AMB41 Iceland: Rain

DESCRIPTION: 

• In Iceland: Rain, get an expansive collection of tundra rain from the pristine wilderness of the arctic. Hear soothing rain landing on pillow-like beds of moss and massive drips plopping in lava caves. Hear delicate droplets gently landing on thick tundra grass and ominous wind whipping through wide open treeless spaces. Hear soothing rain on wood cabins and the calming wash of a million raindrops gently landing small birchwood leaves. 
• This library offers you a large collection of arctic rain. I hope you enjoy listening to the natural music of the weather as it sings through the mythical spaces of Iceland. 

Download the Uncompressed Demo

KEY FEATURES:

• Zero wildlife. You'll only hear rain.
• Light, moderate, and heavy rain
• Melodic droplets in basalt lavaflow caves
• Mellow rain on pillow-like tundra moss
• Rain on tundra grass
• Rain on deciduous tundra shrub (dwarf birchwood trees)
• Rain on wood cabin porches
• If you need more sounds from Iceland, check out the whole series – here.

RECORDING STORIES – How to Record Rain:

• This expedition gave me a chance to record two new types of rain: tundra moss and boreal scrubland. 
• Imagine raindrops falling softly onto a moss covered lavaflow straight out of Lord of the Rings. It is the most mellow and soothing rain I've ever recorded.
• To keep raindrops from thumping on the blimp, the microphones were protected by small basalt caves. However, basalt is not a dense waterproof rock. It is extremely porous, so water isn't stopped. Melodic cave-like drops are heard as water slowly seeps through the honeycombed rock during rainstorms. The mix of melodic cave drips with the pillow-like softness of the mossy rain is the most magical rain I've ever recorded!
• Iceland is now an almost treeless land. Historically as much as 40% of the country used to be forested before Viking settlers arrived. However, dense canopies of dwarf birchwood trees (1-3 meters tall) still covers the landscape in some places. I was able to place rigs in these short scrubland forests and captured some lovely small-leaf deciduous rain. These recordings have an incredible detail as the droplets fall on low canopy leaves within 1 meter of the mics.
• Most recordings were made on the tundra using local foliage rain canopies and waterproofed Cinela LEO 20N blimps. A few recording were made from porches of remote wood cabins. 
• Here are a few additional rain recording resources:
• Listen to the Tonebenders Podcast about how I record rain. 
• Read a blog post about recording Alaskan rain. This blog post includes a list of rain recording tips. 
• Watch a video by George Vlad on how to build a foliage rain canopy.

FILE LIST:

• View larger version or Download CSV.
• A spectrogram is included for each audio file. Double click on the photo in the file list to enlarge.

LIBRARY INFO: