What could be better than sitting in nature for an hour, listening to birds, insects and the breeze rustling through the trees without a care in the world? Not much I’d wager!

Camping and walking in nature are two of life’s most precious escapes, especially if performed in a quiet environment hours away from the big cities. So for some time off work, I recently drove down to Girraween National Park then further south to Warrumbungle National Park in NSW to get away from the bombardment of daily working life and all of the city and traffic noises that come with it.

To no-one’s surprise at all, it really helped, like really. Along with a generous dose of an activity called “reading”, my ears opened themselves up to all of the sounds around me. Once I returned, I began to listen to field recordings of nature on a playlist I found called “Bush Sounds”, with the sole purpose of trying to maintain that sense of meditative peace.

Truth be told, this year took me on a rollercoaster ride physiologically and I’ve had to work my way through adrenaline dumps and anxiety symptoms through the months oweing to some kind of panic attack I had whilst jogging early in the year. The details aren’t necessary nor warranted here, but needless to say, it’s been a journey to crawl my way out of (I’m doing a lot better now).

To no-one’s surprise again, it turns out that the sounds of birds and streams and wind in the trees are extremely beneficial to one’s mental wellbeing. It’s even backed up by scientific studies I might add, and I sure needed some of that wellbeing stuff.

And as the chirps chirped and the leaves leafed in my ears, I found myself having a curious thought…

What if I tried this recording nature thing? I know how to do audio stuff, and I do likes the natures!

So I got to work, researching field recording, microphones, stereo separation techniques, self-noise floors, directionality, cardiods, supercardiods, androids that dream of electric sheep, that kind of thing.

Eventually I dumped a small aluminium fishing boat’s worth of my hard earned future travel savings on the Zoom H5studio handheld “handy” recorder. It sounds handy and possibly cheap, but it’s neither. It’s actually a little powerhouse capable of 32-bit float recording (think raw capture in photography), includes stereo X/Y microphones with 132dB of dynamic range and dual XLR inputs for higher quality recording setups, with F-series preamps to boot. “F-series preamps” sounds like a good thing, right?

By the way, this post isn’t sponsored and, as such, my “future travels” would like to have a word with me.

Anyway, after some stereo separation and audio quality tests from my balcony, absorbing the relaxing sounds of distant shopping centre air-conditioners, motorcycles on full gas and big-exhaust hatchbacks operated by young whipper-snappers down my urban city street, I decided that I wouldn’t need to spend big money on a dual external microphone setup.

Instead, I’ll use the built-in X/Y microphones for ambient stereo recordings and get myself a condenser shotgun microphone of high caliber to capture specific sound sources like birds in trees which I can then mix into the final result.

I went back and forth, surveying the intricate specs of microphones and how much damage they would inflict on my financial future, when I finally came across the Rode NTG5 broadcast-grade shotgun microphone. It had the right set of specs and accessories for a steeper price than the recorder, but not too wild that it would result in me having to file for bankruptcy. Though it must be said that I am going to have to work hard next year to get around to all of those “future travels” I keep mentioning.

Anyway, the Rode NTG5 has an impressive self-noise floor of 10dB-A, and notably the box included a complete field recording kit including a Rycote shock mount, foam and deadcat wind enclosures, bump-reducing mounted XLR cable and microphone mounts. You bloody ripper! (an Aussie saying meaning “That’s great!”)

Without further ado, behold…

My recording stuff!

Pretty neat, eh?

Now, you’re probably thinking, “That’s all well and good mate, but where are the results? This is all talk with no substance. What’s this chap from Down Under going on about, thinking he’s the next wizard nature field recording artist and offering nothing to show for it?”

Alright, alright, calm down. I’m getting to it. I zipped off to the nearby Mount Glorious rainforest the other day and mucked around, recording a number of short clips.

This here sample is a test mix using two recordings, one being the main ambience of the forest and another using the whip bird calls from a much louder and closer recording, which was ultimately far too loud to use with its own ambient background sound. I didn’t have the Rode NTG5 at this time, so this is solely the Zoom H5studio, handheld or placed on the ground. High-tech professional over here…

Grab a pair of headphones. It won’t take long and then it’ll all be over.

Not bad, don’t you think? I learnt a few things in this small little mixing project. My compression ratio of 2:1 is probably a little strong for the natural dynamics of a forest. At most I think I’ll experiment with 1.5:1 depending on the recording.

I’m also applying some mild EQ-ing, especially in this recording. The rainforest is very close to the winding and rather fun roads that motorcyclists love to zoom about on and think they’re very cool for doing so.

My “real” field recording excursions will be out in isolated forests and natural environments. I’m positively giddy about heading out to Girraween National Park again and wandering through the expansive granite boulder fields and eucalypt woodlands. It’s one of South East Queensland’s precious parks.

As a side note, I’m using Steinberg Cubase Elements 14 to mix my projects. I also plan to switch my recording and editing over to 96KHz, mainly because I can and I want to, not because I necessarily need to with what I’m doing. Storage is cheap though and it’ll mean any adjustments I make in any way are going to be pristinely handled with the 32-bit sampling to boot (which is arguably more important here).

I also purchased the Youlean Loudness Meter plugin for standardised LUFS volume normalisation. As it turns out, Cubase Elements doesn’t include a LUFS plugin and I didn’t want to pay for Steinberg Wavelabs. Besides, I’d rather prefer to mix and master these simple projects in a single environment. I’m silly that way.

Anyway, that’s enough from me. I’ll report back some time in the distant future when we’ve all returned to the forests and abandoned our digital, concrete-filled, vehicular-wielding lives of leisure, 40-hour work weeks, expressive creativity and delicious pizzas. I don’t know which life is better… Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be?