A Walk Around the Block
Monday, July 25th, 2022 01:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioNow that it's the final week of July, and I'm keen to keep tabs on how that August soundscape is gonna populate, I decided to take a nice long walk around the block.
I already learned last week that the crickets get started on the street, and only slowly work their way into the back yards.
And I also learned last week, walking up and down the street to listen for them... that you look like a weirdo doing that, to all the people who are still very active out front, including kids on bikes, because school is out... so it's best to wait until about 11PM.
So, tonight, at 11:20PM, I did a walk around the block, to hear what I could hear, and I had the S8 with me recording as I went.
--<>--
What I heard was a mix of fully adult field crickets, and those higher pitched juvenilles in patches here and there.
I also heard more juvenille bush crickets... one here, and one there. And I heard several chick bugs chicking from high up in the trees on the parkings.
So, while some field crickets are finally hitting adulthood, the majority are still juvenille, and their distribution is anything but uniform!
In some spots around the block, I'd hear lots of crickets. But in other spans, nothing at all.
There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it.
Also, still no sign at all of the leaf tappers, on the street, or in the back yards.
I'm quite surprised to learn that the chick bugs actually show up first!
------------{=0=}------------
After I got back home, I listened to the recording of the walk and... didn't like it. Too many passing cars, barking dogs, and random fire crackers. And in quieter spans, you could hear me making breathing sounds.
After midnight, I did it all over again.
This time, no cars, dogs, fireworks, or breathy sounds. Everything was silent. It was just my footsteps and the crickets out there on the streets.
--<>--
But that second take was too good!
As I learned with the mike testing back in June, the S8 is designed to focus in on what it thinks is the target signal, and will tune-out the background accordingly.
So instead of a track of street crickets around the block, what I got was, a nearly perfect recording of my footsteps on the sidewalk!
Without all the other ambient sounds, and my gross breathing, the S8 thought, Oh! He's recording these footsteps! and tuned out the relatively more distant and quiet crickets in the grass!
--<>--
The lesson learned here, is that if I want to document the street crickets... it IS good to wait until after midnight. But I need to stop and get one take at a time, one location at a time.
HOWEVER... It struck me that I'd accidentally recorded my first, Sono sound effect!
Sidewalk Footsteps at Night is now officially Sono #001, and Sono has been officially launched on the SoundCloud.
The cleanest, one minute, of the whole, twenty minute walk.
------------{=0=}------------
I'm back on the fence about whether Sono should include background ambiances, or if those should be Dials.
I feel like Dial is turning into more of curious outtakes from normal field recording... the snoring while trying to record an early morning storm... the weird effects of wind on the mikes during testing.
I think I'm answering my own question, as I write, here...
Dial should be for weird outtakes that don't belong in any other playlist, but are still interesting or noteworthy.
And Sonos should include deliberate background ambiances of specific loacations... along with the regular sound effects.
------------{=0=}------------
Okay, anyway... with one week to go, shockingly spotty cricket coverage out there, and only on the street. Few adults. Not many bush crickets. Surprisingly many chick bugs. And zero leaf tappers.
As Lugh's Loaf Mass approaches, I'll be keeping you posted.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
I already learned last week that the crickets get started on the street, and only slowly work their way into the back yards.
And I also learned last week, walking up and down the street to listen for them... that you look like a weirdo doing that, to all the people who are still very active out front, including kids on bikes, because school is out... so it's best to wait until about 11PM.
So, tonight, at 11:20PM, I did a walk around the block, to hear what I could hear, and I had the S8 with me recording as I went.
What I heard was a mix of fully adult field crickets, and those higher pitched juvenilles in patches here and there.
I also heard more juvenille bush crickets... one here, and one there. And I heard several chick bugs chicking from high up in the trees on the parkings.
So, while some field crickets are finally hitting adulthood, the majority are still juvenille, and their distribution is anything but uniform!
In some spots around the block, I'd hear lots of crickets. But in other spans, nothing at all.
There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it.
Also, still no sign at all of the leaf tappers, on the street, or in the back yards.
I'm quite surprised to learn that the chick bugs actually show up first!
After I got back home, I listened to the recording of the walk and... didn't like it. Too many passing cars, barking dogs, and random fire crackers. And in quieter spans, you could hear me making breathing sounds.
After midnight, I did it all over again.
This time, no cars, dogs, fireworks, or breathy sounds. Everything was silent. It was just my footsteps and the crickets out there on the streets.
But that second take was too good!
As I learned with the mike testing back in June, the S8 is designed to focus in on what it thinks is the target signal, and will tune-out the background accordingly.
So instead of a track of street crickets around the block, what I got was, a nearly perfect recording of my footsteps on the sidewalk!
Without all the other ambient sounds, and my gross breathing, the S8 thought, Oh! He's recording these footsteps! and tuned out the relatively more distant and quiet crickets in the grass!
The lesson learned here, is that if I want to document the street crickets... it IS good to wait until after midnight. But I need to stop and get one take at a time, one location at a time.
HOWEVER... It struck me that I'd accidentally recorded my first, Sono sound effect!
Sidewalk Footsteps at Night is now officially Sono #001, and Sono has been officially launched on the SoundCloud.
The cleanest, one minute, of the whole, twenty minute walk.
I'm back on the fence about whether Sono should include background ambiances, or if those should be Dials.
I feel like Dial is turning into more of curious outtakes from normal field recording... the snoring while trying to record an early morning storm... the weird effects of wind on the mikes during testing.
I think I'm answering my own question, as I write, here...
Dial should be for weird outtakes that don't belong in any other playlist, but are still interesting or noteworthy.
And Sonos should include deliberate background ambiances of specific loacations... along with the regular sound effects.
Okay, anyway... with one week to go, shockingly spotty cricket coverage out there, and only on the street. Few adults. Not many bush crickets. Surprisingly many chick bugs. And zero leaf tappers.
As Lugh's Loaf Mass approaches, I'll be keeping you posted.
°¦}
