Multiple firetrucks were rushing to a vehicle that was emitting smoke inside of a parking garage. I recorded two trucks passing right in front of me while I was standing at an intersection. You can hear that the first truck has a slower siren than the second one.
A few things surprised me about this recording: 1. The iPhone's Voice Memo app clearly has a really solid limiter built in, that kept the very loud siren sound from clipping. 2. Perhaps less surprising, but not a lot of bass of the passing trucks and cars was captured. So I got the idea, why not isolate the sirens even more?
News article about the event: https://www.heuvellandvandaag.nl/appartementencomplex-valkenburg-korte-tijd-ontruimd-om-smeulende-auto
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Recording Location: Valkenburg aan de Geul, Limburg, Netherlands
Recording Date & Time: 29 November 2025, around 13:23
Recording Device: iPhone 13 Mini (internal stereo mics)
Recording App: Apple Voice Memo
Recording Format: Apple Losless Audio Codec (ALAC in .m4a container)
Edited in: Ableton Live 12.3 (some high-pass EQ, a little bit of convolution reverb, and stem separation to get rid of some background sounds)
Exported as: WAV 44.1KhZ 16 Bit
Type
Wave (.wav)
Duration
0:36.610
File size
6.2 MB
Sample rate
44100.0 Hz
Bit depth
16 bit
Channels
Stereo
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