Winter Rain. Recorded in oak forest near Ithaca, NY, on New Year’s Day 2020.© Lang Elliott. Please wear headphones.
Note: The recording featured here is a “3D binaural soundscape”. Please wear headphones for a profound listening experience that will make you think you’re actually out there, immersed in the natural world!
To commemorate the New Year with nature sounds, I spent a number of hours attempting to record light rain falling in an oak woods, the raindrops splatting against compressed leaves and patches of snow. Altogether I’m quite happy with the result, but the task was not exactly an easy one. In fact, the segment featured above was actually captured just before midnight, after numerous failed attempts due to: 1) excessive wind, 2) the rain becoming too heavy or else stopping altogether, and 3) distant traffic or airplane noise spoiling my effort. When the clock struck midnight I was wet, cold, tired and totally miserable … yet I had somehow prevailed! So I breathed a long sigh of relief, wished the forest a Happy New Year, and headed home on icy roads to a warm and cozy bed.
Red Oak leaf on snow. © Lang Elliott.
Rain is actually quite difficult to record, at least if one desires a natural sound. Given that the microphone setup must be placed outdoors, preferably in a wild area far from human habitations, it must somehow be protected from the rain, but in such a way that the listener does not hear raindrops hitting the microphone setup itself or else hitting an umbrella or other structure placed overhead (as you can imagine, rain hitting an umbrella sounds very unnatural).
After much experimentation, I have developed an effective solution to this problem that involves placing my soundscape mic within a special frame that is wrapped with acoustically transparent speaker cloth (to dampen the effect of wind), and that has a thick layer of absorbent furnace filters placed on top (to dampen the sound of raindrops hitting the frame). The proof, of course, is “in the pudding,” so please tell me … do the raindrops in my recording sound natural to your ear?
Friends … if you find that my posts have a positive impact on your life, please help support my effort by making a modest donation.
I just Love your stories and website. Just discovered you! As a woman who is elderly and disabled, who cannot get out too much anymore into the natural world as I once did before, I appreciate what you do in more ways than one. I can tell that you really love what you’re doing and that’s a good life to live. by the way are you looking for a spouse? Just kidding anyways thank you so much for your contribution to this world it is astounding and so beautiful one of the best websites I’ve been to in a long… Read more »
Hi Lang, A quick question – Any chance you can make your PureNature app available to us loving android users? 🙂
Thank you so much, Lang, for sticking it out through all the misery in order to get this fabulous recording! And yes, it sounds very natural. I felt transported. My husband and I were out with our 2 kids years ago when they were young teens. When we came home it was pouring rain. They went in the house laughing at us, because we both chose to sit outside in the car a bit longer just to listen to the rain. A beautiful sound. Your recording is a million times better than the sound in a car. 🙂 … By… Read more »
Hi Lang- It does sound natural, lovely! I can hear the iciness, and the sound of the drops on leaves is very nice, thanks for posting this.
Hi Lang,
this is absolutely, perfectly beautiful. I am just home from a time in the hospital with some kind of seizures or something, I’ve been feeling very confused and scared. your recording fills me with happiness and peace, Im soaking up that sound of rain like water on the dessicated land of my mind. Thank you, thank you,
John
Lang…..I have so missed your postings and I love these raindrops. So completely soothing after the week we have all had! Funny thing is I just got through writing on “January Quiet in the Ozarks”….and this reminded me that it’s not always quiet in January. Your work is so interesting and I share it with a lot of friends. Thank you so much. Cheers, Joy Weigel Harp
Joy: Where are you in the Ozarks? I have some really nice soundscapes from the Leatherwood Wilderness and I always enjoy hanging out in nearby Mountain View, especially when the musicians are doing their thing.
Hi Lang….I live in Mountain View, Arkansas…have been here since 1993 and absolutely love it…the clear waters, the woods, clean air…my kind of living..
My brother Bill lives in Berkeley CA. and I just talked to him tonight about your Music of Nature. I’ll have to search back into your archives for the Leatherwood Wilderness soundscapes. Let me know if you come to Mt. View again….Cheers, Joy
hello, Lang. Sorry you got cold, wet ,and miserable recording the Winter Rain. sounds like eggs frying )( no insult intended. I must be hungry. Lol. Pictures are beautiful Thank you, Aimee E. 1/5/21 Happy New year/. So glad you are back.. ( But, A good thing came of it)
Welcome back, Lang. I closed my eyes and was immediately transported to the woods standing under a tree listening to the rain as it ran and dripped and splashed, soaking the into the ground. I loved it when it slowly stopped!
Why thank you Juanita! And how are things up your way?
All is good. Miss having you on the island – always such fun. Perhaps we’ll see you again one of these seasons back at Hog Island.
I visited with Steve briefly as I passed through in 2019, on my way to the Bonaventure Island, but I didn’t go out to the island. Hopefully I’ll make a jaunt up there this coming summer, but who knows considering that the pandemic may still be raging.
welcome back and happy new year, lang!!! ‘wished the forest a happy new year’……….no doubt, it replied back. nature always does.
The forest just said … “the salamanders may be sleeping now, but soon they will be stirring” (which made sense to me because I was standing right next to a vernal pool where spotted salamanders mate).
Welcome back! Your recordings are a great gift and very much appreciated!
The description of how you’ve gone about recording this particular “Rain Oak forest” is quite technical. Very interesting. Thank you for braving the cold, icy, wet weather of Ithaca NY so your readers/ listeners can enjoy your recordings. I truly mean that because I could never be out in such weather. Thanks for I have truly been relaxing beside my pellet stove here in East Tennessee soaking in the sounds. Very relaxing.
East Tennessee? Near the Smoky Mountains? One of my favorite spots is Cade’s Cove.
So healing! This recording is such a fantastic antidote to the chaos all around us. Thank you, Lang, for this soothing clip of a Gaia lullabye.
I could use this recording to fall asleep every night, so soothing. Thank you
I never thought of how recording rain could be difficult! I think it sounds mostly natural – enough that it made me feel like I was standing outside under a tree, listening to the varying heaviness of rain drops falling around me. As always, thank you for sharing this lovely soundscape.
If it transports you effortlessly, then I suppose it’s about as good as it gets for a two-channel recording and a headphone listening experience. I love binaural for its simplicity … just two mics that simulate the two human ears. It works because it picks up time arrival differences at the two ears, along with intensity differences, and the brain automatically displays that (to the ears) as a warm and spacious soundscape with considerable depth.
very difficult to get rain right ! thank you for this offering. it does sound very natural. alas, ‘right as rain’ has a sonic solution. it’s mesmerizing. I look forward to more posts.
btw, what is your preferred binaural mic out in the field ?
John: For information about my recording equipment, check out these pages:
https://musicofnature.com/binaural-recording/
https://musicofnature.com/my-story/
Plus here are instructions for a homemade version of my setup, which is no longer available commercially:
https://caperteebirder.com/?page_id=284
wonderful information, Lang. thank you. sorry for the lapse in replying. I was reminded to finish exploring your links when your Coyote Moon email came in. that was a revelation! truly extraordinary moment. all the best. yours in sound.
Great that you are back ! So looking forward to hearing some of your recordings again. I love this rain- cast and hope it made being wet and cold at the end of it worth it!
Lovely gentle splats and drops – how luxurious to hear it while staying dry and warm.. Thank you.
I really enjoy this! However, I tried putting my headphones on my 90-year-old dad’s head and he could hear nothing. The rain sounds too much like the ‘normal’ static he hears in his right hearing-aid! He couldn’t tell the difference – but I can! Love it! I had some nature-sound CDs that I played as “night music,” as well as ambient-noise in my large backyard greenhouse full of tropical plants. One CD featured a thunderstorm, which I used all one winter to habituate my dogs to the sound of thunder, and they didn’t bark at the “real thing” the next… Read more »
Love it…. your back story reminds me of the effort dancers give to make their leaps look effortless.
Amazing sound quality. Really captures being in the woods while it’s raining. I have all your Pure Nature albums. Strangely enough – or perhaps not so strangely – I listen to your Thunder Gods section in Pure Nature app to lull me to sleep. Glad to have you back.
Dick: I think thunderstorms are very relaxing, as long as there are no sudden, super-loud, jolting thunderbolts that come out of nowhere and hammer one’s brain.
I think I know those woods or at least have stood in a rainy forest within a couple miles of them! Very grateful to experience those soft drips and drops and splatters and plops again.
My internal editor wants to check … did you capture the sound on New Year’s Day 2020 or 2021?
Actually, both. I started my final and best recording at around 11:30pm New Year’s Day and ended it 45 minutes later at 12:15am (I stopped because the wind started picking up). I made it in the middle of the dirt road section of Van Dorn Road, not far outside of Ithaca, NY.
Yes, it sounds just like when I go into the woods when it’s raining.
Welcome back Lang.
Great reentry into your blog world. Actually took me to a couple of past experiences. Thank You
I can attest to how difficult (and at times infuriating!) it is to capture this kind of sound in the modern world. A Foley artist might capture a few seconds and be happy to loop it, as it would remain hidden as a ‘bed’ for other sounds such as dialog and music; a true recordist has to be ready to ‘begin again’ over and over. Well done, Lang! Your binaural recording is superb, as it seems to quietly wake up the soul.
I thought that extraneous human-created sounds would vanish after nightfall, but around 7pm an electric line fell into the highway about a mile away, so I had to endure about four hours of distant on-and-off rumbling and banging as a crew did the repair work. I didn’t know until later where all the noise was coming from. When I left at midnight, there was still a lot of equipment at that location and one lone worker was hooking up an electric line. I stopped and asked what all the commotion was about and he explained what had transpired. So that’s… Read more »
So happy to see/hear you back – it’s like getting a soul massage to hear this latest recording! Thank you for your efforts and for sharing with us, Lang!!
simply Yes thank you.
thank you
Simply exquisite. Love the backstory. And, YES, welcome back!! With all the noise we seem to live with, you find and deliver the best by-products of silence.
yes … let nature do the talking, silence being the absence of human interference.
Welcome back Lang! Looking forward to many more recordings and the rain recording is spot on! Peaceful.
Thank you Gail and I hope you’re well in your new home!
I love this!
This podcast is so relaxing. Glad to see this post and listen to the rain.
Ooh I love the backstory here. Would love to see a photo of this contraption. Always appreciative for what you do…keep on. 🙂
Here’s my contraption.
GENIUS! As an audio engineer I can COMPLETELY appreciate that setup. It sounds absolutely wonderful. So good to have you back!
Rebecca: The more “dead air” that surrounds the mic, the better, at least when it comes to wind. My wind box (as I call it) is like a super big blimp windscreen, with plenty of dead air space to absorb sudden pressure changes. The only drawback is that it’s too big to put on a tripod, so it has to be placed on the ground or else on a rock or other naturally elevated large structure. I’m sure that placing it on the ground effects the audio, but in practice it sounds great great. The furnace filters on top work… Read more »
ahhh – delightful natural “music” – thank you Lang
Good to see and hear your posts again.
When I listen to your other recordings that include rain (like Spring Delights from 2018), I often wonder how you record rain without recording the sound of rain hitting whatever is protecting the microphone! So I was thrilled to read this blog post. I’ve been listening to your podcasts over and over during the pandemic. I’m very grateful for your work–thank you!
oh yes … podcasts … I hope to get back into that this coming year. The problem is how darned long they take to put together.
Nice to hear your recordings again. The rain takes me right there in the canopy on a fall day!!!
That’s what’s so nice about using a binaural mic … that the recording literally transports one into the wild.
Thank you Lang ! And happy new year with sunshines also…
Jean-Yves from Bordeaux (FR)
A perfectly natural sound! Beautiful and one of my favorite sounds- gentle rain in the woods whether I’m birding or sitting in a tree stand. A really wonderful recording Lang. Thank you and Happy 2021
Thank you. A comforting sound in winter’s chill. We need to be able to be calm in the midst of the pandemic threat and keep ourselves and our families safe and sane.
well, I do hope my recording conveys the rain’s essential “calmness” and not my crazy mind while trying to capture the soundscape.