Fruitful Friday
Friday, August 19th, 2022 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioIt got dark and cloudy today, and the forecasts were calling for rain and possible thunder. But it was kinda hot... so I did not count this as some return to fool's fall.
The cicadas did something unusual, and began to really call and cry about an hour before sunset, even though it was cloudy. And they kept it up until well after dark... which did come early, with the thickening cloud cover.
I recorded them up in the canopy, and the resulting track was quite clean!
It had a lot more crickets in it from the get go, because it was darker, thanks to the clouds, but still a very clean take of cicadas yarping and soforth.
--<>--
I had spent the earlier part of the day listening through, and taking notes on different dusk and night recordings I'd done this week, so when the latest one was done, I listened and noted that too.
And I decided, maybe I have enough dusk takes now, to put together a good supercut for the main playlist!
I spent the evening going through the notes for the... eight or nine dusk tracks I have this year... then loading each one into Audacity, and isolating different key moments of each track as individual WAV files.
Stuff like... whistle planes in decent, good buzz-outs of the cicadas conking out for the night, two takes of dogs howling with sirens. The perfect 8PM church bell take. The oblgatory geese passing over. Etcetera.
I also determined that one take was the perfect, "early bed," or long take of cicadas early, before any crickets begin...
And one take was the perfect, "late bed," or long take of cicadas after the crickets begin and on into nightfall.
I spent a while weeding out car sounds and dog barks from the early bed and the late bed, saving the two as separate WAV files.
And now I have a whole folder full of WAV files to plug into the early and late beds to create a longer supercut of the dusk transition.
--<>--
But while I was working on all that, in my headphones, as the hour grew late... my phone and watch were telling me about nearby lightning strikes... and finally I heard thunder and saw a flash of lightning, out the window.
So I threw open the sash and set up the S8 on a tripod in the bedroom window, unplugged the minifridge, turned off the fans, and started recording.
Because I was still working on the dusk recordings, I did not check the radar. I just let the S8 go, as Snoop & Prowly got a bit rambunctious and began running around.
They didn't make too much noise. I wasn't worried about them ruining the take. There might be a few thumpity thumps of running kitten feet, but... who would object to that?
But we did get a good deal of clean rain recorded, and several decent thunder booms. Plus some good distant rumbles.
--<>--
As I'm writing now... after midnight, that first hour of rain and thunder has been moved to the desktop, and the S8 is currently recording a second round of rain, with a bit of thunder!
I'm pretty sure I wrote here, back in July that I already had almost enough for a good supercut of thunder for 2022, but wanted to wait and see what else I could catch over August, September, and October.
Well, I'm getting some good material tonight!
------------{=0=}------------
So, this is the way things get done at Snoozefest... slowly accumulating audio material over the span of months!
Some kind of thunder supercut is already a guarantee... though I could still get some five star thunder blasts over the next nine weeks.
The dusk supercut seems to be already in the can, and just needs to be produced.
I think I have the first cricket hour, complete with a brief b-roll cutaway to wing tappers.
So now the name of the game is to get at least five more hours of good field crickets and wing tappers.
--<>--
I'm banking on a new theory, which is... I now think the relentless bush crickets come into their own and dominate the soundscape in early August, but meanwhile, the field crickets, wing tappers, and mole crickets all take the entire month to really hit their stride.
According to this theory, when we get to september, the fully mature, and fully practiced populations of field & mole crickets, and wing tappers, will sing with gusto, even as the nightly lows go down to around 60F and below.
But meanwhile, the relentless bush crickets, will be running a bit out of steam, and quiet down a bit in that same window.
This squares with what I've observed in past years... where later in the season... in September, the wing tappers and mole crickets seem to not care how cold it is, and the field crickets also seem to be omnipresent and ready to bring it at 60F
They have not brought it... any of them... so far in August when it's gotten cooler... but this may be because their populations are just not fully mature.
We'll see!
--<>--
This has been such a long, strange summer so far!
From testing giant balloons as sails for wind chimes in 0MPH wind... to transplanting loscust seelings... to wandering around late at night on foot doing block sounding...
To unexpectedly adopting two new kittens, and then managing to find the perfect part time janitor job.
Percy Jones' hole... fools fall...
Hand made hand crank out of a wooden sewing thread spool and scrap wood to make a canopy hoist!
A very strange summer... and a very strange beginning to some new chapter of my life, I suspect.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
The cicadas did something unusual, and began to really call and cry about an hour before sunset, even though it was cloudy. And they kept it up until well after dark... which did come early, with the thickening cloud cover.
I recorded them up in the canopy, and the resulting track was quite clean!
It had a lot more crickets in it from the get go, because it was darker, thanks to the clouds, but still a very clean take of cicadas yarping and soforth.
I had spent the earlier part of the day listening through, and taking notes on different dusk and night recordings I'd done this week, so when the latest one was done, I listened and noted that too.
And I decided, maybe I have enough dusk takes now, to put together a good supercut for the main playlist!
I spent the evening going through the notes for the... eight or nine dusk tracks I have this year... then loading each one into Audacity, and isolating different key moments of each track as individual WAV files.
Stuff like... whistle planes in decent, good buzz-outs of the cicadas conking out for the night, two takes of dogs howling with sirens. The perfect 8PM church bell take. The oblgatory geese passing over. Etcetera.
I also determined that one take was the perfect, "early bed," or long take of cicadas early, before any crickets begin...
And one take was the perfect, "late bed," or long take of cicadas after the crickets begin and on into nightfall.
I spent a while weeding out car sounds and dog barks from the early bed and the late bed, saving the two as separate WAV files.
And now I have a whole folder full of WAV files to plug into the early and late beds to create a longer supercut of the dusk transition.
But while I was working on all that, in my headphones, as the hour grew late... my phone and watch were telling me about nearby lightning strikes... and finally I heard thunder and saw a flash of lightning, out the window.
So I threw open the sash and set up the S8 on a tripod in the bedroom window, unplugged the minifridge, turned off the fans, and started recording.
Because I was still working on the dusk recordings, I did not check the radar. I just let the S8 go, as Snoop & Prowly got a bit rambunctious and began running around.
They didn't make too much noise. I wasn't worried about them ruining the take. There might be a few thumpity thumps of running kitten feet, but... who would object to that?
But we did get a good deal of clean rain recorded, and several decent thunder booms. Plus some good distant rumbles.
As I'm writing now... after midnight, that first hour of rain and thunder has been moved to the desktop, and the S8 is currently recording a second round of rain, with a bit of thunder!
I'm pretty sure I wrote here, back in July that I already had almost enough for a good supercut of thunder for 2022, but wanted to wait and see what else I could catch over August, September, and October.
Well, I'm getting some good material tonight!
So, this is the way things get done at Snoozefest... slowly accumulating audio material over the span of months!
Some kind of thunder supercut is already a guarantee... though I could still get some five star thunder blasts over the next nine weeks.
The dusk supercut seems to be already in the can, and just needs to be produced.
I think I have the first cricket hour, complete with a brief b-roll cutaway to wing tappers.
So now the name of the game is to get at least five more hours of good field crickets and wing tappers.
I'm banking on a new theory, which is... I now think the relentless bush crickets come into their own and dominate the soundscape in early August, but meanwhile, the field crickets, wing tappers, and mole crickets all take the entire month to really hit their stride.
According to this theory, when we get to september, the fully mature, and fully practiced populations of field & mole crickets, and wing tappers, will sing with gusto, even as the nightly lows go down to around 60F and below.
But meanwhile, the relentless bush crickets, will be running a bit out of steam, and quiet down a bit in that same window.
This squares with what I've observed in past years... where later in the season... in September, the wing tappers and mole crickets seem to not care how cold it is, and the field crickets also seem to be omnipresent and ready to bring it at 60F
They have not brought it... any of them... so far in August when it's gotten cooler... but this may be because their populations are just not fully mature.
We'll see!
This has been such a long, strange summer so far!
From testing giant balloons as sails for wind chimes in 0MPH wind... to transplanting loscust seelings... to wandering around late at night on foot doing block sounding...
To unexpectedly adopting two new kittens, and then managing to find the perfect part time janitor job.
Percy Jones' hole... fools fall...
Hand made hand crank out of a wooden sewing thread spool and scrap wood to make a canopy hoist!
A very strange summer... and a very strange beginning to some new chapter of my life, I suspect.
°¦}
