Every Sound
Has a Story
Field recording is the practice of capturing sound outside the studio — from birdsong to industrial machinery, from ocean trenches to arctic wind. Explore the tools, techniques, environments, and ethics of listening to the world.
The Soundscape Ecologist
A healthy soundscape has layers. Add and remove sonic elements to hear how the acoustic environment changes — and how human noise can crowd out the living world.
Add/Remove Elements
🌿 Biophony
Sounds produced by living organisms — birdsong, insect stridulation, frog calls. The sonic signature of a healthy ecosystem.
🌊 Geophony
Non-biological natural sounds — wind, rain, flowing water, thunder. The ancient acoustic backdrop of the Earth itself.
🏙 Anthropophony
Human-generated sound — traffic, construction, machinery. When it dominates, species cannot communicate, navigate, or find mates.
Microphone Zoo
Every microphone hears the world differently. Click a microphone to see its polar pattern and hear how sound from different angles is captured.
Select a Microphone
Click any microphone above to see its polar pattern and hear how it responds to sound from different angles.
Stereo Field Navigator
Position two microphones to capture a stereo image. Different techniques create different spatial characteristics.
Stereo Technique
Pan: Center
Contact Mic Universe
A contact microphone picks up vibrations directly from surfaces — bypassing air entirely. Each material has a unique resonant voice.
Metal Plate
Click anywhere on the material surface to move the contact mic
The Underwater World
Sound behaves radically differently underwater — traveling 4× faster, carrying further, and carrying the acoustic signatures of geology, biology, and human industry.
The Seasonal Archive
Soundscapes are not static — they shift with season, time of day, and climate. Click a month to hear its acoustic signature.
Click a month
Select a month on the calendar to explore its acoustic signature.
Soundscape Composition Studio
Layer field recording elements across a 60-second canvas. Shape contrast, arc, and silence.
Layers
Transport
"The best field recording composers do less, not more. Silence is not absence — it is the container that gives sound its shape."
Ethics Lab
Field recording is not neutral. The microphone has power. These scenarios have no single right answer.
Pioneer Artists
Eight figures who shaped the field recording tradition.