I had high hopes for the soundscape you’re about to hear in the YouTube video below. On and off for several years, I have been recording the sound of exploding fireworks, both up close and distant. Examples of my up-close work can be heard and purchased via my blog post entitled Commercial Fireworks: Up Close and Loud. As you’ll hear, I’m still working on the distant fireworks library. On Independence Day, or rather, that night, I convinced my wife to drive with me down poorly-lit gravel roads to listen to fireworks with a gorgeous view. The recording did not turn out as I envisioned, but please read on.
After doing a bit of research, I discovered that the town of Loudonville, Ohio, was having its fireworks display on the 4th sometime after sunset at a park on the edge of town. As the crow flies, this park is only three miles away from the gorge overlook. At that time of night, it would be quiet enough to capture the sound of distant fireworks and little else. Or so I thought. I was wrong.
What I forgot to account for was the fact that there is a river, the Clear Fork Mohican River, running through it, It’s not a deep river. I’ve waded out into it in spots. In fact, I grew up several miles upriver from here. The river would flood my Little League ball field almost annually. I know it well and should have realized its sound would compete with what I was after – clean, distant fireworks. However, I wasn’t going to admit this to my wife.
At the beginning of the clip, you’ll hear a loud shriek! I have no idea what it was, but it still sounds frightening after playing it back several times. It makes me wonder if an animal met its demise. You’ll also hear the faint sounds of critters running around in the woods, plus a few frog ribbits. What you can’t see are all the fireflies – or lightning bugs as we call them around here – flying all around the gorge after dark. They treated us to a silent light show of the natural kind.
Something that should be glaringly obvious as you first watch the video is that the stitched panoramic photo I took of the gorge in October 2016 doesn’t jive with what I describe above. This is because my only available tripod was being used for the microphones and I knew my iPhone wouldn’t perform well in such low light. Excuses, excuses. If you can get over that, I hope you enjoy the show.
I wouldn’t share this with y’all if I thought it was a total failure. I still find it interesting to listen to and it was a learning experience. At this distance, booming fireworks sound quite muffled. However, I don’t believe that at this point it’s a sellable sound effect.
Where Is This Gorge?
I’ve spent quite a bit of time recording the Mohican soundscape. A four-part soundscape album series is available on my Bandcamp page. Read more about them via my blog post here.
Behind the Scenes
For this recording, I am using a Zoom F3 recorder, a pair of Audio Technica 3032 omni mics housed inside my DIY SASS, my trusty carbon fiber Gitzo Traveler tripod, a vintage Domke bag, a thrift store bag that houses the DIY SASS like it was made for it and a bottle of cold water.