Direct High Quality FLAC download or play
The sound was captured on a Shure MV88 stereo microphone, placed on my back deck in Seattle, Washington. The audio was recorded onto my iPhone. The recording is about 30 minutes in length from 10:08 PM to 10:38 PM on July 4th, 2021. There’s almost no processing other than normalization and 5 second fades at the beginning and ending.
New Year’s London, UK, 2021, recorded from an open microphone in Kilburn, London. I used the built-in audio recorder in VLC media player to capture the streaming mp3 file from the URL on Locus Sonus Soundmap. The recording starts at approximately 11:54 PM, December 31st, 2020 and runs to about 12:02 AM, January 1st, 2021, London Time.
New Year’s Chicago, 2021, recorded from an open microphone somewhere in Chicago. The same technique was done for this recording as for London. I recorded from approximately 11:54 PM, December 31st, 2020 to about 12:04 AM, January 1st, 2021, Central Standard Time.
High-quality FLAC download or play
Here is my recording of New Year’s 2021 featuring the sounds of the celebration around midnight at my home in Seattle. The recording starts at about 11:54 PM, December 31st, 2020 and ends at about 12:15 AM, January 1st, 2021. I made the recording on my iPhone using my Shure MV88 stereo microphone.
This recording was made on July 4th, 2020. I started recording at 9:50 PM and stopped at 10:30 PM with the same setup and recording technique as in 2019.
Here’s the setup in VSTHost for 2020. Note the little dip on the left side of the equalizer (-3 dB at 60 hertz, back to 0 dB at 50 hertz and 70 hertz. There may have been a slight amount of 60 hertz hum, although I didn’t actually hear it and the effect on the sound was minimal. There were so many fireworks, I was able to really set a good level on the Focusrite interface before starting to record. There was no clipping and it maintained good dynamic range, too
High-quality FLAC download or play
New Year’s London, UK, 2020 recorded from an open microphone in Kilburn, London. I used the built-in audio recorder in VLC media player to capture the streaming mp3 file from the URL on Locus Sonus Soundmap.The recording starts at approximately 11:54 PM, December 31st, 2019 and runs to about 12:06 AM, January 1st, 2020, London Time.
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High-quality FLAC download or play
New Year’s New York, 2020 recorded from an open microphone in Queens, New York. The same technique was done for this recording as for London. I recorded from approximately 11:54 PM, December 31st, 2019 to about 12:06 AM, January 1st, 2020, Eastern Standard Time.
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High-quality FLAC download or play
New Year’s Chicago, 2020 recorded from an open microphone somewhere in Chicago. The same technique was done for this recording as for London and New York. I recorded from approximately 11:54 PM, December 31st, 2019 to about 12:06 AM, January 1st, 2020, Central Standard Time.
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High-quality FLAC download or play
Here is my recording of New Year’s 2020 featuring the sounds of the celebration at midnight at my home in Seattle. The recording starts at about 11:54 PM, December 31st, 2019 and ends at about 12:16 AM, January 1st, 2020. Along with an inexpensive Dell laptop computer, I used VSTHost with LoudMax and ReaFir for VST plug-ins. One microphone was placed outside a living room window at the front of my house, facing west, and the other just outside on my back deck, facing east. This year there were gusty winds up to forty miles per hour. The microphone at the front of the house was subjected to the strong wind and I covered the microphone with a fuzzy “dead cat” wind screen. That helped somewhat, but there was still some wind noise causing distortion and clipping. Pictured below are the microphones, adapter cables and wind screen for the microphone at the front of my house.
In addition, a wire was connected from the metal window frame (where one microphone was placed just outside) to the outside metal cabinet my Focusrite audio interface to reduce hum pick up.
I made this using only my iPhone and Shure MV88 stereo microphone.
This is my recording of the 4th of July for 2019, done similarly to 2018. Microphones are inexpensive electret capsules encased in facial tissue. I used phantom power to electret plug-in power adapters from Naiant Studio to connect the electret condenser microphones to balanced XLR inputs.
This is a wide stereo recording. One microphone was placed outside a window facing west in my living room and the other outside a sliding door on the east side of the living room. The metal window frame of the living room window has a wire running from it to my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface to reduce hum pick-up. The audio was captured with VSTHost and a little light processing performed with Audacity audio editor. All of that was done on an inexpensive laptop computer running Windows 10.
Here is my recording of the 4th of July for 2018. Microphones are inexpensive electret capsules encased in facial tissue. I used phantom power to electret plug-in power adapters from Naiant Studio to connect the electret condenser microphones to balanced XLR inputs.
This is a wide stereo recording. One microphone was placed outside a window facing west in my living room and the other outside a sliding door on the east side of the living room. The metal window frame of the living room window has a wire running from it to my Mackie Blackjack audio interface to reduce hum pick-up. This time there’s no additional audio processing other than hard limiting to -.1db. The input microphone gain was set at about 30db (about halfway on the Blackjack) which is considerably lower than past recordings.
Here is my recording of New Year’s 2018 featuring the sounds of the celebration at midnight at my home in Seattle. The recording starts at about 11:55 PM, December 31st, 2017 and ends at about 12:17 AM, January 1st, 2018. Along with an inexpensive Dell laptop computer, I used VSTHost with LoudMax as a VST plug-in. A little editing, normalizing and noise reduction was performed with iZotope RX6. Pictured below are the microphones, adapter cables, and recording interface. One microphone was placed outside at the front of my house, facing west, and the other just outside on my back deck, facing east. I recommend listening on headphones for the full effect.
Inexpensive electret condenser microphones
Covered with tissue paper
Phantom power to electret plug-in power adapters by Naiant Studio
What is an electret microphone?
Mackie Onyx Blackjack recording interface
Grounded metal window frame to prevent AC hum from nearby power lines from being induced on west facing microphone
New Year’s Far Rockaway, Queens, New York
This was captured from an online open microphone from approximately 11:55 PM, December 31st, 2017 to about 12:14 AM, Eastern Standard Time, January 1st, 2018. This micophone seemed to be plagued with a lot of rumbling wind noise with clicks. I used a couple of passes of declick, and then phase rotation and normalization to -.3 dB in iZotope RX6. The sound is much improved, although the volume drops every time there’s a a gust of wind, and a compressor reduces the gain.
NORMAL
REVERB
Finally after a lot of thought and preparing cheap microphones that could be taped to my skin I have successfully recorded my stomach noises in stereo. The microphones were placed on my abdominal area several inches apart. My TASCAM DR-05 digital audio recorder captured the audio. Go here and here to listen to other recordings of my stomach.
TASCAM DR- 05, Ear Buddies earbuds & electret condenser microphones
Direct mp3 download or play: 4th of July Ambience 2017
Direct 24 bit flac download or play: 4th of July Ambience 2017
Normal – no processing or editing other than fades at the beginning and ending
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Direct mp3 download or play:2017 Fireworks Loud Parts Layered 5 Times
Direct 24 bit flac download or play:2017 Fireworks Loud Parts Layered 5 Times
Layered – parts chosen by Wobbly and layered 5 times
Here is my 4th of July fireworks in Seattle recording for 2017. This year probably has the best sound quality as electronic muscian Wobbly allowed me to use his Pro Tools rig to record. His gear consisted of a MacBook Pro laptop and a Focusrite 6i6 audio interface. I connected two of my very inexpensive electret capsule microphones through my Naiant Studio Electret to phantom power adapters. One microphone was placed through a west facing window in my living room and the other through the sliding glass door on the opposite side of the living room. This is the same microphone placement as in “4th of July Ambience 2016.” In addition, a wire from the metal window frame where one of the microphones was placed was connected to the metal case of the Focusrite interface to prevent AC hum from getting to the microphone. This year for the first time I’m offering a 24 bit lossless flac file for your listening plaesure. This could be considered close to audiophile quality. I’m not calling it definite “audiophile” quality because the sampling rate is only at 44.1kHz.
Focusrite model 6i6 audio recording interface
Naiant Studio phantom power adapters
cheap condenser microphones with facial tissue windscreen
Here is my recording of the 4th of July for 2016. The microphones cost less than two dollars each, and the phantom power adapters were under fifty dollars apiece. Well worth it, considering there are other solutions costing hundreds. I grounded the metal frame of the window where one of the microphones was placed, due to hum pick up. There are power lines parallel to the window about thirty feet away. I measured several volts of alternating current between the metal window frame and the Mackie mixer. The ground wire worked perfectly, eliminating all hum from the audio.
Direct mp3 download or play: 4th of July Ambience 2016 – Part 1
Part 1
Direct mp3 download or play: 4th of July Ambience 2016 – Part 2
Part 2
Direct mp3 download or play: 4th of July Ambience 2016 – Part 3
Part 3
Direct mp4 file download or play: video commentary
video commentary
cheap condenser microphones with facial tissue windscreen
phantom power adapters (more information here)
window frame ground wire
Direct mp3 download or play: New Year’s 2016 – Seattle
New Year’s 2016 Seattle
This was recorded at my home in Seattle from about 11:55 PM, December 31st, 2015 to about 12:15 AM, January 1st, 2016. Sorry about the distortion. I guess I recorded a little hot or a VST plugin was set incorrectly. Some of the explosions seem to be quite clear, but others have a “crackle” sound. The square waveform is plainly visible and clip repair only lowers the amplitude of the clipped audio and it remains distorted.
clipped audio
after clip repair
Direct mp3 download or play: New Year’s 2016 – New York
New Year’s 2016 New York
This was captured from an online open microphone from approximately 11:58 PM, December 31st, 2015 to about 12:08 AM, Eastern Standard Time, January 1st, 2016.
Direct mp3 download or play: New Year’s 2016 – Chicago
New Year’s 2016 Chicago
This was captured from an online open microphone from approximately 11:58 PM, December 31st, 2015 to about 12:08 AM, Central Standard Time, January 1st, 2016.
Direct mp3 download or play: 4th of July Ambience 2015
Here is my recording from approximately 10:30 PM to 11:30PM. It was recorded on my Sony PCM-D50 digital recorder and edited in Adobe Audition. There is no bass attenuation for a more full sound of the exploding fireworks. Also, there is the sound of a nut case (me) frantically using a vacuum cleaner among other things at times.
7-4-2015 Adobe Audition Waveform
7-4-2015 Adobe Audition Statistics
Direct mp3 download or play: 4th of July Ambience 2014
Here is my recording of the 4th of July, 2014. I used the same setup as last year, beginning at about 9:58 PM, and ending around 11 PM. I recall a comment about the lack of bass response from last year. The peak level for last year was -.33db and this time it’s a little louder at -.29 db. I wonder if this recording sounds better, worse, or different?
7-4-2014 Adobe Audition Waveform
7-4-2014 Adobe Audition Statistics
Direct mp3 download or play: New Year’s 2014
This is my recording from 11:55 PM, December 31st, 2013 to about 12:25 AM, January 1st, 2014. I used my computer and VSTHost to record with my Audio Technica AT825 Stereo Microphone and Mackie 1402-VLZ mixer. Listen closely from about -25:48 to -25:35 on the counter, you’ll hear people shouting in the distance “9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.”
Setup for recording in VSTHost
Waveform in Adobe Audition peak level: left -.32 db, right -.33 db
Direct mp3 download or play: Rain and Thunder – September 15th, 2013
Finally, here in Seattle, there was a decent thunderstorm worthy of recording! I used my Sony PCM D50 digital recorder with a towel over the built-in microphones to reduce wind noise. This recording was a 24 bit wav file at 48 kilohertz. Then I transferred the file to my computer and used Adobe Audition for some clipping restoration (on the loudest peaks), boosted the high frequencies about 3.5db, and added fades at the beginning and ending. In addition, I tried to keep the dynamics as wide as possible for a more lifelike sound. Someday I may have this file available for downloading. For now it is an mp3 at 320 kilobits, 48 kiloherts, 16 bit. I used RazorLame with the LAME encoder for the highest possible quality mp3.
wav file in Adobe Audition 24 bit, 48 kilohertz unprocessed from recorder
wav file in Adobe Audition 24 bit, 48 kilohertz peak level -.33db
BE CAREFUL, THE LOUDEST SOUNDS ARE MUCH LOUDER!
Direct mp3 download or play: 4th of July Ambience 2013
Here is my fireworks noise recording from my backyard in Seattle, between 10:15 PM and 11:00 PM on the 4th of July, 2013. I think this one is closer to reality than any of the others. For starters, my Mackie 1402-VLZ mixer has up to 28 db of headroom above 0 db. With that in mind, I decided there was no need to insert a compressor into the mic channels. I listened and watched the levels for awhile before recording (between 9:30PM and 10:00PM) and set the mic gain and faders low enough so the loudest explosions registered between plus 4 db and plus 7 db on the mixer, well below the maximum before clipping of plus 28 db. The microphone was my Audio Technica AT825 Stereo Microphone, same as last year. The computer was running VSTHost with the engine input set to plus 3.8 db, to match the levels from the mixer. I used one VST plug in, LoudMax, a good simple compressor/limiter. LoudMax threshhold was set to minus 1 db and the output was set to minus .4db. During the recording, only the loudest noises caused any gain reduction to happen. After recording, I put the file (16 bit at 48 kilohertz) into Adobe Audition (version3), and in “amplify/fade(process)” I chose “Center Wave,” unchecked “Lock Left/Right,” and set “Calculate Normalization Values” peak level to minus .33 db. This balanced the sound with peaks up to minus .33 db, and no compression was added. Lastly, fades of five seconds were added to the beginning and ending. I made an MP3 (320KBPS at 48 kilohertz) using RazorLame.
Be careful, because of the wide dynamic range of this recording, the loudest sounds will be very loud! The first loud bang is at minus 44 on the the counter. Enjoy.
7-4-2013 Adobe Audition Waveform
7-4-2013 Adobe Audition Statistics
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