Forest Loop Trail
11/15/2022 3:45 to 5:00pm
34 degrees, light snowfall, little to no wind
I haven’t done many recordings on Forest Loop so I wanted to revisit the trail. I wasn’t planning on doing the recordings today because it was getting late and I didn’t want to be out in the dark while it was snowing, but Evan said it was making some nice sounds so I decided to go out.
Binaural Snowfall
Normally when you think of snowfall you don’t really associate a sound with it. Since
this snow was kind of wet and the ground was covered in leaves, it actually made a
nice sound. It was similar to rain, but not as heavy or rhythmic. I noticed the longer
I was out there the more snow was on the ground and the quieter the sound got. The
binaurals were an awesome mic to capture the sound.
Contact on a Leaf
Since the snow on the leaves was making such a nice sound, I wanted to see if attaching
a contact to a leaf would get anything. It didn’t make a ton of sound, so I made some
of my own by moving the leaf around, but it may be possible that the snow did make
a sound but I’d have to listen really closely and cut out some of the other noise.
Shaking a Tree
This is sort of one of my go-to things to do with a contact, but my previous attempts
have never turned out as well as this one. I was bummed there wasn’t any wind to make
the trees sway and creak, so I did it myself. I love the sound of the branches colliding
with each other and the faint creaking.
Stereo of Snowfall
I wanted to get as many samples of the snow falling on leaves as possible because
it probably won’t happen that often, especially when winter really gets here. To get
a different perspective, I placed the stereo mic under a fallen tree and just let
it collect the pattering of snow all around. For the last minute or so I picked it
up and moved it around to get some different sounds.
Deer Exclusion Fence
I honestly can’t believe I didn’t think to fix the contact to the exclusion fence
earlier. Running my finger across the fence and then rubbing it with a stick made
some really unique sounds. It was also cool to hear it fade as I got farther from
where the contact was connected. These sounds will definitely be useful in a weird
alien-sounding composition.
Walking in a winter Wonderland
There was finally enough snow where it started crunching beneath my feet as I walked.
I broke out the binaurals again and walked along the path. The combination of leaves
and snow made for a really interesting sound. The wires from the binaurals would occasionally
hit something which made a little sound, but overall it worked well.
Walking on leaves and snow was awful and I felt like I was going to slip constantly.
