I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for quiet ambiences. I love being in environments so quiet that they shake you to your core. I’ve been lucky enough to experience quiet on that level a few times in my life and I’m looking for more opportunities.
Winter is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere, which means quiet should be easier to find. I live in New York City, which makes finding quiet ambiences nearly impossible. Finding truly quiet environments without the distant sounds of vehicles or air traffic means a 3 hour drive or more. Those 3 hours only guarantee about 10 to 20 minutes between interference from humans.
I recorded the QUAD ambience below about 2.5 hours to north and west of New York City. The following recording was made around 10:00 PM on a blustery evening:
Even though it was a particularly peaceful night, I still had to work around passing traffic and planes. It looks like I have to drive further out into the wilderness.
If anyone has some good locations for quiet winter ambiences, I’m all ears.
Recording Geek Note: Rig consists of Schoeps CMC5′s setup for double ORTF. It was tracked with a Cooper CS 104 feeding a Sound Devices 744T.
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