#1 Evening Rain · near Ogden, central Iowa, 2022 September 16
Recorded with Tascam DR-40X on a tripod.
#2 Red-Headed Woodpeckers · near Drakesville, southern Iowa, 2023 September 4
Recorded with Tascam DR-40X propped on a log; low frequencies are filtered from 100hz because of wind gusts buffeting the mics.
#3 Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" at speed · between Boone and Ames Iowa, 2024 September 5
Recorded with Tascam DR-40X on a tripod about 200 feet from the "V" Avenue crossing.
WARNING: extreme dynamic range. No limiting or compression has been applied. If you turn the volume up at the beginning because it seems too quiet, you might very well hurt your ears (or speakers) later because the steam horn is so loud when it comes through. We are facing north; the train is eastbound, so moving from our left to right.
I've come to use the low-cut filter on the Tascam as a matter of habit when recording outdoors, to reduce wind noise. It might have not been the right choice here. The world's largest steam locomotive is absolutely barrelling by, but in the recording it screams when it should also thunder.
#4 Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" with propeller plane escort · crossing near Black Wolf, Kansas, 2024 October 19
Recorded with Tascam DR-40X on a tripod about 600 feet from the tracks.
WARNING: extreme dynamic range. No limiting or compression has been applied. We are facing roughly northeast; the train is moving from our right to left at approximately 25 mph.
Determined not to use the recorder's built-in low cut filter (see notes from the September recording, above), I set up in a stand of trees for wind shelter. The morning was breezy enough that some buffeting is still noticeable in addition to the sound of the nearby leaves. I applied a gentle 30hz low-pass filter after the fact.
#5 Rooba Rooba · Madison, Wisconsin, ~1987
Found one morning on the answering machine of a retail establishment I was opening. What does the message mean? Who left it? What substances had they been enjoying? We may never know.