This recording was made on a small footbridge on Vogelinsel (engl. bird island) at the Altmühlsee (a lake) in Germany, which is a nature reserve. The microphone was mounted on a stand. On both sides of the bridge is water. All around are other small islands. At the time of recording, there were no other people on the islands. It was a relatively cold day, constant wind can be heard. Throughout the recording, there are a large number of different bird calls audible (esp. ducks, herons, geese,...), sometimes also flapping of wings. Those sounds mix with churchbells from the surrounding villages and distant traffic noise.

A recording

This recording exhibits the silent landscape of the Mojave Desert at night. Very minimal sonic events happen during this recording, the most notable of which being an airplane flying overhead. Sporadically throughout the recording small birds begin chirping and at a couple points near the end of the recording, larger birds flapping their wings become an brief sonic characteristic to the recording.

Due to this recording's environment, there is a lot of reverberation from the birds chirping, vehicles passing by and the occasional plant life being brushed together. There are over 10 instances of cars passing by, most of which are large trucks - presumably semis passing through on the highway. Throughout the recording there are a plethora of birds calling and chirping. At one particular point in the recording, no cars or trucks pass for over three minutes and the sounds of the birds thrive inside the cave-like environment this recording was made in.

This recording contains sounds equally from nature and humans. There are four instances when a car will drive right next to microphone and zoom past from the right channel to the left. Essentially this entire 2 hour recording has ambience of vehicles driving along the freeways in the distance as well as consistent sounds of bird calls. There are a few instances where a squawking bird begins calling quite close to the microphone and the timbre of its voice is very clear. The rest of the bird calls are are a little off in the distance and only vary between birds once about three times.

This recording contains a long sample of running water falling from a small creek. A few times in the recording what seems to be a very, very gentle breeze causes the stream to flow differently for a brief moment, otherwise the stream of the creek is consistent throughout the recording. Another sonic characteristic to this recording are a few crickets chirping. The crickets have been noted accordingly.

This recording is very silent. There sounds that occur throughout the recording are far into the distance. These sounds include consisted chirping of crickets from about the 13 minute mark until the end of the recording; cars passing along the freeway system; bird calls and the sounds of airplanes passing overhead.

This file contains a large, evolving soundscape of crickets chirping. About 3/4 through the recording there is a fairly dense sonic field of crickets chirping which create a nice immersive environment. There is a short instance where an airplane flies over the scene as well as some nice sounding breezes, but the majority of the recording is the crickets chirping together. The recording is marked at 8:36PM.

This file contains a few interesting events. As stated in the previous recording, this recording also contains the same electronic beeping in intervals of 25 seconds. There are some interesting bird calls, one sounding similar to a seagull’s caw, and one loud squawking bird call. From about the 9:30 minute mark until the end of the recording there is a very gradual build up of crickets chirping together. It starts with just one until the 15:30 minute mark.

This file does not contain too many major events. There are continuous winds, sporadic bird calls and microphone pops throughout the recording. Starting at about the 14 minute mark, there is an electronic beeping sound that could be coming from a walkie talkie, mobile cell phone or other electronic device. The sound repeats every 25 seconds for the remainder of the recording. There is also a fly that makes plenty of appearances throughout the recording.

This file contains consisted winds with birds calling and singing throughout the duration of the recording. The winds vary in strength and proximity for the first 20 minutes of the recording while the last five minutes the winds become more tame.

This file contains frequent reoccurring events that mostly contain bird calls or notably strong winds. There are consistent winds present throughout the recording, as well as insects flying around the microphones. The author describes the recording at about the 1 minute mark stating that the GPS is marked Mojave 16, 05, 2014. It is Friday, May 16th at 6:36PM. According the the description there are lots of little bugs flying all over the place. Someone describes that it is overcast and the sun is going to set in about an hour. The recording was made in ambisonic A format on channels 1 - 4 and MS microphones recording on channels 5 and 6. The gain on the sound field microphone is set at 53db, the gain on the MS pair is also set at 53db and center. These recordings are hoping to document the sounds of coyotes.

This recording contains a wind sound scape with plenty of wildlife activity. Sporadically throughout, new birds chime in to the recording and gives their unique calls for a few minutes at a time. Needless to say the wind overpowers most of the bird calls as most of the birds are usually off in to the distance. There a couple of instances in where wildlife movement becomes audible. This events are quite brief however, but they depict the dry dessert landscape.

The large majority of sonic activity in this recording comes from wind. At only a couple of instances in the recording do other sounds occur, i.e bird calls, wildlife movement. Rather, the recording as a whole documents are large wind soundscape. There are also tiny clicks and pops from the microphone slightly moving around on the tripod throughout the recording. The sounds are very faint.

This recording includes many different animal and insect sounds from birds and frogs to crickets and other small critters. There is a steady wind throughout the recording as well as the sounds of cars and planes. The very end of the recording is marked with the time, 9:09AM

This recording is very uneventful. The sound of wind, cars, birds and squeaking remain constant throughout the entire recording. There is a popping sound that begins at about 5 minutes and is random until the end of the recording. Also, a bug seems to be very interested in the microphone and makes frequent visits. There are some unique bird calls that I have noted that stand out from the others.

This recording was done at 7:57 AM on March 16, 2014. The recording features aircraft and birds. The aircraft is not marked in time because it is consistent throughout the entire track. It turns into a dull noise that blankets the recording. There are also birds chirping for a majority of the recording, though they may be faint against wind or aircraft.

This recording contains a massive sample of wind fluctuating through the landscape and cacti. There are some very strong winds which cause the microphone to clip at times, and there also some very peaceful wind samples that blow around dried leaves, sticks and cacti spines creating an interesting sonic texture. There are also a few instances about halfway through the recording when a wonderful songbird belts out a few tunes.

This recording contains a large sample of winds blowing through the organ pipe cacti. Along with the variation of wind sounds are the sounds of dried shrubbery and cacti spines rustling together and blowing around in the winds, creating a light, whispering blanket of texture. The winds vary in strength during the recording and at one point almost clip the microphone. At at any given time in the recording there are birds calling and chirping in the background of the scene. They remain present throughout the recording, although their sounds are not a focus of this particular recording.

This recording has consistent wind, bugs, and birds, but has a lot of unique bird calls throughout the entire piece.

This recording contains a steady amount of wind and consistent bird chirping throughout the entire recording. About every 30 seconds or so, a bug flies around the microphone.

This recording is predominately heavy winds and the sound of footsteps on gravel. There are some small spots where birds are chirping, people are talking, and a car is moving.

This track was recorded on March 15, 2014 at 1:27 PM with an ambisonic mic in the middle of an organ pipe cactus. This is a recording in ambisonic A format and MS Schoeps. This recording is mostly wind with faint bird chirping scattered throughout. There is human movement and talking at the beginning as the author sets the scene. There are both large gusts of wind and deep rumbles of wind that sound as if it is thunder, or wind brushing against a microphone.

This file contains a large sample of the wind whistling through Organ Pipe Cacti. There are a plethora of instances when the microphone clips from strong winds passing through, all of which have be tagged microphone clipping. There are also some brief instances of birds calling and chirping in the distance.

At virtually any point in this recording one can scrub to a period in the file, listen for a few moments and here lush winds blowing across the landscape; dried leaves and shrubbery being pushed along the landscape; and various bird calls. There are two specific instances where the sonic environment was particularly pleasing and have been been annotated as so. There are also a couple of instances where some interesting wildlife movement is audible. At the 55 minute mark, there is a heavy flapping sound coming from, presumably, a bird taking flight from the recording location. The other is of a humming bird-esque fluttering that occurs around the 1 hour, 5 minute mark. The last notable event is wildlife movement from what could possibly be a rodent or other small animal. At the 1:35:04 mark the critter moves from the left channel to about the middle and then a few moments later quickly scurries from the right channel to the far left.

This recording contains many samples of wildlife activity. Such as birds chipping, birds fluttering their wings, and birds hopping around on the ground pecking at the floor. There are also many samples of wind and plant life moving in the wind; i.e. shrubbery brushing against one another, dried sticks and leaves being pushed around on the floor. At virtually any point in the recording these sounds are present after a few moments of listening. The more prevalent events, or sections, of these sonic events have been noted accordingly.

This recording contains more samples of bird calls and wildlife activity. There is a great session between a few birds calling back and forth between one another creating a large spacial environment due to their proximity. Other than this event, the only other instance is a vehicle drives through the scene at about the 8 minute mark.

This file contains a couple minutes of birds chirping at the beginning and at about the 2:20 mark the author documents the recording by stating the time, 7:59AM, and that the sun has come up. The remainder of the recording are all sounds of human movements through the landscape.

This file contains quite a few events of bird calls. No movement from animals was audible, but there are some great samples of two squawking birds calling to one another. A notable sound is at the 23:12 mark when it sounds like a bird is fluttering to get up and start flying while at the same time creating an interesting phasing effect.

This recording contains a good sample of the different calls from a variety of birds and some small movements by small animals. The bird calls vary in proximity to the microphone and they are sporadic through the section marked - some calls occurring more frequently at times. The sounds of the movement by the animals are very brief, lasting only about a second. The sounds are more of swift passes through shrubbery creating a quick “brushing” sound.

This recording has a significantly more events that the previous recording. The high pitched chirping, previously noted, is much more present in a few events in this file. There are also a couple instances of distant bird calls and some quite interesting movement sounds from rodents on the floor of the biosphere. The movements and animal calls are still very quiet and require a few extra dB before they become decently audible with headphones.

This recording contains a good deal of wildlife activity. Virtually the entire 20 minute recording documents birds singing and calling. New bird calls come and go throughout the recording, but there are two noticeably new calls from close by birds at the 6:58 and 8:55 mark. Stunningly, at the 16:17 mark a goose becomes clearly audible in the recording and gives quite a few calls before exiting the scene.

This file does not contain much activity. For a brief moment there is a nice soundscape of the birds in the background, however other than those few seconds, this file contains mostly the sounds of someone moving around.

This file contains an abundance of wildlife activity. The beginning 2.5 minutes there is a truck passing through the scene and clears the sonic environment at about the 2:27 mark. The author of the recording notes that ambisonics were being recorded on channels 1-4 and MS on channels 5-6 (although the files in this database have been split). From about the 5:45 mark to about the 9:45 mark (about 4 minutes) there are continuous bird calls with very slight variation from the birds; most calls are very distant. There is a noticeable, but gradual, change in the calls between a few birds starting at the 2:25 mark until about the 5:45 mark. After this point, the bird that was calling closer to microphone quiets down and is not present in the space from then on. A notable point in the recording is the entrance of a crow-sounding bird that comes in around the 10:13 mark in the recording. The timbre of the crow's voice and its call is noticeably different from the rest of the birds in this scene.

This was recorded at 6:18 PM on 9 March as the sun was going down. The file contains a good amount of birds (and at some points insects) chirping and calling. Almost all of the bird sounds are very far off in the distance and have a small characteristics to their timbre. However, the bird sounds do move around in the stereo field at some points and create an interesting sense of space. There are also some nice gusts of wind throughout the recording as well as very, very faint sounds of cars that are virtually inaudible without proper headphones.

This file contains a few instances of birds chirping far off in the distance and there are also some lovely wind sounds sporadically within the recording. The majority of the recording is silent while the last three minutes contain sounds of the microphone being adjusted.