I recently spent a week wild camping in Scotland with my brother Curtis (who also took some lovely photos). I was keen to gather some Ambisonic recordings and find out if I could hack the outdoor life. I've never really been a fan of camping as I'm a bit too used to my home comforts, but the lure of potential new sounds to record was strong enough, and it turned out to be an enjoyable, if not completely successful trip because we had a fair amount of wet weather which made recording difficult and sometimes impossible. I'd initially planned on getting lots of Ambisonic recordings (even if my brother did think I was mad to carry such an amount of gear in my pack), but I think I ended up preferring the recordings I made with the simple stereo spaced pair setup. I also got a recording of the wind howling through a fence near a remote mountain Bothy we stayed at one night. I used a pair of JRF contact microphones, which record the physical vibrations of an object rather than sound waves moving through the air like a traditional microphone. I love contact mics as they always surprise in the hidden sounds they uncover.
I think I'm hooked on wild camping now too!
Listen below. Headphones recommended.