Enquiring Ear

Field recording and found sounds

Category: atmospheres

“Atmospheres” are common to all field recording. Sometimes referred to as “atmos” or “wild-tracks” they provide a context to a recording. “atmospheres” are barely noticed but they are, nevertheless, an integral part of the programme sound.

  • Fonnereau Way Soundscape

    The Fonnereau Way has been used since the mid-1800s, although it’s been the subject of a fight when a incoming resident at the Westerfield end tried to block it up and have it stopped on several occasions. Network Rail has also had it in for the pedestrian level crossing but have also failed to have it struck off.

    The path is slated to become a feature in the new Ipswich Garden Suburb development and the level crossing will be replaced with a bridge according to this document.

    The Fonnereau Way is the mainly vertical line to the left, with a bridge to put ‘elf’n’safety at Network Rail out of its misery

    Becoming a housing estate will clearly change this part of the Fonnereau Way, so I walked this to capture some pictures and soon to be historical sounds from the route. The farmland is intensively farmed and heavily sprayed as I’ve observed a few times, it’s quite possible that being turned into a housing estate may actually increase the biodiversity. Although the birds will be persecuted by hundreds of domestic cats and the gardens will no doubt be tiny, the farmland doesn’t support that many birds at the moment.

    The Fonnereau Way starts from Christchurch Park, but I started where the changes will be made, where it crosses Valley Road. In the local plan all vehicle access will be from Henley Road rather than Valley Road.

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    the nondescript entrance to the Fonnereau Way from Valley Road

    and it’s a noisy place. It gets better quickly as the old path threads its way past some sports facilities and the playing fields

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    before reaching farmland

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    There are a few birds in the farmland, but to be honest the urban Brunswick Road Rec has more diversity to my ears, the birds are few and far between

    A chiffchaff makes itself known.

  • Urban birdsong – Brunswick Rd rec dawn chorus

    Ipswich council did a nice job making this rec better for wildlife while keeping the facilities. It’s a pleasant little oasis of birdlife. The birds are getting up earlier than the Sunday traffic on the ring road. This recording is a lovely piece of avian exuberance and joie de vivre.

    Recording started at 5:30 am

     

    Brunswick Road rec wildlife area
  • Waves at Hopton on the East Coast

    Waves at Hopton on the East Coast

    The east coast has to be defended from the sea by placing massive rocks on the beach. Hopton is almost about as far east as you can get. The rocks make little inlets which make for an interesting soundscape, with the rattle of the pebbles against the long swoosh of the incoming waves, with some very low-frequency rumble from the rocks.

    Binaural recording

  • Bawdsey Quay

    The sounds of summer at Bawdsey in the school holidays – a motorboat starts up and moves off, and then the passenger ferry arrives from Felixstowe Ferry

    Bawdsey looking towards Felixstowe Ferry
    Bawdsey looking towards Felixstowe Ferry
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    Bawdsey Beach

    Bawdsey Beach

  • Leeds Victoria Quarter covered arcade

    Leeds Victoria Quarter covered arcade

    Des Coulam of Soundlandscapes had warmed me up that glass-covered markets had a great ambience. He has a whole section dedicated to the Parisian passages-couvertes so I was chuffed to find this one on a visit to Leeds – the old Victoria Quarter.

  • Swifts on a warm summer evening

    Swifts are one of the fantastic soundmarks of summer, and they sound at their best in the city, with their high-pitched screaming resonating from the houses all around. You get them in rural parts too, but the sound needs the hard surfaces of the city when they come in low at rooftop height in the warm summer evenings. According to the BTO they like towns.

    The Devil’s Bird is the devil’s own job to record, too. You don’t try and track them, there’s just no hope to get anything directional on the job, and the screaming groups tend to spread out as they get close too. Just don’t even think of using a parabolic dish or a shotgun mic 😉

    This one is basically the Olympus LS-10 with internal mics propped in a first-floor window, and snipped out of a long trawl for swifts, Then I used a parametric EQ to hit some of the town traffic rumble.

  • Leeds students returning from Fresher’s Week party

    Leeds students returning from Fresher’s Week party

    Happy students coming back after getting hammered.

  • Spinney Birdlife

    There’s a spinney nearby, so over the holidays I got myself into the tree and rigged a pair of omnis, and stood really still. The first thing I heard was the mournful repeated tone of the collared dove, a steady counterpoint to the recording, with its mournful ho-HOO-hoo, with the stress on the first syllable. Later on the woodpigeon appears, with its ho-hoo-HOO-HOO-ho-hoo, and there are various other birds flitting around in the undergrowth.

    It was a very windy day, so there is a lot of wind noise in the trees, which adds atmosphere for me, reminding me of a special moment with the birds

  • Southwold Footbridge Ripples

    Southwold Footbridge Ripples

    Windy recording of the ripples lapping at the mudbanks by the Southwold Footbridge

    It was a seriously windy day, good for ripples but not so good for the recording.

  • Fat Cat Pub ambience

    The Fat Cat pub in Ipswich is a fine real ale pub, which serves many of its beers gravity-fed. Sound-wise, however, the pub is a nightmare – lots of glass which reflects the conversation, to the extend that on a full Friday or Saturday night you struggle to hear your mates over a small round table. Thankfully they don’t have muzak or a jukebox! This was only made worse by the addition fo a conservatory extension with a plastic pitched roof that focuses the sound onto the middle tables. However, the beer and the ambience makes up for the odd lost word.

    This recording was made on a Wednesday so there were fewer customers, it was okay for conversation.