Pandemonium time! — High dramatics in Beeny Cliff's southernmost cave

Real 'wow' sea dramatics, with a deliciously dark and menacing reverberance, in the vestibule area of the southernmost cave of Beeny Cliff, near Boscastle, Cornwall, UK.

Right down on the steep grassy slope from the coast path, on Beeny Cliff's most southerly headland, and very carefully down and to the right over potentially slippery bare slaty slabs, we're now looking into the southernmost cave of Beeny Cliff, as we closely witness a monstrous succession of loud sea dramatics, with larger waves thundering in from the left, causing powerful rebound waves out of the cave, which then hit further incoming waves and cause loud eruptions of spray, with impressive splashdown sounds. In the close foreground we have a very pleasant quiet trickling of, yes, a little trickle of run-off water; the tripod is standing almost in it.

I have to admit that this recording, although thrilling (to this weirdo anyway!), is also one of my disappointments, which demonstrated the shortcomings of the PCM-M10 recorder. The problem is the atrocious stereo imaging. Although, yes, using software I greatly improved the stereo spread and definition, what I couldn't rectify was the plain wrong positioning of many of the sounds. So, when big waves come roaring in from the left, their position in the reproduced soundstage is shaky to say the least, for the most part seeming to be vaguely somewhere in the middle.

I so much wanted to get a repeat performance of this strength of dramatics here recorded on my later D100 recorder, but never quite got there. I did, however, get one example that was getting a bit near to this, and there you can properly hear the waves' movements and get a full impression of the collisions between inbound and rebound waves: https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/680401/ .

Advisory
For realistic effect, the playback volume level needs to be set 6 to 9dB above a sensible normal listening level.

High-grade headphones are particularly recommended in order to hear all the
detail. Also, because the stereo imaging has been enhanced, that may cause a certain phasiness or phase cancellation points when you listen through certain speakers, whereas that effect doesn't occur when listening through headphones.


One of the 'wow' collisions between large incoming wave and surging rebound wave from within the cave during this recording; the recorder was just a little behind and below me here.

The recording spot almost revealed in this photo of 26 August 2019, overlooking the mouth of Pentargon Cove. The actual recording spot is just hidden, being slightly down on the other side of what you can see from here.

Techie stuff:
The recorder was a Sony PCM-M10, with just one furry windshield — a Røde DeadKitten (original, more effective, version).

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshield, and more recent processing with the A1 Stereo Control VST plugin (200% widening). More recently still, I adjusted the spectral balance to tame the fatiguing 'up-front' quality of the treble, to give the sea more the somewhat recessed and decidedly reverberant sound that I actually remembered from standing there thrilled out of my pants(!) Anyone found a lost pair of pants down there? Might have been mine!

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