Recording Nature Sounds In The Nantahala National Forest

 

Join me on a field recording trip in the Southern Nantahala Wilderness.

 
 

On 4/22/22, I headed to the Ellicott Rock Wilderness in the Southern Nantahala National Forest in pursuit of capturing pure nature sounds.

In total, I spent 3 nights and 4 days camping and recording here.

The trip was incredibly successful, yielded many noise-pollution-free recordings, and treated me to the beautiful sounds of spring in this remote region.


Location

 

The Southern Nantahala Wilderness is located in a tri-state region encompassing North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

After location scouting the region with Google Maps, AllTrails, and the National Transportation Noise Map, I zeroed in on the Ellicott Rock Wilderness.

This area was far from any primary roads and required traveling on a 5.3 mile gravel road to reach.


Video

 
 

The Behind The Sounds (BTS) video for this trip is available to my supporters on Patreon.

The BTS series is a resource for learning field recording techniques, advice, methodology, and gear selection and set up.

Each episode covers one recording expedition.

It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to film these informative videos in the field and edit them in post production.

To watch this Behind The Sounds episode and the full series to date, consider becoming a Patreon. If you do, you’ll also receive my Field Recording For Beginners eBook and the opportunity to Zoom with me to ask questions, nerd out on gear, or receive critiques on your work.


Photos


Sounds

On this trip, I set up 4 drop rigs and captured sounds with the Telinga Modular while the drop rigs rolled.

Highlights included an incredible recording of a Wood Thrush at close proximity captured with the Telinga Modular and a forest alive with buzzing beetles during the night.

The full album is available for “name your price” on BandCamp.

Please note, BandCamp album sales are for personal listening use only and not for commercial or nonprofit use.


Final Thoughts

This was the first real field test for the Lewitt 540 SubZero microphones.

The large condenser studio microphones were exposed to high humidity and morning dew for all drop rig recordings. They performed great and did not experience any moisture-related issues!

I arranged them in ORTF and although I was pleased with their sound quality, I found the stereo image rather hollow in the center.

For this reason, I modified one of my SASS microphones to accept the Lewitts. Sound samples coming soon!

Support Acoustic Nature

If you enjoyed this post and would like to help support Acoustic Nature, please consider "buying me a coffee" or becoming a Patreon with the buttons below.

As a thank you for your support, Patreon supporters receive a copy of Field Recording For Beginners, exclusive access to the full Behind The Sounds video series, nature sound library downloads, and more.

If you are unable to support the site financially, please share this post with others, or leave a comment below letting me know you enjoyed this post! Both are free and help the website grow. Thank you ♫

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Thanks for reading,
-Jared


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Recording Nature Sounds In The Linville Gorge Wilderness

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Telinga Modular Parabolic Microphone Review