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Byggðalína á Breiðamerkursandi

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 22.10.2022| Leave a Comment »

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I was recording at Breiðamerkurjökull when the weather forecast suddenly changed. It was nothing special, except that I had to row a kayak with another one in tow with a lot of recording equipment about 8 km on Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon before the weather would hit the area.
It fit, as soon as I got to land on the other side of the lagoon at midnight the fool weather arrived, so I just managed to pack all the equipment in the car and on the trailer before everything got wet. It was around two in the morning when I was able to leave. But I didn’t go far. I decided to sleep in the car near the high voltage power line (Byggðalína) on Breiðamerkursandi, south of highway no.1.
The next day it was dry, but still very windy. In fact, I could barely see Öræfjajökull glacier through a sandstorm. I decided not to be on the road with the trailer and the kayaks, but to wait until later in the day when it would calm down.
I could not sit idly by, but recorded in several places close to me. Including the high voltage line with all available equipment I had. With Omni & Cardioid microphones as well as Geophone and hydrophone which I use as a contact mic.
The result was quite amusing. By the time this happened, the strongest wind had subsided. But that moment a moisture was in the air, which caused a sizzle noise from the power line, which added a different sound and gave the recording a clearer picture of the recording location.
The recording below starts with the audible sound (microphone). Then slowly the contact mics are added . In the end and microphones faded out and you will only hear the sound from the contact mics (geophone and the hydrophone)
Because the microphone are located close to the ground in grass under the electricity pylons you will hear lot of „gray noise“ when the wind wipe the grass.
If you keep your attention Whimbrel are also audible.
So I explain the name of this blog, „Byggðalína“ is a name of high-voltage line that connects all the main settlements around Iceland. „Breiðamerkursandur“ is a name of a broad sandy wasteland south of Jökulsárlón Glacier lagoon.

  (mp3 265kps / 46Mb)

Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre6
Mics: MKH8020/8040 & LOM geophone & Aquarian H2a
Pix: Conon EOS-R

Weather: Gust up to 20m/s. Clear sky, ca. 14C°
Location: 64.028360, -16.265129

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Climate festival at Reykjavik culture night 2022

Posted in Mannlíf, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 17.9.2022| Leave a Comment »

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One of my friends for many years is Gísli Sigurgeirsson. He is a genius in many fields. In recent years, he has had strong opinions on climate change, and I therefore have great respect for him as a climate activist. I myself have given up on fighting for cycling infrastructure and a sustainable life for everyone, although I try my best to live as sustainably as possible in a western society. I am also always ready and waiting for radical movement if the governments like to change society into a sustainable lifestyle.
On August 20, 2022, a Climate festival was held in Reykjavík downtown in connection with a Reykjavik Culture Night. That day I was recording several things, including Gísla Sigurgeirsson’s speech.
Before and after the speech there were musical performances. The first was Maria Viktoria who sang and played. Then came Gísla’s speech and after that Vala Yates and Maria Viktoria sang and played a song together. Both these ladies are very talented, so everyone should remember these names.
Everyone involved in this recording gave me permission to put this content on the web.
It was very windy that day so I didn’t have much choice of microphone. My best stereo microphone for that is actually a homemade „baffled – binaural“ array with double EM172 and LOM mic amps in a Rycote WS2 windshield.
I have to admit that it always surprises me how good this DIY microphone is with unbelievable low „handling noise“ and low wind noise, even without HPF.
Although there were strong gusts of wind, you can hardly hear it in this recording, other than the sound waves from the sound system from the stage is distorted because of the wind.

  (mp3 26,7Mb / 265kbps)

Recorder: Sound devices MixPre6
Mics: Promo EM172 Baffled – Binaural.
Pix: Samsung S6

Location:  64.147287, -21.940348
Weather: Strong gust, partly cloudy, around 14°C

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The shelter at Brunnahæðir

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 10.4.2022| Leave a Comment »

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I always miss those times in the last century when I rode on a bicycle alone for weeks in the highlands. I knew every single road and trail that could be found on maps, and other routes too. I had a special ability to look at maps and make detailed travel plans based on route conditions and weather forecasts. I knew very well my physical limitations and all the places where I could seek from bad weather. Therefore I never had any problems in my travels.
Without meeting people or seeing human structure, nature and I merged into one. The journeys were therefore both mentally and physically rejuvenation.
After the year 2002, cars and traffic began to increase rapidly in Iceland. Mountain huts that used to be shelters were now closed. Many emergency huts were removed due to poor handling. It became increasingly difficult to travel without being disturbed by noisy humans and without shelter in remote locations.
One of these very few emergency huts that still exist and are open and have saved many lives is on a Kaldidalur route. For me this hut was often a first overnight stop from Reyakjavík on the way to cross the highland.
I was in Kaldidalur 28th of May 2017 to record the surroundings. I decided to record beside the hut to record a familiar sound.
This is a typical soundscape for Icelandic highland. Birds in the distance and windy and if not windy and rainy then complete silence.
Inside the hut was normally the same sound but more silent, except if there was buzzing fly in the window.
Even though it is many years since this soundscape was part of my daily experience, I get an undeniable nostalgia for the past for listening to this recording
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at mid or low level.
If the media player doesn’t start to play, please reload this individual blog in a new tab or frame.

  (mp3 256Kbps / 63,7Mb)

Recorder: Sound Devices 744T
Mics: Rode NT1 NOS
Pix: Canon EOS-M

Location: 64.447652, -20.961026
Weather. Cloudy, 4-10m/sec, drizzle rain. 5°C

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Gust in Stafholtstungur.

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 20.6.2019| 2 Comments »

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There are two things which are always possible to record almost everywhere, any time and all year around. That is traffic noise and all kinds of wind.
Traffic noise is easy to record, but wind noise is more difficult. Wind is like an instrument or a symphony orchestra. But what makes it even more difficult is that you can´t place the microphone everywhere you like. A „pure and clean“ wind recording may not include a mechanical wind noise from the windshield, cable or the tripod. So location of the microphone rig plays normally a big role. But when the microphone is placed close to ground or a wall it will affect the frequency spectrum, mainly of sound reflection and therefore a phase issue.
It is possible this happened to me in December when I recorded gust over night in the country side, west Iceland. But I am still not sure, because when all the straws on the ground were rubbing each other, they made a sound or a constant noise which was limited to specific frequency range.
There is no other recording I have made which sounds as differently between different headphones and speakers as this one. I have not EQ this recording much, just pulled down the subsonic at 20Hz and slightly lifted 250Hz (+/-100Hz) The microphone was about 30-50cm from the ground. It was very bumpy and because of that I think I was probably not struggling with a phase issue, only the noise from the rubbing straws.
This recording starts very calm, with an „intro“. But suddenly the wind starts to blow and and gets stronger in the third part of this beautiful winter song..
I am used to record exactly on this location almost every time I visit this place so it is interesting to listen how this place sounds six months later, in July. Listen here.
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low or medium level.

(mp3 256kbps / 49Mb)
If the media player doesn’t start to play, please reload this individual blog in new tab or frame

Recorder. Sound devices MixPre6
Mics: Lewwitt LCT540s (NOS)
Pix: Canon EOS M
Location:64.673500, -21.629361
Weather: Calm to breez, around -8°C

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Cyclone in gust

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , on 9.10.2016| 4 Comments »

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Wind is very often the recordist´s enemy. Especially if the rumbling noise of „hammering membrane“ is not acceptable.
Some recordists may say this rumbling noise is just normal. Everyone will hear similar rumbling noise when they stay in wind.
For me it sounds like „clipping distortion“.
Wind protection is one of the most important thing for nature recordings, especially in the country where wind below 3m/sec. is almost unique.
I have tried several wind protections. My own, Rode Blimp and Rycote Softie and Modular series. All of them sounds similar. So it was welcomed when Rycote introduced the Cyclone windshield. Cyclone have Floating Basket Suspension, which is very nice. Until now, it has been only be used in the overpriced Cinela products.
Rode NT1a is one of the best cardioid microphones available today for nature recording. But sadly it is not build for outdoor use, so it has some poor futures like handling noise.
So when I choose it on the field, it has been important to keep it in Rycote modular windshield, place it close to the ground (sadly very often too close) and pray for completely calm weather. Then pray again for nice outcome.
I per-order a pair of Cyclone mini windshield last summer and got it in mid September. My plan was to fix them with parallel MKH20/40. But I also gave my modified NT1a a try when I saw it was almost „plug and play“ to fix it .
Without fur Cyclone was not far from to be equal to Rycote modular series with fur. But when Cyclone was dressed in fur the rumbling noise almost disappeared in wind around 5-7 m/s. That was a huge success.
Following recording is a short part of overnight recording from Stafholtstungur, in the west of Iceland. The gust goes up to ca. 7m/sec. and the recorder HPF was set at 80Hz. The rig is about 1 meter above the ground.
Some rumble noise is audible in this recording, but some of it could as well be a vibration from the tripod. Keep it in mind this is NT1a which is particularly sensitive for handling noise.
I will spend more time to test this setup but it looks like I need to order another pair for my MKH20/40 rig.
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low to mid level.

(265kbps / 36Mb)

Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mics: Rode Nt1a NOS setup
Pic: Canon EOS-M

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Storm in Vestmannaeyjar island

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 10.5.2016| 5 Comments »

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The Vestmannaeyjar archipelago is young in geological terms. The islands lie in the Southern Icelandic Volcanic Zone and have been formed by eruptions over the past 10,000–12,000 years. The volcanic system consists of 70–80 volcanoes both above and below the sea.[3]
The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,135. The other islands are uninhabited, although six have single hunting cabins. Vestmannaeyjar came to international attention in 1973 with the eruption of Eldfell volcano, which destroyed many buildings and forced a months-long evacuation of the entire population to mainland Iceland. Approximately one fifth of the town was destroyed before the lava flow was halted by application of 6.8 billion litres of cold sea water.[2]
With extremely high precipitation considering the latitude, Vestmannaeyjar features an ET Tundra climate (closely bordering Subpolar Oceanic (Cfc)) under the Köppen climate classification. It is often very windy in the islands, and the highest wind speed measured in Iceland (61 metres per second;140 mph) was recorded in Stórhöfði. The main wind directions are easterly and south-easterly. The islands enjoy the country’s highest average annual temperature, the Gulf Stream having a strong warming effect, especially in winter. (Text Wikipedia)
The following recording was made at Stórhöfði 31st of March 2016 in a windspeed around 20 m. pr/sec

Stormur í Vestmannaeyjum

Upptaka þessi var hljóðrituð hádegi á Stórhöfða þann 31. mars 2016 stuttu áður en viðvera á Stórhöfða varð óbærileg vegna veðurs.
Þarna hvín ansi hátt í stögum á loftnetsmöstrum sem eru sunnan við vitahúsið. Hljóðnemarnir voru hafðir skjólmegin við húsið á meðan á upptöku stóð. Gera má ráð fyrir að vindstyrkur hafi náð þarna 20m/sek en síðar um kvöldið komst vindstyrkur upp í 35m/sek og enn meira í hviðum.

  (mp3 192kbps / 30Mb)

Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mics: Sennheiser MKH20 (AB40)
Pics: Canon EOS-M (see more pictures)
Location: 63°23’58.7″N 20°17’19.2″W

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Skaftafell national park in February 2014

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , on 16.3.2014| 5 Comments »

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Last weekend in February I and my brother in law went to Skaftafell national park. Our sons were with us and we spent one night in a tent on the campsite. One of the reasons that we drove all this way from Reykjavík was to get in touch with the place where I will be recording the nature next spring and summer.
We were lucky with the weather. It was dry and the temp. about zero. But most of the time strong gust was blowing down from the glacier over the place.
This recording was made during midday on the campsite where the gust was blowing through the naked branches.

Skaftafell í febrúar 2014

Síðustu viku í febrúar fór ég með mági mínum í stutt ferðalag austur að Skaftafelli. Höfðum við syni okkar með því veðurútlit var gott og við ætluðum að tjalda. Var ferðin að hluta til farinn vegna hljóðritunarverkefnis sem ég fékk styrk til að sinna næsta vor og sumar. En styrkinn fékk ég hjá samtökunum Vinum Vatnajökuls.
Á meðan við dvöldum þar þá gekk á með hvössum vindstrengjum ofan af Skaftafellsjökli. Það var því kjörið tækifæri að hefja hljóðritunarverkefnið með því að hljóðrita vindinn sem geystist í gegn um kjarrið á svæðinu.

Download mp3 file (192kbps/37.1Mb)

Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mics: RodeNT1a in NOS setup
Pix: Canon EOSM

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Flói 2013 part 1

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 18.2.2014| Leave a Comment »

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Last summer was mainly wet, windy and cold in Iceland. It was no exception while I was recording birds in the nature reserve Flói, south of Iceland.
I was three weeks later than usual, so it was probably too late to record a reach bird chorus.
I spend two nights in the area and tried to record surrounding ambient through soaking wet windscreens. I stayed most of the time in a bird watching shelter to keep me dry. It was different from last tree years. Surroundings looked more like a swamp than grassland.
I kept one recorder in the field in a plastic box. The second one was in the bird watching shelter.
Just before I fell a sleep on the floor I started to record. The following recording is a short part of that moment while shower passes over.
Most windows on the shelter were open so birds surround are audible. Background noise is not a traffic, it is the surf at nearby south coast, about 3 km away.

Flói 2013. 1. hluti

Síðast sumar var kalt og blautt miðað við það sem maður hefur vanist síðustu ár. Alla vega elti óheppnin mig með leiðinda veðri á röndum hvert sem ég fór með upptökutækin. Hin árlega ferð í Flóann var þar enginn undantekning. Ég mætti á svæðið þremur vikum seinna enn vanalega. Ég mátti því búast við að fjöldasöngur fugla væri farinn að dvína. Vindasamt veður gerði svo erfitt um vik, hvað þá að hljóð gæti borist langar leiðir.
Að vanda tók ég upp í tvær nætur í flóanum. Í þetta sinn flaut allt í vatni og því ekki hægt að liggja úti í grasinu eins og vanalega, heldur var leitað skjóls inni í fuglaskoðunarskýlinu.
Fyrir utan var eitt upptökutæki að taka upp á hefðbundnum stað. Annað var aðgerðarlaust inni í skýlinu. Rétt áður en ég fékk mér lúr á gólfinu ræsti ég upptökutækið. Hér kemur partur af þeirri upptöku þegar skúr gekk yfir svæðið. Gluggar voru opnir svo það heyrist í fuglum í grennd. Suðið í bakgrunni kemur frá briminu suður við Ölfusárósa.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 34,5Mb)

Recorder Sound devices 744T
Mic: Rode NT1a
Pics: Canon EOSM (more pictures soon)

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Flying containers

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , on 1.9.2013| 2 Comments »

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In last week of August the first “real winter storm” arrived to Iceland, with strong cold wind and snow down to 300 m o.s. Luckily it was not as bad as weather forecast expected.
But for sure more and stronger storms will arrive in coming months. Sometimes it happens during high tide and with extremely low air pressure so the whole harbor is floating in deep seawater.
Last autumn 2012, we got at last two times a “real storm”, and both this storms arrived while I was at work. It was really dangerous to be outside so we spent most of the day inside. Regularly we heard loud “drumming sound” and got a taste of an earthquake when containers and reefers flew of the stacks to the ground.
Following recording was recorded in one of those bad weather situations 2nd of November 2012. It is mostly audible wind noises with flying garbage around when suddenly somewhere in the harbor one container take off from a stack and fells to the ground.

Fljgúandi gámar

Upptaka frá Sundahafnarsvæðinu í Reykavik frá því 2. november 2012, þegar gekk á með miklu norðan hvassviðri. Þá fór mikið af Sundahafnarsvæðinu á flot og nokkrir gámar tókust á loft með miklum látum. Í upptökunni sem hér fylgir má heyra í gám þegar hann fellur úr stæðu einhvers staðar á svæðinu.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 29,7Mb)

Recorder: Sound Devices 788
Mics: Sennheier MKH30/40. MS setup in Recote windshield
Pics: Nokia N82

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Nature reserve in Flói 2012. Part 1

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , on 7.8.2012| 7 Comments »

Cloud over nature reseve in Flói

As usual at summer solstance I recorded birds and ambiance in the nature reserve in Flói south of Iceland. Something I hope I will have an opportunity to do in coming years.
All three past years I have got almost the same weather. Variable, but no heavy rain or storm. It has been just perfect for all kinds of ambiance recording. And even though I have put the microphones almost at the same place every time, have I always detected some new sound or soundscape.
This year when I arrived to the bird watching shelter in the nature reserve the wind was too strong. But inside the shelter was a window covered with hundreds of humming gnats.
All batteries were ready for many hours of recording so I push on “Record” and vent out to the moors for sleep. Next three hours the wind slowly goes down.
Following recordings was made between midnight and half past two at 25th of June.
Earlier recording was made between 12 and 1am. Mostly gusts and gnats. Birds are barely audible.
The second recording was made around 2 am. Wind has go down and the birds have start to sing.
N.b. This is indoor recording so all birds sounds strange in this session.
After half past three I move the microphones to the field and start to record the birds in details. That will be publish in some parts in coming moths.

Friðland í Flóa 2012. 1. hluti.

Þriðja sumarið í röð mætti ég í friðland í Flóa til að taka upp fuglalíf og stemmningshljóð. Mætti ég í friðlandið  um miðnætti þann 25. júní . Í fyrstu hentaði veðurlag og fuglalíf  ekki til upptöku. En fremur en að gera ekki neitt kom ég hljóðnemum fyrir innandyra í fuglaskoðunarhúsinu, enda af nægu að taka þar. Sjálfur fór ég út og lagðist til svefns á milli þúfna. Þegar ég vaknaði hafði upptaka staðið yfir í rúma tvo  tíma.
Þau hljóðrit sem hér koma voru tekin úr þessu tímabili með rúmu klukkutíma bili. Það fyrra er tekið upp fyrir klukkan eitt þar sem vindur og mýfluga leika stærstu hlutverkin. Í því síðara sem tekið var upp um klukkan tvö er vind farið að lægja og fuglalíf að færast í aukana.
Athugið að fuglahljóðin eru ekki eðlileg þar sem tekið er upp innandyra. Fuglahljóð berast því öll inn um opna glugga hússins.

1 am session.
Download mp3 file (192kbps / 26,8Mb)

2 am session.
Download mp3 file (192kbps / 28,2Mb)

Recorder: Sound Devices 744 (48Khz /24bit)
Mics: Rode NT1a (NOS setup)
Pix: Canon 30D (more pictures)
Listen to earlier recordings from nature reserve in Flói

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