Wind Chimes in GALE over wooded valley - Gypsy Mezzo - excerpt

On 30th January 2013 I took out with me a set of Woodstock Chimes of Pluto and two sets of Music of the Spheres Gypsy wind chimes - the Soprano and Mezzo sizes, the sounds of which latter two mesh together beautifully.

I was aiming for the same recording location as I used for my previous wind chimes recordings - in November 2012 - but this time a very strong wind was blowing over the more exposed parts, and, on the Hunters' Path from Drewsteignton (Devon, UK), high up on the side of the so-called Teign Gorge above Fingle Bridge, as I was coming out of the woods that clothe the steep valley slopes I was suddenly blasted by a wind of about gale force (force 8 on the Beaufort scale), and realized that my previous recording locations here would most likely be too windy this time.

So, I withdrew very slightly back into the top of the woods, descending slightly to just below the top part of the narrow track that ascends steeply from Fingle Bridge to join the Hunters' Path, and found a suitable group of low tree branches that were sufficiently sheltered to be getting a very nice range of wind strength, from very little indeed up to 'fresh' (force 5 on the Beaufort scale).

Thus today was an opportunity to record a gale in the woods, with wind chimes intermingled in the wind sound and indeed quite often buried in it as the most powerful gusts came. The results turned out to be interesting and very much in accordance with what I had been hankering after for as long as I'd been thinking of recording wind chimes. It is important, therefore, to enable yourself to perceive this particular day's recordings NOT as 'failed' or otherwise bad chimes recordings, but as extremely successful gale-in-the-woods recordings complete with wind chimes.

As well as the wind commotion, actually the River Teign far below was making its own quieter commotion, for it was particularly full after a lot of heavy rain, but during my whole 5+ hours' recording session I could never quite differentiate between the rushing sound of the Teign and the wind.

One thing you are bound to notice is that the degree of activity of the chimes does not tally all that much with the degree of roaring of the wind in the trees. This is because of my relatively sheltered position, so the big and powerful eddies in the flow of the air as it comes over the hill into the valley go careering through the tree branches above and around me, but the gusts that come to me and the recorder and chimes are almost all NOT those directly but smaller subsidiary eddies that come spinning off the big ones.

It is inevitable that the wind commotion will make particularly fatiguing listening, especially to the full-length recordings, when played through anything other than really good speakers / headphones. Please note that in the full-length recordings made on this day, ALL of them have some awesomely powerful and loud wind gusts that at times virtually drown out the chimes, so any of the excerpts here seeming louder or quieter than others is in fact misleading, as all the full length recordings have very loud and also almost quiet (albeit far from silent!) moments.

Please note also, that if you watch the waveform image here on Freesound while playing the excerpts you will NOT get the proper effect. The big wind gusts sound immensely more powerful and even frightening when you are NOT watching that, so you never know how much more the sound is going to increase, maybe to blow you and indeed the whole of Existence away! :-)

Another listening tip - if you have really good and wide stereo separation you will find that the wind sound is not simply a fluctuating roar (really rather boring!), but a wonderful drama of ogreish 'wind monsters' chasing around here, there, and who knows where! The three-dimensional movement really makes an exciting drama of it all.

This recording is of the Music of the Spheres Gypsy Mezzo chimes. Without being combined with chimes tuned to other scales, the weird, emotionally intense quality of these chimes is able to sing out, with the distinctive doleful sound of the Gypsy chimes of this larger size.

This is a 5-minute excerpt from the 30+ minutes full recording.

This photo shows my recording studio for 30th January 2013 - almost at the top of the north side of the Teign Gorge, and facing obliquely over the valley, so that the great gusts of wind come roaring from the right and then go careering round over and down into the valley. The sets of chimes visible are the Gypsy Mezzo (left, and further away) and the Pluto (right).
Note that the former being further away is not a bit of carelessness of mine, but a quite deliberate placement. I learnt from my first Gypsy Chimes recordings (back in November) that for best results those particular chimes need to be placed further from the microphones than the Woodstock or bamboo chimes (at least, those that I have), on account of their more penetrating and potentially overpowering tone.


Looking the other way from near the top of the track ascending from Fingle Bridge, which latter is hidden way down below. The recorder is about 25 metres behind me, just a little down the slope from this track.

Recording made with a Sony PCM-M10 on a Velbon mini-tripod, using the built-in microphones covered with a Rode Dead Kitten.

Please note that all recordings from 5th January to 2nd Feb 2013, inclusive (i.e. including this one) did not receive any correction for high-frequency attenuation caused by the new Rode Dead Kitten windshield. Subsequently I was able to work out a graphic EQ profile to apply to all recordings that used that windshield, and have applied it retrospectively - but I have no plans to go through the hassle of re-uploading here the recordings that originally missed out on that correction.

Therefore, copies of recordings made in that period, including this one, which I supply on CDs or as licensed copies for commercial use, will have better sound quality and will sound clearer, more 'present', and with more precision of detail than what you hear from here.

Please note that only very good speakers / headphones with a very extended and flat frequency response will do this recording real justice, and, as already noted, lesser speakers / headphones would make this sound quite fatiguing to listen to.

Please also note that the volume level of this recording has been carefully adjusted for listening purposes, and ALL my recordings so far are meant to be listened to with a volume setting that would give a realistic level for playback of CLASSICAL music (a large but not exceptional symphony orchestra). If you have the right volume setting, you should not need to change that setting from one recording of mine to another.

(Later note: This recording - with better sound than here - is one of my CD-quality downloads, and can be found in my e-Store.)

Please remember to give this recording a rating!