Earth Notes: Diarycast - Ambient Sound of a Graveyard (2020-05-13)

Updated 2022-10-17 20:51 GMT.
By Damon Hart-Davis.
Ambient sound of silence (nearly) from a tranquil (nearly) suburban cemetery... #podcast #lockdown2020 #SilentCities
20200513 episode spectrogram
655s "20200513" Uploaded . Download stereo MP3 clip 10821kB (may not be available in data-saver/lite mode), download low-bandwidth mono MP3 clip 3312kB, hi-fi stereo lossless clip 43095kB.
Transcript:
cemetery ambient recording 1 to 3 Blue Yeti and MacBook Air 20200513 20200513 episode spectrogram

Diarycast

Hi, I'm Damon Hart-Davis, and welcome to Earth Notes' podcast on all things eco and green and efficient @Home!

13th May 2020.

This is the first day of (slightly) relaxed coronavirus lockdown, and we're allowed to spend time, alone and stationary, in public places. Obviously, recording the ambient sound of a graveyard is the right thing to do...

So this is a somewhat unusual episode almost without words.

I've picked from birdsong, wind noise, and noises-off from delivery vans, rubbish lorries, at least one airplane, emergency-services sirens, etc. I missed recording the pair of black helicopters that passed overhead!

Enjoy!

[... 8 clips ...]

There's more on my "Earth Notes" Web site at Earth.Org.UK.

Show Notes

The recording mic was the Blue Yeti on omnidirectional, 48ksps.

The original README is available.

Here are the raw sound files without any processing:

307s "cem1" Uploaded . Download stereo MP3 clip 5056kB, hi-fi stereo lossless clip 16578kB.
308s "cem2" Uploaded . Download stereo MP3 clip 5145kB, hi-fi stereo lossless clip 16610kB.
113s "cem3" Uploaded . Download stereo MP3 clip 1870kB, hi-fi stereo lossless clip 7132kB.
61s "cem4" Uploaded . Download stereo MP3 clip 1043kB, hi-fi stereo lossless clip 3318kB.
316s "cem5" Uploaded . Download stereo MP3 clip 5075kB, hi-fi stereo lossless clip 15605kB.
310s "cem6" Uploaded . Download stereo MP3 clip 4949kB, hi-fi stereo lossless clip 18828kB.

Before inclusion in the episode, clips were "Amplify"ed to peak at -18dB. Fade -in and -out was done for each. ("Normalize" with a peak of -18dB would probably have the same effect.)

The day was chilly and windy (thus lots of wind-in-leaves noise), albeit with some sunshine. I think that the mix of sounds, including the birdsong, would have been different on a more still, warmer day.

I have ordered a Foam Microphone Windscreen with Furry Windscreen Muff - Mic Wind Cover Pop Filter for Blue Yeti (£10 including VAT) in the hope that the fake fur pop filter in particular will let me repeat the ambient sound gathering with less wind noise on the mic itself. Hat-tip to Deniz E for the suggestion...

A couple of bonus end-July "grasshoppers at high noon" captures:

114s "20200730T1159Z grasshoppers and birds in cemetery" Uploaded . Download stereo MP3 clip 3806kB (i) (may not be available in data-saver/lite mode), download low-bandwidth mono MP3 clip 620kB, hi-fi stereo lossless clip 7641kB.
113s "20200730T1214Z grasshoppers and birds in cemetery" Uploaded . Download stereo MP3 clip 3795kB (i) (may not be available in data-saver/lite mode), download low-bandwidth mono MP3 clip 587kB, hi-fi stereo lossless clip 8348kB.
~324 words.