The Many Voices of Water
Posted: March 19th, 2010 | Author: Nathan | Filed under: field recording, nature recording
Blackstone Canyon, my local refuge from Bad Things.
I live at the foot of a number of hills that converge into a canyon not five minutes from my house. We have a very Mediterranean climate, so this canyon is dry in the summer. In the winter, the canyon is alive with creeks, streams, and small waterfalls. These winding watercourses have quite varied voices, from deeply resonant hydraulics to burbling, rock-strewn runs. Its sound never ceases to calm me.
This short piece is an aural tour of my local watershed. It crossfades from one water “tone” to another, from the rivulets at the end of the canyon to some of the waterfalls at its head. Of course, the limitations of MP3 encoding sadly adds some warbling and artifacting to the higher frequencies.
When doing this kind of recording, a medium to long boom pole is essential to get nice up-close perspectives without going into the drink yourself.
[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/noisejockey/voicesofwater” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=dd0000″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]
[Røde NT4 stereo mic into a Sound Devices 702 field recorder]
Nice sound. I always enjoy recordings of water or wind. And a great photo to go with it.
Wonderful naturalistic musique concrète. Amazing how effective simple crossfading can be. I like that it’s discernible in this piece. Like walking through thresholds into different chambers of nature.