Recording an Ice Storm in Vermont (Aftermath)

 

Join me on a field recording trip to a frozen glass forest in Vermont!

 
 
field-recording-an-icestorm-in-vermont-during-winter.jpg

Middle of Nowhere

Last weekend, I headed up to Vermont to spend some time at a cabin in the Green Mountain National Forest. This area is not very populated and I was excited for the chance to record some long, uninterrupted nature sounds!

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Gear

I didn’t know what recording opportunities there would be so I brought a bunch of gear to cover my bases:

  • Olympus LS-10

  • Sony PCM D100

  • logbook

  • binaural microphone rig

  • bungee cords

  • electrical tape

  • waterproof dry-bag (4-liter)

  • wind protection

  • extra batteries + charger

Arrival

I got to the cabin around 7pm. The sun had set a long time ago and it was dark. The clear night sky caught my eye and, while admiring the stars, I noticed that the trees were covered in a thick layer of ice from an ice storm.

At this point, I still didn’t know what I would record and I focused on bringing my belongings inside.

My next priority was to get warm. The house is heated by a wood stove which meant I had to get some wood!

Sound Discovery

Back outside, I walked over to the wood shed to get some logs and the axe. As I neared the shed, I was frightened by what sounded like people walking around in the surrounding forest. I quickly realized that this was not the case.

The sounds I heard were created by a gust of wind causing large ice crystals to break free from the canopy and fall to the forest floor where they shattered. In that moment, I knew I had found my sound.

As I stood there in awe, I realized that this sound was constant. Even when the wind wasn’t blowing, tiny pieces of ice were constantly falling, bouncing off branches, and hitting the ground below. The sound was similar to rain but more delicate.

I was excited but I decided not to start recording immediately for two reasons:

  1. Noise Pollution: it was about 7pm and there were still cars, trucks, and air traffic polluting the natural environment. I wanted to wait until 11pm to maximize my chance at a noise-free recording.

  2. Battery Life: because of how cold it was (15°F/-9°C), I wasn’t sure how long my batteries would last. With this in mind, I didn’t want to waste precious battery life recording noise pollution.

While I chopped wood, I listened to the ice and thought about how to best record it.

Setting Up

Once 11pm finally arrived, I went back out into the night with my field recording equipment. I had decided to mount my binaural microphone to a tree with a couple bungee cords, and record the audio to the D100.

Trying to secure the microphone with bungee cords turned out to be very difficult. I think it would have worked if I could have secured 2 cords around it, but I was never able to get the first one. Time for Plan B.

I decided to go with a super simple setup. I placed the binaural microphone on a snow bank facing the forest and ran the cable to the D100.

The scene had a very wide dynamic range so I set my gain low to prevent any clipping when large crystals fell and shattered. I couldn’t decide on a lo-cut setting so I chose to leave it off to fix it later in post.

After recording the following settings in my logbook, I secured the D100 in the dry-bag and headed inside to sleep.

Recorder: D100
Mics: SASS
Sensitivity: 4
Lo-cut: OFF
Time: 11:04pm

The Next Morning

A view of the frozen ice forest from inside the cabin.

As soon as I awoke, I got dressed and went outside to check on my gear. I was excited and a little nervous since this was the first time I had used the D100 for a drop rig recording.

Pulling the recorder from the dry-bag, I couldn’t believe that it was still recording!

After editing the sounds in RX, I ended up with this highlight clip from a longer 9 minute recording. Please listen with headphones for full effect!



Numbers for Nerds

I’m a big number guy. I love looking at statistics and compiling data. If you’re a nerd like me, this section is for you.

Before I get to the stats, I’d like to share how I processed the sounds.

In post-production, I added a lo-cut filter at 180Hz, 12dB/octave to remove some low-frequency wind rumbling, and increased the loudness slightly to -30LKFS.

The Stats:

Total Time Recorded: 8 hr 22 min

Noise Pollution Free Audio: 23 min

Percent Usable: ≈4.6%

Final Thoughts + Photos

This trip was really good to me. On most of my field recording trips, my percent usable audio is 1% or less. The solitude of the Green Mountains blessed me with more than 4x my usable audio average!

On top of that, the sound I captured is very unique and is some of my favorite audio I’ve ever recorded. I love when the wind blows from right-to-left and you can hear the ice falling and crashing in a wave that sweeps over you.

Thank you so much for joining me on this trip! I hope you enjoyed the adventure. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

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Thanks for reading,
-Jared


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