Northwest Soundscapes

I love pigs, especially smaller pigs. They have a very human vocal range, and they sound like they're constantly in conversation. It's a very strained conversation that THEY'D REALLY WISH YOU'D LISTEN TO THEIR OPINION ON. I love this track so much because it sounds like they've made their point and are resting the case, "harrumph" included.

I love pigs, especially smaller pigs. They have a very human vocal range, and they sound like they're constantly in conversation. It's a very strained conversation that THEY'D REALLY WISH YOU'D LISTEN TO THEIR OPINION ON. This track in particular is meaningful to me as it sounds just like our dog Jack, an Australian Terrier that passed away in 2012 at the age of 14, when he couldn't find his food...

A medium-length tanker train recorded at Carkeek Park, Seattle. The trains here are easily accessible to recording, but their location makes it difficult to get a nice, clean recording with no voices and no birds. You may hear some on this track... I really love the squealing brakes on this train as rounds the bend I'm standing in. Recorded in tight MS. mid: MKH8060 side: MKH30 recorder: SD702

A long freight train recorded in Columbia Hills State Park, Washington, right on the Columbia Gorge. The trains here are frequent, long, running at full speed, and easily accessible to recording. In other, designed for sound recordists! Also: dangerous! This was recorded at a distance of close to 1/4 mile, somewhere around midnight from my tent on a camping trip earlier this year. Yes the trains a...

A long freight train recorded in Columbia Hills State Park, Washington, right on the Columbia Gorge. The trains here are frequent, long, running at full speed, and easily accessible to recording. In other, designed for sound recordists! Also: dangerous! ORTF: Røde nt5 pair recorder: SD702

A long freight train recorded in Columbia Hills State Park, Washington, right on the Columbia Gorge. The trains here are frequent, long, running at full speed, and easily accessible to recording. In other, designed for sound recordists! Also: dangerous! ORTF: Røde nt5 pair recorder: SD702

A long freight train recorded in Columbia Hills State Park, Washington, right on the Columbia Gorge. The trains here are frequent, long, running at full speed, and easily accessible to recording. In other, designed for sound recordists! Also: dangerous! This train was recorded at with a tight mid-side pattern, hoping to get come good clatter. mid: MKH8060 side: MKH30 recorder: SD702

These are monster planes, used for carrying around 787 Dreamliner parts. This one landed and taxied by at an airport where I watching my daughter take single-prop flight lessons. Fortunately I had my gear handy. SD702 Mid: MKH8060 Side: MKH30

Seattle has an airport in the heart of the city: a water-port for the seaplanes of Kenmore Air. Their fleet consists primarily of DHC-2 Beavers and DHC-3 Turbo-Otters. Beavers, such as this one, have piston-drive engines, and really sell that great old-clanky-propeller-plane sound that is matched only by a fleet of Harley Davidsons. SD702 Mid: MKH8060 Side: MKH30

Seattle has an airport in the heart of the city: a water-port for the seaplanes of Kenmore Air. Their fleet consists primarily of DHC-2 Beavers and DHC-3 Turbo-Otters. Turbo-Otters, such as this one, have turbine engines and sound more like jets than the quintessential old-clanky-propeller-plane sound of the Beavers.d SD702 Mid: MKH8060 Side: MKH30

I've been playing around with alternate stereo recordings methods lately. This excerpt is from my first using an omni center Mid-Side setup. No high-pass filtering in record and no post-processing has been done (a rarity for me)except for a gain-boost and trimming down to 2 minutes. Mid: Sennhesier MKH 8020 Side: Sennhesier MKH 30

I spent the day going through some of my old crow recordings. The have just such a wonderfully expressive range, more than just the simple "caw-caw" that everyone thinks they do. Every time I see a movie with a crow or raven that says, "caw-caw, caw-caw-caw" at the same pitch over and over and over, I think it's a wasted opportunity. image credit: "American crow, October 2017--Warren Bielenberg" b...

Lately I've been trying to record some straight-out natural ambiences from the same location at multiple times-of-day, mostly dawn & dusk choruses. Seattle's a noisy town, full of background roar and cars, so it's nice to find a place within the city that actually sounds like it's got a natural presence.

Many years ago we had finches as pets. I could listen to finch songs all day. It's like sunshine in a little feathered body.

Two geese fly overhead, followed at a distance by a small, eager to catch up flock.

I always imagine crows to be making fun of us somehow. Or just laughing and pointing. image credit: "American crow, October 2017--Warren Bielenberg" by Great Smoky Mountains National Park is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/?ref=openverse.

These woodpeckers have a "not in Seattle" quality to them. They make a back yard sound like a jungle. I wish I could get closer, but they pretty choose only the highest spots -- generally the tops of cedar trees -- around to call from.

I hate Red-winged Blackbirds. I mean, I like their calls -- bright beautiful, easy to record, not very afraid of humans with large furry microphones getting too close. But they're ASSHOLES. Whenever I'm out trying to record something else, the final recording is FILLED with Red-winged Blackbirds. It's like they see wildlife recording as some sort of a competition for who can get on the most record...

Song Sparrow, Melospiza melodia, Song, parabolic recording, clean-processed for clarity, natural pace and rhythym maintained, family: New World Sparrows Some birds seem to have an endless array of verses and lyrics to throw into their songs. This is one of those birds. Recorded in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Washington, United States image credit: "892 - SONG SPARROW (9-06) attu, ak (6)" by S...

Recorded from my rooftop in Seattle's Fremont Neighborhood. Parties full of whooping-and-hollering folk are on every apartment building in the area. One nearby had some extra fireworks. SoundDevices 702 m/s: Sennheiser MKH8060 + MKH30 light limiting so I didn't fry my ears

Pulled as an example from a personal collection of high-frequency interference recordings made with a Radioshack Telephone mic (I love those little buggers!) via a Sound Devices 702 and Barcus Barry pre-amp. The original was recorded at 192kHz / 24bit. This example is the source original for https://soundcloud.com/soundeziner/48khz_tone_lamp. The source was a goose-neck lamp at my bedside. Play th...

Pulled as an example from a personal collection of high-frequency interference recordings made with a Radioshack Telephone mic (I love those little buggers!) via a Sound Devices 702 and Barcus Barry pre-amp. The original was recorded at 192kHz / 24bit. This example was pitched down 4 octaves before being sample rate converted to 48k/16bit. The source was a goose-neck lamp at my bedside. Check out...

TRAIN - diesal - freight - pass-by left to right at med-hi speed - urban beach location - Carkeek Park in Seattle - great squeaks squeals rattles thunka-thunka and more

Marsh Wren - Cistothorus palustris - recorded at Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA 2013-05-02 Takes culled and cleaned from 5 minutes recording. It's the same bird, going crazy, but sometimes he turned his back to me... I love Marsh Wrens. Their songs are clankerous, noisy and and constantly varying. I could listen to them for hours. At 1/2-speed they sound like frightened children from hell and car al...