Comments on: 10 Misconceptions about Nature Recordings

By: Rob Stanford

Rob Stanford — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:30:08 +0000

Well done Andrew & Sarah, …I appreciate your very professional web site, and the audio and photographs it represents. I’m an Aussie from SA & have done some traveling & love the bush, sounds & scenery. I once experienced pre dawn surround sound Dingoes calling each other in central Queensland, maybe 6-7 of them, and that was memorable, if only I could have recorded it. Your work is absolutly brilliant, hope to see you on the track one day.

By: Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:29:06 +0000

I’m an Australian, from Armidale NSW, living and working in Harrismith, Free State province, South Africa. Your 10 misconceptions and responses are spot on. For myself I’m not a fan of long tracks of uninterrupted ambient nature sounds – I tend to lose concentration and it becomes generic natural background. The more species I can recognise, the more I know about their ecology, the more I appreciate them and their environment. Each place becomes more special; the sound and feel of a particular forest rather than “forest” in general. I like your focus on particular species and reasonably long tracks without voice over. I also like that you have plenty of background calls, which you don’t highlight.

By: Andrew Perkin

Andrew Perkin — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:14:47 +0000

Hi,

I wanted to say I like your website, and as I am on a slow connection hear in Tanzania I still wating to here some of your recordings which I sure are great. I have been recording bushbabies and other animals in E Africa for some time as a scientific tool to identify species – even new ones. Its amazing how bioacoustics are undarvalued as a research tool, but this is rapidly changing. When I play my recordings to poeple they are just blown away by what sounds animals can make. So now I am working on a website and some commercial possibilities which I hope might support research and conservation here. I have mainly been using ‘cheap’ gear PMD660 (also because it talkes few batteries) with a K6-ME67 mic as I try to isolate the animals, but now I want to move into recording the animal’s sound scape to add context, so I was very interested to see your stereo setup and I wondered how I could buy it. Maybe I also need to upgrade the 660 to. Anyway great site – the photography side to (which I also dable in). Andrew Perkin, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

By: Walther Grube

Walther Grube — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:31:06 +0000

I’ve just entered the yahoo group Nature Recorders and followed the link on a posting of yours. I really liked “let’s fluff some feathers”, you’re right, birds, frogs and other animals sing to attract mates, only humans do this for money (greedy species, eh?). Anyway I liked your site, beautiful pictures and great content. I’m working with something similar, also about recording nature, but for identifying species.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:24:02 +0000

I enjoy a good rainstorm, or heavy breeze, or natural sounds of birds, bugs, etc.

Most nature recordings that I’ve come across (including many here as well) strive to give a variety of bird sounds or other things that “stand out”. You say it yourself, “Some birdsong is exhilarating, electric, it sends thrills up the spine. The calls of big Woodpeckers in Asia could not be called relaxing listening.”

A few hours of babbling brook, without the close-up squawk of a bird that suddenly punctuates the calm, would be better when I’m reading a book, or falling asleep.

I’m do enjoy “In a Sheltered Valley”, though there are a few “closeups” that I could do without. Sometimes I play it on a loop and it would be better without those highlights that almost start to become too predictable. (Am I making sense?)

Your recordings are ALL wonderful. I wouldn’t mind (and would pay for!) some extended recordings of solid backgrounds of outdoor ambiance that doesn’t vary every five or ten minutes into something different, or have startling highlights. Full 1 hour (or even two or three hour tracks), so that if I put it on repeat I don’t start recognizing patterns in my background noise, would be terrific.