24 Hours

[bobpbx]

Whippoorbill,

I’ve been thinking about your recording skills combined with the fact you are committed to getting the good sounds you are after, where ever they may be.

Suppose you created a CD…”24 hours in the Pine Barrens—sounds of a Pine Barren day” (or something like that). You could maybe smoothly compress it into an hour or two:

Crickets and frogs giving way to Birds in the am, then sounds in the cedar swamp (water, trees swaying), a storm, then badass heat of the day with those drowsy daytime locusts (reeeeeeeee! I love that sound), then giving way to evening (night hawks swooping down) giving way to katydids and some frogs, then more frogs and coyote….then giving way to past AM sounds…then on to morning.

I’d pay a few bucks for that…….think about it.

 

[whippoorbill]

Whippoorbill,

I’ve been thinking about your recording skills combined with the fact you are committed to getting the good sounds you are after, where ever they may be.

Suppose you created a CD…”24 hours in the Pine Barrens—sounds of a Pine Barren day” (or something like that). You could maybe smoothly compress it into an hour or two:

Crickets and frogs giving way to Birds in the am, then sounds in the cedar swamp (water, trees swaying), a storm, then badass heat of the day with those drowsy daytime locusts (reeeeeeeee! I love that sound), then giving way to evening (night hawks swooping down) giving way to katydids and some frogs, then more frogs and coyote….then giving way to past AM sounds…then on to morning.

I’d pay a few bucks for that…….think about it.

I hear you, Bob.

Sound collecting is like much else in life; it makes one work hard before realizing rewards.

I'm still learning out there on the bogs, in fields, at creeksides and marshes (notably where to be, and when)... the more I think I know about the beautiful hobby only opens up more challenges.

What's most frustrating is I've learned that one has to record probably 24 hours worth of material to get a single hour of pristine nature. There are too many man-made distractions out there (even deep in the pines) -- we all hear them every day -- planes, car engines, industrial sounds, etc. Our brain somehow manages to block these out while we're out in the real world, but, for field recordings, these same noises wreck them. I went to an audio-recording lecture once (which inspired me to try nature recording) and the speaker noted an air conditioner that was making noise in the room. We had to stop and listen to it for it to register. But he then recorded the room ... there was no blocking out during the playback; the a/c unit was a major distraction.

I guess what I'm saying is that, even though it is a goal of mine to wind up with that which you're describing, I need to get better, lucky, and even more patient than I already am. I spent over an hour recording insects in the fields there at Friendship Saturday; nonstop airplanes totally ruined my efforts. I'd need quality I'd feel proud handing over to you.

Oh, two summers ago I recorded a nighthawk swooping down, bleeting and "whoosh"ing in flight, as they do; this happend at three o'clock in the morning on the banks of a small tributary flowing into the Tulpehocken. I quietly jumped for joy. But the recording itself is only "okay"; I've got just about everything you mention in your post, most "okay."

When I think I've got it all figured out, I'll sort through all the files, old and forthcoming, and whip up that two-hour, one-day masterpiece for you, all pines she'll be, free of charge. (I wouldn't mind having some 'woodjin' or 'pineland paddler' sounds enhancing the background, too!)

 

[pinelandpaddler]

That would definitely be a CD worth listening to. I admire your efforts, Bill.

I've toyed around with conveying the sounds of the Pines through traditional instrumentation. It would be neat to collaborate. It would be nice to have at hand recordings of various Pine Barrens bird songs, frog calls, insect choruses, etc. in order to translate the sounds of nature into an orchestral piece of music (On second thought, I have a hard time making the distinction).

 

[bobpbx]

Very good Bill. It is something challenging--and great hobbies make life worthwhile.

 

[manumuskin]

I have been out with Bill many nights that planes have totally trashe his recordings.I've always ignored them day and night but when your trying to get a plane free recording they are right down obnoxious.Bill says they seem to really slacken off after midnight but then again so does everything else.The frogs go to sleep and the cicadas shut up at dusk,evcen the katy dids shut up around midnight or shortly thereafter.The only thing that seems to last most of the night is the incessant whir of the pine tree crickets.
Bill and i used to take his scopes out and find planets and double stars and some of the brighter galaxies.he was the scope man and I of course was the chart man.We spent many a freezing night staving off the cold with hot chocolate,hot tea and the concentration it takes to find small objects in the vast expanse of space and then the exhilleration (i know thats spelled wrong) of actually finding the object.The problem with this endeavor is light pollution.You should be able to make out naked eye objects down to magnitude 6 in dark skies.In south jersey your lucky to make out magnitude 3. We went to the barrens thinking big woods = dark skies.Not so,it's worse up there then it is down here from the proximity of Philthydelphia and the cancer that spreads eastward across the river.If you want dark skies you either must go to the 4,000 ft level of some of the more remote spots in WV or the empty spaces of northern Pa. Better yet go to the desert.The one worth while experience I got out of the seven months of my life wasted in the saudi arabian and iraqi deserts was the unparalleled night sky.Not only did i glimpse canopus (not observable from this latitude) but it was the first time i ever saw stars visible on the horizon.No wonder the arabs were the first great astronomers.Thats all there is to do in that war torn wasteland.
South Jersey is truly an overpopulated sore spot on planet earth.There are places in the barrens you could break a leg in and never be found but till you drew your last breath you could lay there and be comforted by the sounds of ATV's and tractor trailers in the distance and stre at the night sky full of the moon and about a half dozen stars strong enough to make it through the glow of city lights knowing that at least you will be out of this world before a bulldozer comes along and scrapes up whats left of you to make way for the next walmart parking lot.When the last white fringed orchid and the last jersey pine snake are shoved into a pile and taken wherever they take dirt they don't need.Then we will have to morph the pbx into the walmart parking lot explorers club and we can take recordings of fat ladies yelling at their kids to quit running through the store and of course we can always check out the wonders of the sky on the Worlwide Telescope explorer online and check out historical aerials .com so we can see the good old days when their were trees and chiggers and all that other good stuff.
Sorry to ruin your day but cheer up!The barrens are still there,greed hasn't destroyed them all yet.Just a chunk here and a chunk there every year.After all we do have to have places to live and shop till we drop.
Alfie