Recorded from just inside the open door of my garage during a fast-moving Thunderstorm. Thunder and rain on concrete along with the same traffic sounds I always get and a train, which I wanted to leave in.

Storm tape never turns out how I like. I need to get rain on a tent, but who has time for that?

Fourteen minutes from the front porch of the cabin we stayed in outside Flagstaff, Arizona, this summer. Late evening, I left the rig on a mic stand zip-tied to the railing in case the wind knocked it down. Ang really wanted the sound of the wind in the aspen trees, a few of which were growing next to the stairs leading up to the porch. You will also hear the birds come up to the feeders nearby.

Recorded from just inside the open door of my garage during a fast-moving Thunderstorm. Thunder and rain on concrete along with the same traffic sounds I always get and a train, which I wanted to leave in.

Storm tape never turns out how I like. I need to get rain on a tent, but who has time for that?

I’ve wanted good campfire tape ever since a certain episode of Nocturne, from a few years ago. Unfortunately, the only times I’ve been camping since then have been places with fire bans in effect. I may take this down later, it’s only up here right now so my wife can listen and tell me what she thinks.

I used a very cold night in January to burn off a lot of fallen wood in our backyard fire pit. No real logs on this fire, just short crackles of sticks and large, ax-shortened branches. It’s about what you would hear any night we’d have a fire, but without people talking.

I’m standing on Jupiter Beach, facing the sea. I’m right where the waves break, although the water touches my tripod legs once or twice. What you hear came through a matched pair of Lewitt 140 Airs into my Zoom F6 field recorder at 96k, 32bit. I stood there with my cans on the whole time. Jupiter Inlet is about 30 yards to my left, and you will hear boats coming in an out along the beach on my side. (The other side of the inlet is private beach, and the jetty is dotted with fishermen) Once the sun is up I notice a couple huddled on a blanket under the sand bank about 20 yards to my right. I have no idea if they were there when I arrived in the dark or if they just got there. Towards the ends of the recording you may hear them or beachcombers in the distance.

This was my second attempt at this beach. On my first try the wind was too strong, even for my good filters. This time the wind was calm and the weather clear so of course I had more boats passing out of the inlet…Which I decided to leave in, it is part of the space after all.

About fifteen minutes along the Guadalupe River where it passes through Kerrville, Texas. I had been to this crossing several times before over the years, but not this particular spot. This is a spot my wife liked when she visited, so I went back a few days later to make this tape for her. It was on a weekday morning, however, so there was more traffic noise on the nearby roads than she had on her visit. 

Recorded at 96kHz on my personal Zoom F6 via a matched pair of Clipply EM272s on my travel stereo bar. 

I’ve used a Zoom H5 in some capacity or another since 2017 and I love everything about it. (Perhaps because it was my first digital recorder I ever worked with.) The display is simple, I love the gain knob with the safety bar across the front. It’s simple and straightforward. Even when I picked up more advanced equipment— either for work or for my own stuff— the H5 lived in my camera bag. And for the same reason my everyday camera did—to catch whatever came up at the time. Most of the time I had to set the gain once and leave it, so this led to some bad tape sometimes. 

To solve this problem (and with some birthday money) I picked up a Zoom H4essential, which has built-in X/Y mics, and…can record in 32 bit float. 

I don’t know how I feel about it yet. 

Setup in Grenwelge Park along the Llano River just below the suspension bridge. Recent rains meant the river was higher than normal (hence the noise) but I’m only here once a year, and I wasn’t as far in as I wanted to be. To the left, sound of traffic on the suspension bridge and just beyond that water over the lake dam. To the right, the river this out, sounds of wind through the long grass. 

Recorded at 96kHz on my personal Zoom F6 via a matched pair of Clipply EM272s on my travel stereo bar. 

A thunderstorm rolling through Waco. Recorded from the porch of an events center in Waco. Traffic sounds from Bosque Boulevard. We were setting up for the state art competition but the rain meant most people were holding off bringing in the art. I set this up and left it recording while I worked on other things. I just needed a few thunderclaps to put in our piece about this event in next week’s podcast. Unfortunately the most spectacular thunderclap of this session was ruined by the beeping of a school bus in reverse.

Recorded at 96kHz on my personal Zoom F6 via a matched pair of Clipply EM272s on my travel stereo bar. 

It was cold and raining and the sun wasn’t even up yet. We couldn’t set up all of our equipment with the rain so I went out and put my recorder on the dashboard of my car. I let it run until busses started showing up to drop off teams. It’s an H5 and the gain wasn’t set correctly, but I still like that sound.

Recorded on H5 mics with it’s X/Y capsule at 48khz 24mps. I’m thinking about one of their new Zoom recorders with 32bit float, for these leave behind recordings…