28,1Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

Recorder. Sound Devices 788
Mic: Rode NT1a (NOS)
Pic: Canon 30D. See more pictures at Google. My camera did not work perfectly in the cave, but anyway here is my picture
(*) Information about the cave is copied from Wikipedia.
 

Opus for power line, bass, wind and birds.

It is not every day when I am free from traffic noise. But when it happens it is possible to notice other small sounds in the surroundings. That happened in beginning of June 2012 when I was at Krossholt at Barðastönd, in the northwest of Iceland. One night someone was playing loud music in the neighborhood. The rumbling bass beat was noticeable all night along. During the night the wind started to blow from east with strong gusts. Suddenly nearby power line started to give a strange sound and the niggling beat from the neighborhood started to be interesting. In combination with the wind, power line, birdsong from the field and nearby cliff it started to be like a music from other planet. In fact it was a really interesting composition. Better than many modern human made compositions today. The intro is more than two minutes long, so just lay back in your chair, relax and listen. High quality headphones are recommended.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 34,7Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

Recorder: Sound Devices 744 (24bit/48Khz)
Mics: Rode NT1a. NOS setup.
Pix: Canon 30D
Interesting link: Wired Lab

White Wagtail in the wind

I and my family spent a bank holiday last weekend in May in Union´s vacation house at Apavatn in south Iceland. The weather was typical for spring. Sunny, but cold and windy.
This was not exactly the best weather to record bird song, or “nice spring mood”, but when I placed the microphones not far away from the house, a White Wagtail gave me a nice tweet as a professional singer close to the microphones.
Not far away was a playground with big trampoline. Most of the background sound is the drumming sound from this trampoline, screaming children and waves from the lake. Through the all recording a weak tweet sound is coming from young bird in nearby nest.
In the end of the recording people are gathering together in a hot tub.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 24,6mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net      

Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mic: Rode NT2a in spaced omni (60cm AB setup )
Pix: Canon 30D (see more picture)

Accordion day 5th of May 2012

Accordion day was celebrated all over in Iceland 5th of May with concerts in many public places all over the country. This was a perfect opportunity to cycle downtown and record a “squeeze box concert”. The concert was held in an open place at Hallærisplan (Ingólfstorg) in Reykjavik center and the players were members of the Reykjavik Accordion Club. In background, mostly on right side, are some bang and rumble noise from skate boards and motorcycles.
This recording was made with “binaural microphones” and Primo EM172 capsules.  There were rather much wind which sometimes disturbed the recording. So -20db was enabled at 20hz  in post.
Best to listen with headphones.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 24,2Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net    

Recoder: Olympus LS10 (24hz/48Khz)
Mic. Binaural (Primo EM172)
Pix: Sony DSC-P120

Free Tibet

In April 2012 the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Wen Jiabao, visited Iceland.
On the first day he was driven to the Musical Hall to have a dinner.
On Facebook, people were encouraged to go there and request for free Tibet. I arrived rather late, but right at time when the prime ministers arrived with a lot of security staff on cars and motorcycles.
This recording was a “wind test” for my home made binaural mics with Primo EM 172 capsules. I put them in Rode WS5 foam and the result was very nice.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 14,3Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net   

Recorder: Olympus LS10
Mic. Binaural headphones w/ Primo EM172 capsule
Pix: Nokia N82

Creatures in the pool

In the beach below the Hotel “Europe Villa Cortes GL” at Tenerife is a sea pool. It was probably build some years ago for people to swim, but today it is full of all kinds of algae, snails, crabs and other creatures, so it looks not popular for humans.
In the afternoon at 22 of December 2011, I put hydrophone in the pool and recorded more than one hour of mystique sound. Most audible sound are rumbling sound from the surf. Sometimes the waves goes all the way in the pool with splashing sound and sometimes footsteps can be heard when people walk by the pool side. But there is also many other sounds from organic creatures, most likely from hungry snails scratching the pool surface.

Short version Download mp3 file (192kbps / 4,2Mb)
Long version Download mp3 file (192kbps / 28Mb)

See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net
Recorder: Sound Devices 744 (24bit / 48Khz)
Mic: Aquarian H2a-XLR
Pix: Olympus 4040 (underwater) and Canon 30D (See more pictures)

Earthquake at Seltúnshver (Geothermal area)

It was in the beginning of mars, earthquake hit my house.
Almost nonstop earthquakes shakes landscapes south and east of Reykjavik capital so I was sure my recorder had picked up some earthquakes previous years. I searched in my mind where it was most likely it could have happened. After some research I found one, in almost forgotten recording. It was recorded in april 2011, when I and my pal at work went a day trip to Reykjanes peninsula. Reykjanes is very well known for earthquakes and geothermal activity. The main reason for this trip was to look at the changes of some geothermal area because of increasing activity last decade. As usual, my recorders followed me in this trip, but I was not satisfied with these recordings…until now.
Hereby I mix together five of these recordings as a travel log for this day trip.
First one is a hot spring that for centuries has been under water in Kleifarvatn Lake until the lake started to shrink after big earthquake at the year 2000.
The second one is also a hot spring recording but it contains the earthquake at very low frequency (10Hz). The third one is another hot springs close by, but with different mics and they did not detect earthquake as clearly. Both this recordings are recoded at Seltúnshver (Seltúns-hver=Seltuns-hotspring).
The fourth one was recorded at Gunnuhver close to Reykjanesvirkjun, a power plant that has changes a lot the geothermal activity on Reykjanes peninsula.
The fifth recording is waves of Atlantic Ocean hammering the cliffs at Reykanestá.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 22Mb)

The earthquake. Speed up version about 2x octave of the second recording above (Almost 3 minutes shrink to 37 sek). Subwoofer or quality headphones recommended

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 0,9Mb)

Recorders: Korg MR1000 and Sound devices 552
Mics: Rode NT4 (XY) and Rode NT2a/Sennheiser ME64 (MS)
Pix: Canon 30D (see more pictures and information)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net  

In two worlds

In Reykjavik center is a quiet big pond or a lake with many bird species, like Swans, Gooses and Ducks. Often people feed this birds with bread so outburst is normal when birds grasp the breadcrumbs.
This recordings was made simultaneously both above and under water on four tracks. Two hydrophones where placed 2 meters apart and 20 cm above the pond bottom. On the steel bridge above was two cardioid in XY setup.

Above the pond. Download mp3 file (192kbps / 10,1Mb)
In both worlds. Above and in the pond. Download mp3 file (192kbps / 10,1Mb)
In the pond. Download mp3 file (192kbps / 10,1Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net 

Recorder: Sound devices 744 w/552 preamp
Mics: Aquarian H2a-XLR (spaced omni) and Rode NT1a (XY)
Pix: Canon 30D

Rode NTG3 vs. Sennheiser ME66 noise

Some months ago my plan was to buy Rode NTG3. I was looking for a low noise and better sounding microphone than ME66 I already own. But after some research at home I found this microphone even worse than ME66 for nature recording.
The audible noise and sensitivity between these two mics was almost equal, but NTG3 have noticeably higher low frequency response.
But what surprised me most was all the noise in NTG3. If something, it was even more than in ME66. But spectrogram shows a shocking pictures for NTG3, a white noise in the whole frequency spectrum up to 50Khz. See spectrogram.
This NTG3 was sent back to the shop, but I was never sure if I did some mistakes in this measurements. So last week I vent to the shop and picked up some recording samples on the same NTG3.
The recorder was Sound devises 744 at 24bit/48Khz. NTG3 was in channel 1 and for comparison ME66 was in channel 2. They were laying side by side and the gain was in full position. Input filter for both channels was at 80Hz, 12dB/oct.
It is no doubt. There is some strange white noise in NTG3.
The sound sample below is about two minutes long. First minute is NTG3 and the second is ME66.
This particular NTG3 can be defective, so I am waiting for next supply of Rode NTG3 in the shop.
I will update this post as soon after I have got a chance to test some other NTG3 mics.
See more pictures and spectrogram in this last test.

Conclusion – Summary
The spectrogram looks very bad for NTG3 but the mic is not as bad as it looks. The ME66 datasheets display referred noise as 10dB(A) and the NTG3 datasheets display referred noise as 13dB(A), so  ME66 has lower referred noise than NTG3. This difference is probably what we see on the spectrogram. This two microphones does not have exactly same bandwidth, as the ME66 has a reduced audio bandwidth which in turn reduces the referred noise. The ME66 top end roll off starts around 14Khz (0dB) and is -6dB at 20KHz, NTG3 is +2dB at 14KHz and -2dB at 20KHz.
NTG3 is RF biased microphones designed to withstand high humidity and harsher environments than the ME66 condenser microphone. So while the NTG3 and ME66 are both shotgun microphones they are designed for different operating conditions.
NTG3 would be my choice for most “normal sound pressure” level. But for quiet nature sounds where most audible sounds are in low level and mid-high frequency, I would choose some other mic.
In my opinion Rode NT1a is one of the best.  Sadly NT1a is not a shotgun or small diaphragm condenser that can be fit nicely in a Blimp. But NT1a have only 5dB(A) noise and that makes the whole different for those who don't like to use noise reduction software.  See solutions how to fit NT1a in Blimp in NOS and XY setup.
For those who are searching for sound quality in NTG3 I recommend this search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=NTG3+vs+ME66&meta=
Also this one:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=NTG3+vs+MKH416&meta=


See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net 
Download mp3 file (192kbps / 3Mb)

Nature reserve in Flói 2011 – Part 2

This recording is almost straight continue from “Nature reserve in Flói 2011 – Part 1” published last November.
This part was recorded between 2am and 3am.
Now is less car traffic but instead two airplanes pass by.
Quality headphones are recommend while listening.
If you know the birds in this recording, you are welcome to write the name of them in “Leave a Comment”.

See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net 
Download mp3 file (192kbps / 2,7Mb)

Recorder: Korg MR1000 w/Sound devises 552 mixer. 24bit/48Khz
Mics: Rode NT1a.  NOS setup 30cm/90°
Pix: Canon 30D (see more pictures)

New year’s eve at Las Américas, Tenerife

I spent new years eve 2011-2012 at Tenerife. It gave me a nice opportunity to compare the fire works between Tenerife and Iceland. The microphones was based on balcony´s 4th flour at H10 Conquistador hotel, facing to north. It was not the best location to record the fireworks it self, but instead it picked up a nice echo from Mt. Teide and some large buildings in the area (sounds like a thunder).
This session start three minutes before midnight.
Warning! This recording can damage hearing and speakers on high volume.

See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net 
Download mp3 file (192kbps / 24.9Mb)


Recorder: Sound Devices 744 (24bit/48K)
Mics: Sennheiser ME62 30cm/110°
Pix: Canon 30D
Listen to Fireworks in Iceland

Arlo Guthri and Franz Anton Hoffmeister

In November 2011 I recorded a concert with Amateur Symphony Orchestra. Special guest and soloist in this concert was a Gissur Páll Gissurarson tenor and Dean Ferrell bass player. This concert was different from many others I‘ve seen and heard. Most of the time during the concert, Dean, Gissur and the director Oliver Kentish, were acting in a comedy. Part of this concert is now visible at YouTube.
I have noticed that omnidirectional mics give the best result in sound quality. That is one of the reasons I use very often omnidirectional mics as Mid-side mic in MS setup.
In this concert I decided to use AB setup located over the orchestra.
For many reasons it gives a fabulous result. Compare using same multi polar pattern mics in MS setup it gives better result in the lower frequency resolution. The only negative thing was a bit too long reverb on the orchestra and too short on soloists. Six pieces of mics could also make a phase error.
At concert like this, I can´t act as a king. I need to make me as compact as I can. For many reasons I like that. It is a challenge to make a nice recording without be necessarily in the best place, or have a trailer of recording equipment.
During the concert I tried to beware the phase problem. But the soloist was “acting” almost everywhere. Most of the time they were far away from the best place for the mics so I got some phase failure.
Following two songs are made by Arlo Guthry (The Pause of Mr. Claus) and Franz Anton Hoffmeister (Menuett). In this recording Dean Ferrell bass player is singing and playing on his fabulous Bass. Violist, Celloist and Bass player in the orchestra are playing with Dean in the Menuett song.


Recorder: Sound Devices 744 w. 552 preamp
Mics: SE4400 in AB setup. 60cm apart in 2.5 meters over the orchestra. For bass soloist, SE 4400 in MS setup (mid mic omni). For tenor, SE1a in XY setup (not used in this web session).
Pix: Canon 30D. (more pictures)

See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net 
 Download mp3 file (224kbps / 12.8Mb)