There’s an awesome music scene in Shanghai. And I had the opportunity to record the sounds of a practise session of an entire orchestra of traditional Chinese instruments, rehearsinga new piece. Guided by a woman conductor.
Getting to go the premier of the piece during the Shanghai Music Festival really was the icing on the cake!
You might be surprised to learn that arid western American states like Arizona have an amazing diversity of amphibian life. These are a couple of my favourite spring recordings.
Its enormously difficult to get noise pollution free recordings - overflying plane traffic is the major issue, usually at its busiest in the early evening, just when the frogs and toads are calling to best effect..
Northern Leopard Frogs are a particular favourite of mine … hear why in this short episode.
Photo by Eyal Shochat
This is a montage of sounds from some of my favourite, resonant urban spaces … from an underpass in El Mirage, Arizona, the interior hall of the amazing sail-shaped Maritime Museum in Pudong, China … to a concert in the Bascule Chamber of Tower Bridge, London - under the River Thames.
On very rare occasions, the overhead jet plane traffic that plagues soundcape recordings over places like the English countryside, stops for some reason. In 2010 it was the eruption of an Icelandic volcano that brought quiet to the skies. And gave me a wonderful opportunity to record some soundscapes around the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north west England…
Recording fireworks can be tricky. You want to safely (!) get some fairly close up details - but finding good resonant spaces … and some nice crowd appreciation oohs and ahhs is good too.
These are some of my favourite recordings from New Year in the UK and Lunar New Year in Shanghai - along with an example of how I used some of those sounds in an experimental radio documentary I made for Australian National Radio. .
It was time to return to Seoul. This time in a comfortable long distance coach, with my bike stowed away in the luggage compartment. But first … a lucky chance to go to a live concert by one of Korea’s favourite bands.
Then finally, back in Seoul - the perfect summer festival to end my trip with.
I’d arrived in the south coast city of Busan. Exhausted! So I treated myself to some time away from the bicycle, exploring the rich soundscapes of the city on foot.
Waiting to be discovered was tasty street food, the incredible Jalgachi fish market, and Korean ‘trot’…
Somewhat the worse for wear after my cycle crash, I carried on - only to find that there were shorter but much steeper hills to tackle on the southern parts of the Seoul to Busan cycling route.
It was a stretch of the trip that included navigating the busy streets of Gumi City (pictured below), savage gradients, lush nighttime cricketscapes, and the Tomb of the Loyal Cow …
At this point on the trip, I hit the mountains … and after a night in the spa town of Suanbo, it was time to tackle the ‘big climb’ directly south of there.
But it wasn’t the gradients that were the problem … the soundscape became full of very loud distractions…. and then - a crash!
As I pressed on through the Korean countryside, along mostly flat bike paths than ran along large river valleys, all had been calm. Until I happened on a Saturday village festival featuring Pungmul … traditional Korean country music making.
Time to hop off the bike and break out the sound kit!
It was nice cycling along the Han Gang - or Han River bike trail, but still very much in an urban environment.
Then … a dedicated bike tunnel - and on the other side, something completely different!
Find out how the soundscape changed here …
To say that my bike was ‘fully loaded’ was an understatement. Not only did I have gear for the ride from Seoul to Busan, some 600kms, but I also had a stripped-down sound kit with me.
It was pretty nerve wrackiing that sunny September morning when I set off and joined the cycling trail on the Han River, that would take me, mostly on dedicated cycle paths, all the way down the spine of the country to the south coast city of Busan.
But first, there was Seoul to explore ….
Discover what it sounds like when you go down a prairie dog burrow … and encounter a nest full of pups!
I’d tried doing this by putting a small mic on the end of a flexible fishing pole and inserting it down a burrow … but prarie dogs make lots of sharp turns in their tunnels so that didn’t work.
Then I got the chance to record in a burrow specially prepared for a BBC filming project - the camera crew’s attempt to get video failed, but I captured these wonderfully intimate and never-before heard sounds.
The bees featured here are a normally solitary species called Diadasia rinconis - but they congregate in giant breeding colonies in the spring. Even when in a mating swarm of up to half a million, they’re pretty calm. But wearing sturdy boots, thick trousers and a long-sleeved shirt is a good idea.
To capture the close up sounds of bees in a roiling mating ball, bee expert Steve Buchmann used heavy gloves to grab them and put them into a shoe box I’d made two holes in, which I poked a pair of DPA 4060 high sensitivity omnis into.
How to record sound while riding pillion on a scooter? Of course this involves windshielding. - in this case a specialized headset and an unusual positioning. Electric scooters of course are quiet enough to capture some nice street ambiances if you roll slowly by. On a noisier machine, its the motor noise, along with cool roadside effects and idling when stopped at traffic lights and slowly weaving through heavy traffic.
These recordings were made in central Shanghai and Seoul - including bridges and tunnels across the Han River, the main road through Gangnam, in heavy traffic on the Sinchon Rotary. and winding around the base of Namsun Park.
Hear what it sounds like from the ground to 150 feet up in the canopy of the rain forest on Barro Colorado in the middle of the rainy season.
Recorded while I was staying at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s field station, which is located on this island in the middle of the Panama Canal.
I used DPA 40460s and a Sennheiser 418S stereo shot gun on this trip. These mics performed very well in the hot, very humid conditions, as did my Sound Devices recorder.
This is a whimsical portrayal of the trials and tribulations of having dragons come into the studio to record some lovely sfx. I was careful to use creatures that (in evolutionary terms) are the closest living relatives of pterodactyls and dinosaurs - or sound like they should be! In my imagination, dragons don’t just ‘speak’ with the generic loud cliched roars typically used in films and games. They are much more nuanced than that. So enjoy my dragon wrangling - this package of sounds is available for purchase at: http://www.dianehope.com/sounds-for-sale And get varied, unique dragon sounds without having to get your gear toasted. Bespoke sounds and custom sound design also available.
Members of the North American woodpecker family, Northern Flickers love to drum on trees … and anything else that can make a satisfying, territory-defining clamour. When they start drumming on metal chimneys and street lights though, they turn into the metalheadz of the suburban ‘hood.
To find out more about these birds go to: https://www.birdnote.org/bird/northern-flicker-colaptes-auratus and https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/overview
The sheng is likely something you’ve never heard … or heard of. It’s a Chinese mouth-blown free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes. It’s been described as looking as if someone is taking a hit on a giant bong! But it’s one of China’s most ancient instruments, with images depicting it dating back to 1100 BCE. Some people say that it was this instrument that gave the idea for the western pipe organ. And is sounds … amazing.
Experience what that sound is like with me, as I happened upon it at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music - and enjoy the coments of Professor Wu Wei, one of the world’s leading sheng players.
Recorded with a Rode NT mic in XY stereo.
When I visted the former port area on Fuxing Island, on the Huangpu River close to Shanghai in 2015, much of the area was a rumble field, waiting to be redeveloped. But tied up at the quayside were some of the iconic river barges that ply the river with cargo - they’re the ones you’ll see all day and night as you’re taking a stroll along The Bund. And they’ve got a wonderful throaty chug. Getting close to these boats felt like a moment of time suspended between older and future times.
Recorded with head mounted DPA 4060s - listen with good headphones for the full, immersive binaural stereo effect.
© 2015 Shanghai Sounds Guide