Yes this really did happen , the neighbour decided to get his weedwacker out and trim some shrubs while it was raining.....

Whale Bay is up by Tutukaka , (yes that is a real name) A very beautiful part of the "far north", we love those simple names here in New Zealand!
This recording is of the stream that flows into the sea , you can hear the waves breaking in the background and It is a single take with no overdubs or edits.

http://www.sugarloaf.co.nz

3pm outside my house , during the warmer months these wee critters go all day & night long...

Standing on the Ellerslie overpass , train station & northbound traffic on the left.

This week I traveled around the middle of the North Island for work. We had a couple of days in Mt Maunganui that I was looking forward too , mainly because my kids used to live there and we spent some good times on the beach and even managed to climb "the mount" (as locals call it) one brave xmass day.
Well, this trip wasn't so great due to the fact that my hotel had construction going on next door from 6.30am till 7pm. I won't name the hotel in order to protect the innocent , but here's what I had to put up with....

http://www.bayofplentynz.com
http://www.mountmaunganui.co.nz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Maunganui

Here's something you don't hear every day.... My neighbours had been having a bit of a tidy up and this is the truck picking up the bin.
I like the rhythmic nature of the sounds in this one , after a while the gentle "pulsing" is relaxing.
(PS: I'm living back in Auckland at the moment)

Imananabaa wins the Railway Classic (R8) at Ellerslie on New Years Day, as heard from my house. This is probably the last recording from outside my place as I'm moving down to Christchurch for a while. If all goes well I should have some recordings from far away places here in the future but don't expect any new postings for a few months.

9pm on a warm humid Auckland evening.
Not much else to say....

This is a collage of recordings from the West Coast of the North Island.
Featuring: Cape Reinga , Te Henga , Piha.
Those of you that have visited the beaches in the upper North Island know that they can be very rough one day, beautiful and serene the next. I hope this reminds you of your visit, whatever the conditions.

Here's an edited down version of 11am - noon outside my house again.
I was going out for a walk so just left the computer to record while I was away , if I was being intellectual I'd say "it's a study of space and time". But I'm not.

James my neighbour arriving home after work. He's got a new car since this recording btw. (A ford fiesta now incase you're wondering) I was chatting to him today, something that is difficult at the best of times due to his limited english. Anyway, turns out him and the family are moving out into a bigger house. Not surprising really, the block of units I live in have only 2 bedrooms , a small lounge , and to make things worse for him and his wife they have two teenage daughters and only one bathroom... (his words, not mine!)
Umm, back to the story.
He'd arrive home most days at around 4pm , this is what it sounded like on 29-07-06, winter here in New Zealand in case you were wondering.
FYI, I found this link to the cctv traffic cameras here in Auckland: http://www.trafficnz.info/Traffic.do?view=cctv

Here's a dummies guide to Haka , the most concise I could find and covers everything. (from wikipedia again). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka

Although the use of a haka by the All Blacks has made one type of haka familiar, it has led to misconceptions. Haka are not exclusively war dances, nor are they only performed by men. Some are performed by women, others by mixed groups, and some simple haka are performed by children. Haka are performed for various reasons: for amusement, as a hearty welcome to distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements or occasions (McLean 1996:46-47). Various actions are employed in the course of a performance, including facial contortions such as showing the whites of the eyes and the poking out of the tongue, and a wide variety of vigorous body actions such as slapping the hands against the body and stamping of the feet. As well as chanted words, a variety of cries and grunts are used. Haka may be understood as a kind of symphony in which the different parts of the body represent many instruments. The hands, arms, legs, feet, voice, eyes, tongue and the body as a whole combine to express courage, annoyance, joy or other feelings relevant to the purpose of the occasion.
Haka are sometimes popularly thought of solely as war dances, but individual haka have different purposes, not all related to war. War haka, which had their own term, 'peruperu' were originally performed by warriors before a battle, proclaiming their strength and prowess in order to intimidate the opposition. Today, haka constitute an integral part of formal or official welcome ceremonies for distinguished visitors or foreign dignitaries, serving to impart a sense of the importance of the occasion.

You can hear the fireworks in the distance from the Alexander Park Guy Fawkes celebrations as well as my neighbours reliving their youth....
It's kind of ironic that we celebrate a failed 17th century catholic terrorist in these modern times don't you think? For more on the history of this event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night
In case you're wondering, this years event was held a saturday night so that families could attend. (even though a few people were injured from rogue fireworks shooting into the crowd, oops.)

My first dawn recording from outside my front door 2004. I don't have many photos of my place so thought I'd put this image up instead.

I think most of you will know this one , it's Cat Stevens in Te Reo! (maori language) For an introduction to Te Reo , have a look here.
http://www.maori.org.nz/kotereo/
Kia Kaha!
(first person to send me email telling me what that means will get a cd of my recordings , my xmass gift to you.) Sorry, cd has gone to Allanah http://allanah.podomatic.com who is from NZ , But will offer one to an overseas listener too.
If you're interested in hearing more maori music try this site. http://www.maorimusic.com/catalog/default.php

A recording put together by Derek Holzer of http://soundtransit.nl

The sounds used in this piece were selected from the archives of SoundTransit.nl, a collaborative, online community dedicated to field recording and phonography. Each shares some aspect of travel–whether by train, boat, airplane or motorbike–with the others, and they have been mixed into a continuous soundscape to be overlayed on top of the existing ambience of the Eindhoven Centraal Station at a matching level. What one realizes by listening carefully are the radical differences in the acoustic environments in the world around us, and that a new, “impossible” or “virtual” sonic situation is created by the combination of any of these sounds and the environment we inhabit now.

Derek Holzer - Bratislava, SK “Departure Time”
Jeff Carey - Washington DC, USA “Power Plant, Bugs, Train”
John Hegre - Stralsund, DE “Der Stralsunder pt 3″
Grant Finlay - Auckland, NZ “Airplane Over Ladies Mile”
Keith de Mendonca - Kefalonia, GR “Water Under Boats”
Maksim Shentelev/my-ym - Patna-Kolkata, IN “On Train: Patna-Kolkata”
Fabian Klenk - Kontum, VN “Music Shop in Kontum”
Derek Holzer - Monte Alegre, Para, BR “Frogs on the Lago”
Katie Gately - Seattle, USA “Trains Spitting Water, Bird, Wind”
John Hegre - Stralsund, DE “Der Stralsunder pt 1″
Cedric Peyronnet - Kushiro, JP “Kushiro Harbour”
Jean Francois Cavro - Kyoto, JP “Kyoto Station”

All sounds used and published by Soundtransit.nl under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Lunlun from the Many Hands Collective (1995) , this is called "dreams of different houses" and was one of those "she's got an hour free, can you record something please?" moments. Very simple really, she's a great musician and that makes it so much easier. I'd never heard or seen one of these before so here's my first attempt at recording the gu zheng , have a read about Lunlun here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunlun_Zou
or her myspace page
http://www.myspace.com/lunlunzou

I found this recently while listening through some old tapes....
Recorded winter 2005 , Many Hands was a band I did a lot of work with in the early 90's when I first moved to Wellington.This track was recorded live to dat , purely improvised and is the only version that exists. Have a look at < www.manyhands.co.nz > for more information on them and If you ever get a chance, check them out live. Often up to 30 members would be on stage including bagpipes and erhu , it was a hell of a lot of fun and I was their live/studio sound mixer till the end of 1996 when I moved to Christchurch.
This track though is just a couple of them in the studio fleshing out some rythms for the next live performance , short but worth a listen.

Thanks to the magic of protools and being able to tell it how long to record for , here's 5.30am today. Thankfully I was exercising my tonsils!
Just a reminder for those that may not know , I live in the suburbs and around 1km (3/4 mile) from the main highway north & south. Hope that explains the traffic rumble in the distance and the odd bang or crash you may hear in my recording. I'm not going to edit it out as this is what it sounded like at that moment in time.

I'm not partial to getting up before the sun and anyone that knows me will agree that I'm not a morning person. Today was an exception , not because I wanted too but because this little fella has set up home outside my bedroom. Every morning for the last 2 weeks he (or she) starts singing at around 4.30am then disappears only to come back at sunset and continue singing till around 9.30pm.
Anyway, back to the story... I was woken at 4.30am today so got up, set up the mic (it started raining) and of course then went back to bed. You can hear the rain drops on my neighbours car , the dawn chorus starting and some traffic in the distance. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned any day that I wake up is a good one. Kia Ora!
(For those wondering, it's a Tui)

Here's an easy way to learn the colours of the rainbow in Te Reo (Maori language). As sung by the South New Brighton Primary School, again recorded at the 1999 Schools Cultural Festival in Christchurch.

Nga Tae ('Nga' meaning more than one, gives the pural meaning to a word, 'Te tae' would be 'the colour' - 'te' meaning 'the')

Kahurangi the colour of the sky
Kakariki the colour of the grass
And there's Kowhai, the lovely kowhai tree
With its yellow flowers for us to see
Kahurangi, kakariki, kowhai, nga tae

Ma is white as the whitest, whitest snow
Whero red like the rata flower's glow
Mix them together and what do you think?
You get Mawhero, the colour we call pink.
Kahurangi, kakariki, kowhai, nga tae

Black is night time and pango is its name
Brown is Uru, purauri means the same
Kiwikiwi is grey like rainy skies
Karaka orange like flames of distant fires
Kahurangi, kakariki, kowhai, nga tae

So , what does a Location Sound Recordist do to relax after a hard day on set? He goes to the local park and records frogs....
I thought about editing out the cars but my recordings are of a "space in time." Sometimes that means cars and other distractions , I'm not after a clinical super-clean sound but more of a "slice of life." It's just what I do.
The loud squawks you hear at the start and end are from a pukeko (as shown in the photo) ( later, 16/01/08) Today I found out what the frogs are, they are "green and golden bell frogs" Identified thanks to http://www.oranawildlifepark.co.nz a place well worth visiting if you ever make it to Christchurch , New Zealand.

Here's another track recorded at Bethells beach , this time in the sand dunes. I was looking for a good spot to listen to the birdlife (being sand dunes there's not many birds around) when I came across some foliage that had these guys singing away. It's one of my favourite recordings at the moment and I think you'll understand why when you have a listen.
Remember, when at the beach take only memories and leave only footprints. ( ok , conservation message over )

Recently I was out at Bethells recording sound for a promo "film" shot on the new RED camera. The Director wanted some atmos tracks of the area so I went off and here's the stream that winds it's way down to the ocean (recorded around 2km's inland, not far from Wheelers farm where Xena & countless other tv series/films have been shot.)

Te Henga (Bethells Beach) is a coastal community located in the north of the North Island, New Zealand. The Māori name Te Henga, meaning sand, originally applied to a wide area of the lower Waitakere River valley, but in 1976 the New Zealand Geographic Board changed the name of the beach to from Bethells Beach to Te Henga. The Te Henga Valley shows evidence of human settlement dating back over 1000 years. The area is rich culturally as well as naturally with a large number of significant sites, including food gathering areas, pa, walkways, canoe landings and sacred places.

FYI: Most people still refer to this place as Bethells Beach.

Another track from the 1999 Christchurch Schools Cultural Feastival.
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. (We're pretty good with names don't you think!) The Māori name for the South Island, Te Wai Pounamu, meaning "The Water/s of Greenstone" (greenstone being jade), possibly evolved from Te Wāhi Pounamu which means "The Place Of Greenstone". The island is also known as Te Waka a Māui which means "Māui's Canoe".
About a quarter of New Zealand's four million inhabitants live in the South Island and I was brought up in a little place called Greymouth on the west coast, look it up!
(thanks to wikipedia for some of this info)

Kepa Bush Reserve lies on the slopes of Purewa Creek that flows past Orakei Basin into Hobson Bay. The 13.6 ha reserve is a peaceful pocket of native bush day or night, dazzling with bird life during the day and serene with glow-worms in the gully near the main entrance at night.
The reserve honours the memory of Te Rangihiwinui Kepa (Major Kemp) who fought for government forces against Te Kooti, Titokowaru and Tamaikowha during the land wars of the 1860s. In 1841 the crown bought the area from Maori and three years later Bishop Selwyn purchased 150 hectares as a site for St John’s Theological College.

As well as noting the land’s potential for farming and good access to the sea via Purewa Creek, the Bishop felt the site was a healthy distance from the temptations of the town. Kepa Bush was established in 1962 when Auckland City bought the site from the theological college.

One of the things I enjoy about phonography is that you never are really sure what's going to happen. I was recording with the mic in the driveway and Pete my neighbour had some visitors arrive, obviously they spotted the mic and here's what it sounded like...

Mālō e lava mai - welcome (lit. thanks for coming)

Here's Hymn#1. The photo shows where these tracks were recorded. It was a typical Auckland summer , humid and around 25c at 9pm. The room was pretty unbearable when you add 50 people singing their lungs out....

Mālō e lelei - hello (lit. congrat. on being well, the being in good health is worthy of gratitude)

Recorded at my girlfriends' uncles funeral a coule of years ago now , I'm not sure what the song is but I like it. This was an informal gathering out the back of the main house with people coming and going all the time hence the background noise.

Recorded at Michaels Avenue Reserve , about a 10 minute walk from my house and on my regular exercise route. (sadly, neglected lately) I was at #22 on the map (stolen from the auckland city website , thanks!) in the wetlands at around dusk, between 1900-2000 hrs. FYI: spring here in New Zealand.

A unique wetland area covering approximately 20 hectares, of complex geological, historical and ecological value that also provides a wonderful sanctuary for a variety of bird life. The wetlands were once part of a freshwater lake, which was denied its source by the lava flows from the Maungarei (Mt Wellington) eruptions some 9000 years ago. Subsequent ponding and the deposition of silt and volcanic ash helped create the wetlands. (from the auckland city website)
What they forgot to mention was that it's beside a main road on the border of Remuera & Meadowbanks. In this recording you hear the road on the left and the wetlands on the right , it's just the way I pointed the mic to best represent what it actually sounds like. Not "pure" but as it is.

 Another song I'm not sure of but liked from the Schools cultural festival, so hear you go...

Nov 1st , 2006.
Recorded outside my front door , I could hear the pipers practising in the distance and the birds enjoying the summers day so I plugged up the mic to my computer and "filed". So what is the correct term in this day and age of computer recording... anyone got any ideas?
http://www.ellerslie.net.nz

Recorded at the 1999 Christchurch Schools Cultural Festival. I'm not sure what the songs called as they didn't follow the programme and my knowledge of Maori waiata (song) isn't that great.
If you know this one please drop me an email!

The Maori name Waharau http://tinyurl.com/23x7av means "the ever changing stream mouth" and refers to the stream that winds it's way down from the eastern Hunua Range to emerge into the Firth of Thames.

Torohape Rd is on the Hauraki Plains , just off highway 27 ( the back road to Hamilton) about an hour south of Auckland.

I was sitting on the beach when two dotterals started chirping at me , I was too close to their nest hidden near by...
Here's a link direct to Wenderholm regional park: http://tinyurl.com/2w5srn
and this is the home page for all the regional parks in Auckland: http://www.arc.govt.nz/parks/

Recorded out by the Hunua Ranges at Wairoa Dam in 2005.
The Hunua Ranges http://tinyurl.com/yqhffb form a block of hilly country to the southeast of Auckland in New Zealand's North Island. They cover some 250 square kilometres (100 sq mi), containing 178 km² of parkland, and rise to 688 metres (2255 ft) at Kohukohunui. Auckland gets much of its water from reservoirs within the Hunua Ranges.
The ranges are located approximately 50 kilometres (30 mi) southeast of Auckland, above the western shore of the Firth of Thames. They are sparsely populated, and mostly lie within the boundaries of the Waharau and Hunua Ranges Regional Parks. Thanks to wikipedia for this information. http://en.wikipedia.org