Mapping the Soundscape

Forest Loop Trail
11/15/2022 3:45 to 5:00pm
34 degrees, light snowfall, little to no wind

I haven鈥檛 done many recordings on Forest Loop so I wanted to revisit the trail. I wasn鈥檛 planning on doing the recordings today because it was getting late and I didn鈥檛 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鈥檛 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.

Forest Trail - detail of a fall day with leaves on the ground


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鈥檛 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鈥檇 have to listen really closely and cut out some of the other noise.

Forest Trail - detail of a microphone on the forest floor


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鈥檛 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.

Forest Trail - detail of a fall day with leaves on the ground and a light dusting of snow


Stereo of Snowfall
I wanted to get as many samples of the snow falling on leaves as possible because it probably won鈥檛 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.

Forest Trail - detail of a fall day with leaves on the ground and a light dusting of snow


Deer Exclusion Fence
I honestly can鈥檛 believe I didn鈥檛 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.

Forest Trail - detail of a fence in the forest


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.

Forest Trail - detail of a fall day with leaves on the ground and a light dusting of snow


Walking on leaves and snow was awful and I felt like I was going to slip constantly.