Quad MKH8040 Thunderstorm

FREE Crazy Sound of the Year: August 2021. No gimmicks, no sign ups, no bullcookies – just a nice sounding thunderstorm recorded with two MKH-8040ST ORTF microphone sets back to back for free, my gift to all of you wonderful audio professionals.

Backstory:
I have multiple sets of Sennheiser MKH-8040 microphones. I use two matched stereo sets, one XY, the other ORTF and a back up set. As you may know I love using the MKH-8040 microphones on guns and other sources but one of my favorite uses is for recording the sound of lightning and thunder. I have been recording thunder for over 30 years and have released many collections. All of these have been in stereo and they are wonderful but I wanted to up my game a bit and record in four channel format.

As you may know, recording thunder is very difficult even with a stereo microphone. Setting up a four channel quad rig presents even more challenges. More microphones, cables and a protected location that will get good results totally got my juices flowing. I have a back up set of MKH-8040 microphones and Rycote blimps. All I needed was the Rycote ORTF mount with the Connbox to have a second ORTF rig. I purchased a mount and I was all set. I mounted the two ORTF sets on a bar, back to back and was happy that it lined up very well. Next thing I needed was a multi channel snake to run across the yard to my house where I can sit safely with my Scorpio recorder. I picked up a 6 channel audio snake for this and I was off and running. I even have two extra channels to run a third stereo microphone rig if I so desire. I only require 50 feet of snake so this was the best option for now. For longer runs I will look into using audio over Cat5 cable. More to come on that.

So there you have it, my story on how I put this together. I am very happy with the results. The quad soundscape is very wide and full. Check it out on a good surround system and let me know what you think. I plan on recording as much thunder as I can with this setup. I can’t really just call up a storm so this might take a while… maybe… I’ve been told I can control the weather. Enjoy the sounds! Much love, Frank

24-Bit 96k Quad Sound file GRAB IT HERE: 260MB Download

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