Peaceful '270-degree' hilltop sea / cliffs panorama — better version

This is a much superior version of a recording with an early version here (https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/173912/ ), which latter I titled 270-degree hilltop sea / cliffs panorama.… (i.e., without the quotes that are in this version's title). This version has much more detail, depth and width to it. Indeed, I can't understand why that early version was so popular and got pretty-well consistent 5-star ratings, considering its poor technical quality!

About the original '270-degree' claim, I view that with a certain wryness nowadays. I'd worked out on a map that the panorama of sea sound from that spot would have been roughly that sort of angle, and, yes, the diminutive Sony PCM-M10 has omnidirectional mics, and so would theoretically capture all that sea sound, but what I didn't know back then was the inevitable atrocious stereo imaging of that model, thanks to use of those omnis without any worthwhile acoustic barrier between them (actually really stupid to use omnis at all in such a small recorder, for that very reason).

The result of that configuration is that there's a seriously big overlap between the soundscape captured by each mic, which results in very poor stereo separation, resulting in a narrow soundstage, and also poor resolution of all details, and an overall sort of two-dimensional, semi-mono sort of sound.

Much more recently I greatly improved my PCM-M10 recordings with software that enables one to adjust stereo width. As a side-effect, in the course of widening, it greatly increases detail resolution, so effectively correcting for most of the serious shortcomings of that model.

So, am I saying that the recording, so processed. now reproduces that 270° panorama correctly?

— No, and it doesn't. Yes, it had presumably captured the sound over something like that angle, and that would all be in the recording, but what it had done with the sounds from well over to right, left, or behind, was to place them all somewhere not far from centre-stage! To put it politely, WTF??! Yes, that meant that those repositioned sounds were often nearer centre than others that were not so far-removed from centre to start with! That also makes each recording, even after that stereo enhancement, sound 'busy' and excessively full-bodied compared with a 'proper' recording, such as I get on the Sony PCM-D100, which doesn't put 'fringe' sounds close to middle. — And of course no post-session processing could correct that sort of anomaly.

Let's say, then, that as long as exact positions of the details in a recording don't all need to be reproduced faithfully, these improved versions of M10 recordings do usually sound really good, clear and three-dimensional.

I made this recording on 9 January 2013 on the Willapark headland on the SW side Boscastle Harbour, Cornwall, UK — indeed very close to the Coastwatch lookout there. This was my final fling on a dedicated day's recording around Boscastle Harbour — i.e., rather than during a hike. The swell was reasonably chunky, and the local wind relatively light, and indeed had fallen calm for this final recording. It was an excellent day for recording there too because it was midweek in winter, so there were few or no people or barking dog disturbances.

Advisory

Because of the processing to widen and sharpen the originally atrocious stereo imaging, the sea may sound rather phasey when listened to from certain speaker systems. Therefore high-grade headphones are the best solution.

This recording in progress. The next photo shows how boldly (stupidly?!) the recorder was placed.

Er, yes, seriously! — Although in this view the recorder looks about to fall off (on the left if you hadn't already spotted it), actually it WAS securely placed, but still at risk of some local friendly rock pipit or seagull deciding to perch there. On the right we see part of Meachard rock island. It itself has a blowhole, whose jets I've occasionally seen — not really spectacular at this distance, and which I'm not sure I've ever heard.

Techie stuff

The recorder was Sony PCM-M10, with Røde DeadKitten furry windshield (original, more effective, version). It was set up on a Hama Mini tripod, which is not just 'mini' but tiny.

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshield — and then more recently stereo widening / sharpening-up using the VST plugin A1 Stereo Control (160% widening).

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