Horse Whinnies and Snorts

TennesseeI recently had the opportunity to gather some horse neighs, whinnies and snorts at an equestrian event. Apparently, when separating a horse from other horses it identifies as part of it’s herd, it will neigh or whinny more frequently. I was holding Tennessee while his friend Ginger was competing in a dressage competition.

I switched on my recorder to capture his vocalized separation anxiety. He wasn’t too anxious because most of the time he spent eating grass. However, every so often he’d take a break from grazing to protest his situation with a whinny or snort. I edited them all close together, but each sound was recorded at a different level, so be prepared for some volume changes.

Tennessee Winnies and Snorts

Breezy Cottonwood Ambiance

Cottonwood LeavesPlains cottonwood (Populus sargentii) grows near water, and tends to mimic water in several ways. Visually their leaves ripple in the wind like water rippling on a fairly still pond. The sound of the wind through their leaves also mimics water flowing in a stream. I recorded a gentle wind passing through a small grove of cottonwoods near a swamp full of cattails, birds, insects and amphibians. My wind sock for the PCM-D50 didn’t provide all the wind noise protection I would have liked, but I got a good few seconds out of it anyway.

Breezy Cottonwoods

Robotic Guided Vehicle Beeps

gvsWhile touring a newspaper printing facility recently, my group came to an area where robotic guided vehicles were transporting giant reams of newsprint around. Each robot beeped at a different frequency from the next. Here’s what that sounded like.

Robotic Guided Vehicle Beeps

Newspaper Printing Facility Ambiance

paperRecently I escorted a group of students on a tour of the Star Tribune’s printing facilities. I couldn’t stay for the whole tour, but managed to record a little bit of sound while I was there.

There were lots of chatty students and a wordy tour guide, but I managed to sneak away and record a few examples of conveyor belts, fork lifts, robotic paper transporters, and general machine noise.

Here’s an except of some ambiance I captured in the paper warehouse area where these giant reams of news print were brought in by railway cars.

Warehouse Ambiance