Mar 05 2024 4 mins 2
As promised, here is the stationary field recording that I made on the same day I captured sound for the recent Frenchman’s Bar Soundwalk. It was March 5, 2023, a year ago to the date. The actual setup is subtly audible in the soundwalk recording.
This recording utilized my heaviest microphones: a pair of Rode NT-1s. These are the lowest self-noise mics on the market, so they yield a particularly transparent stereo image. They also have tradeoffs. As mentioned they are heavy and bulky, and they don’t tolerate humid, windy, or rainy conditions. To avoid the wind I had to place them close to the ground. Consequently, you hear more grass noises. Bet you didn’t know grass was so noisy!
A note about the name “Shillapoo”. Shillapoo Wildlife area, Vancouver Lowlands, Frenchman’s Bar, and Columbia Lowlands are all applicable geographic names for the auditory horizon of this recording. I chose Shillapoo, because it’s one that I haven’t used yet in a title, and I just like the name. The factoid-rich The Columbia River, A Photographic Journey had this to say about it:
Historians say that early pioneers adopted the Indian name for the lake. Early names for the lake were "Chalifoux Lake", "Shallapoo Lake", "Shillapoo Lake", and "Shallowpool Lake"
The shallow 1000 acre lake was drained in the 1950s for farming.
The variety of sound sources and reverberant acoustics makes for an intriguing listen, I think! Enjoy!
