Thundering sea at Mussel Point — more distant version

Invigorating and inspirational! — Thundering sea dramatics on the rocks at Mussel Point, near Zennor. So loud that you can't hear the powerful blowhole! — Yet how I enjoyed this wild and almost savage sea serenade while eating my packed lunch there! — However, if the 'straight' version (https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/684588/ ) is too aggressive-sounding for your comfort, this version, gently tweaked to make it sound a bit more distant and kinder on the ears, may be for you, with its altogether more 'poetic' feel…

In mid-September 2013 I first explored this wonderfully wild and atmospheric patch between St Ives and Zennor, Penwith, Cornwall, UK, just west of the little low grassy / rocky patch opposite The Carracks ('Seal Island'), which latter is a favourite spot for people to linger, and in late summer / autumn, to listen for the seals moaning there.

Mussel Point and the intervening weirdly named Economy Cove also get seals, but my main focus there has been the invigorating and inspirational sea dramatics around there when the swell is reasonably chunky. Mussel Point boasts one powerful blowhole and a cave with a powerfully booming cleft in its entrance, and the most hypnotically marvellous sea eruptions as its larger waves have magnificent arguments with the rocks and outcrops in their way.

That first time I came there exploring for recording opportunities, one thing that particularly grabbed me was a restful, comforting and yet also inspiring-feeling continual thundering sound, I think with an emphasis on a frequency range centred around 60–70Hz. This was a generalized sound that was clearly caused by a particular resonance of this grassy slope. I made a lovely recording of that, with a modestly chunky swell, but more recently it was one of the many recordings that I regretfully discarded because of a shortcoming of the Sony PCM-M10 recorder model I was using back then. I was thus ever hankering after getting conditions just right to capture it with the PCM-D100.

Well, on 15 April 2023 I completely unexpectedly captured there a real hyped-up 'on-steroids' version of that soundscape, and this is it, with the recorder in a very similar position to that of the 2013 recording. You can hear the direct crashing and thundering of individual waves, but there's also this more generalized sort of thundering produced by the local acoustic resonance.

Advisory
Very likely many people listening with speaker systems will find the sound pretty horrible, with the generalized resonance amplified by room or/and speaker resonances. High-grade headphones are thus strongly recommended.
Note that this version does NOT require an above-normal volume setting for listening.

Making this recording. Unusually, I've chosen to adjust my photos this time to give maximum detail in the white on the sea, which means accepting everything else usually being underexposed.

Yes, that is the recorder on its tripod, just below the decrepit barbed-wire fence.

Techie stuff:
The recorder was a Sony PCM-D100, with two nested custom Windcut furry windshields, placed on a Sirui carbon-fibre tripod with legs only slightly extended (to minimize interference from the very gentle breeze).

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshields and correction for the D100's weakness in very low bass.

The adjustment to give a slightly more distant sound was a combination of a small reduction in level, AND a simple 'tilt' EQ, being a straight line from 100Hz (no change) to 8K (-2dB). To me that simple adjustment produces a pretty authentic impression, in relation to the sound I hear there when the sea isn't quite so wild and the tide is further out.

Please remember to give this recording a rating — Thank you!