After my 3 hours walk in the Rainforest, I went back to my motorbike and checked Google maps because I knew there is a really cool waterfall around the area. The Mae Kampong Waterfall.
Here is the location on Google Maps!
If you drive the small road out of the village for about 3 minutes you will see a sign and you can’t miss it. The sign points to left direction with a little pavilion. If you come on a motorbike you can easily drive to this pavilion. With a car, you can just park next to the street.
By the time I arrived almost nobody was there and I start walking all the way to the top. I thought I should start with the recordings from the highest point and record my way down to the end of the waterfall. I did five recordings in total. Four with the Zoom F4 in 192/24 and one recording with the Zoom H6 in 96/24. If I can provide the highest quality with my recorders then I do it.
Normally the waterfall has 7 plateaus but after I reached the third one, the stairs were blocked with warning sciences and a “No Entry” display board. It looked pretty cool like the whole setup. It feels feel like Jurassic Park.
I guess its rainy season and the waterfall was already pretty strong. The stairs are made out of stone and super slippery and steep. I could understand the danger. One wrong step and you If you fall, it could end very badly.
So I started my first recording at this point.
I used the Zoom F4 with the DPA 4060. The cables are quite long so I tried to go with the mics as close as possible to the stream and recorded for about three minutes.
After this recording, I walked down to the second plateau and I liked that place a lot. The water stream is now bundled and flows down a natural stream. Pretty strong and linear.
For this recording, I used both recorders. I placed the Zoom H6 in front of the beginning of the stream and it’s actually my favorite recordings because you can listen to a variety of sounds in the recording. More ups and downs.
If you check the sound files the most recordings have a constant “white noise” track but the recordings from the H6 has just a little bit more going on. While I was trying to figure out where to put the F4 I kept the recordings running and the audio file is around eight minutes long.
For the second recording, I placed the microphones left and right apart very close to the stream. I had to be careful an always an eye on it. Dropping them in water? I don’t know :).
I recorded the sound for about three minutes and moved to the next area.
I was almost on the foot of the waterfalls and I placed the F4 with the DPA on the left side of the waterfall. At this part, the water flows down a stone wall. I recorded on this point again for about 3 minutes.
Now I am at the end of the waterfall and placed the recorder right in front of the waterfall for another 3 minutes and that’s it. I packed my equipment and drove back home.
I spent around 6 hours in the rainforest and sitting there and listen to the waterfall sounds was just amazing. I will try to record more nature sounds and I am thinking about getting a pair of hydrophones and a pair of contact microphones to offer a new sound chapter for you. I am excited about this idea.
Equipment I used for this field recording trip! -Zoom F4 -Zoom H6 -One Pair DPA 4060 -Rycote Windjammers
I have another waterfall recording from Germany if you are interested and Jungle recordings with a waterfall stream from Bali. Also will publish my waterfall sounds from the Tegenungan Wasserfall very soon!
-Peaceful Waterfall Germany
-Jungle Sounds and Waterstream Abandoned Temple Bali
As I said before, stay tuned for the jungle sound album what will be out very very soon. If you want to follow me on my Facebook page or on Bandcamp you can’t miss it!
But for now, I hope you enjoy these waterfall sound effects. Also, if you already have access to my Complete Library you will find the album in the Bandcamp category.
