Showers, dripping, and wind in woods high in Teign Gorge

A lengthy sequence of showery rain with mild squalls, recorded from the slope a little above Lower Deer Stalker's Path, high on the south side of the Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK, above Fingle Bridge, on 3 October 2021.

I have a practical problem about recording rain events out in the wild, for I have to carry all my gear in my rucksack, hitch-hiking to and from my hiking routes and then having to carry my load to the sometimes quite challenging positions where I intend to record if things are working out right. That means that I can't take with me anything that would shelter the recorder without the rain making a lot of noise on it, because that would mean too much bulk and probably weight to carry.

So, I have to rely on one umbrella, to shelter both me and the recorder (i.e., in addition to my wearing waterproofs too). I generally have to do such recording in the shelter of trees, but that becomes a problem too with anything more than a really transient sprinkling of rain, because after a short while there are lots of large drops falling off the tree foliage, and those drops are much more noisy on the umbrella than most raindrops — at least, here in the UK.

So, unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to record a 'clean' substantial shower in the wilds without a lot of rainfall 'drip-off' noise on the umbrella, and this recording is no exception. I still find that noise on the umbrella a pleasant and friendly sort of sound, but it's not really what I want in my rain recordings.

There's another aspect of this too — my comfort and indeed wellbeing. Making this recording was a real physical endurance test for me. I had to stand virtually motionless immediately beside the recorder on its tripod (set low, to maximize distance between it and any noise on the umbrella) for a bit over three hours, all the time trying to be as still as possible, not to fidget, to try to suppress throat clearing, sniffling and so forth, and just had to exercise good grace about my occasional farts and tummy gurgles, each of which I'd have to cut out afterwards.

— The first hour was, er, okay; the second hour felt increasingly tiresome, and the third, well, it had become a progressive torture. My legs were getting stiff and painful, and starting to threaten cramp, and the soles of my feet were getting sore and feeling as though I'd just walked 20 strenuous miles, and my lower back was increasingly complaining — and of course I was eventually bursting for a pee! (And people keep telling me "Do take care", "Do be careful", "Don't overdo anything", and so forth, because they see my age stereotype and not me, the silly b*ggers! — For the record, I was 80 in August 2022! )

In order to ensure that the beginning of the first shower was fully captured, as soon as I'd got down from Cranbrook Down, from where I'd seen the shower system approaching, I set up the recorder, so it was initially recording just background noise and minor gusts of wind, and I then hurriedly got on with eating my packed lunch, for I wouldn't be able to do that while standing beside the recorder with my umbrella up.

Fortunately I just managed to fit that in and pack my stuff away and hurried up to the recorder, already with a little light rain falling. Couldn't help making a noise by opening the umbrella, but from then on I was committed to my little progressive self-torture session!

Incidentally, various people have unthinkingly asked why I don't take a second umbrella and fix it above the recorder. — Clearly none of those people understand how to use an umbrella in the presence of a something called 'wind', nor about the (im)practicabilities of trying to fix an umbrella anywhere useful out in the wilds even if a fixed umbrella were a sensible option. Surely I don't have to explain here why such a suggestion is laughable!?

Advisory:
Owing to the wide dynamic range, the most realistic sound level is achieved with volume control turned up 6dB higher than a normal sensible level (for realistic playing of symphonic orchestral music).

The system of showers approaching, seen from the top of Cranbrook Down, beside the Cranbrook Castle ancient earthworks, about an hour before this recording started.

This photo taken just before setting up the recorder, which was placed right here, almost against this foreground beech tree. We're looking down a quite steep slope to the Lower Deer Stalker's Path, which is visible just out of the main tree shade, contouring around, and the slope is mostly steeper below it. The tree provided some but not full shelter from the rain, and, importantly, it provided a tiny roughly level patch on this side of it, which I could stand on while sheltering myself as well as the recorder from the rain. The recorder was facing obliquely up the slope (toward us) and to our right.

Techie stuff:
The recorder was Sony PCM-D100, with two nested custom Windcut furry windshields. Its Sirui carbon-fibre tripod was used at about its shortest, to keep it as far as possible from any umbrella noise.

Initial post-recording processing was to apply an EQ curve to compensate for muffling from the furry windshields.

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