New York Times Magazine: How to Record Thunderstorms
“Find a quiet place and be patient. Prioritize your safety.” Illustration by Radio
I was contacted in March 2022 by The New York Times to discuss the ins and outs of recording thunderstorms for the Magazine section of their Sunday edition newspaper. Not a very technical article, mainly for beginners, that’s OK with me. It’s wonderful that a field recording article ended up in the Times.
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Free Crazy Sound for May 2016: Evening Thunderstorm
The free “CRAZY SOUND” of the month for May 2016. A nice evening thunderstorm recorded with a Sennheiser MKH8040-ST ORTF stereo microphone late in the evening. The sound file is 24-Bit 48kHz with Soundminer Metadata embedded. Enjoy! Namaste – Frank
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In this second and final article I will discuss microphone patterns, recording device pre amp settings, editing and the final mastering phase of this collection. Before I dive into all the technical mumbo jumbo I want to express that when I’m setting up and actually recording thunder and lightning I get quite excited. There must be something in the air, alien mind control beams or just the anticipation of getting the “ultimate” thunder clap or lightning strike. It’s very hard work and involves exercise, listening, tracking the storms and watching the skies. I feel like a kid in a candy shop and I feel the recording is the easy part. So, now we begin.
October 7, 2014 – Frank Bry
In this article I will reveal my secrets and techniques to recording decent thunder and lightning. Many, many years and sleepless nights have gone into perfecting the art of recording the thunderstorm and I will finally share. But first, I want to share a little history and tell you how I developed these secrets and techniques. It was not so easy at first and here’s the story I’m still alive to tell. Part 1: Live and Learn.
Thunderstorm III HD Professional SFX library Update: Three years ago I started recording all new thunder and lightning sounds for this new collection. As you might guess you cannot call up the thunder gods and schedule a recording session or two. Strange I know but that’s the way they work. So, I’ve been slowly and patiently waiting, recording, waiting, recording, editing, waiting, recording, etc during this time and have recorded quite a bit of material.
For the last month or so I’ve been driving my wife crazy with my microphone and recorder rigs sitting near the front door. I’ve been trying to record the thunderstorms that were forecast by the experts. So far I’ve been batting a thousand with thunder fail so last night I moved all the gear downstairs to the studio to make good with my wife.
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May 3, 2011
To kick off thunderstorm season here in North Idaho I want to share with you some new thunder and lightning recordings along with some from my Thunderstorm HD library released a couple years ago. I also want to share some of my tips and techniques I use when trying to record that elusive lightning strike. The audio clip below is thunder I’ve recorded over the last 2 years. The clip contains the raw recordings, no processing except crossfades and gain adjustments. What you hear is what you get. Now, some background information.
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How to Record ThunderstormsMay 19, 2022 - 6:33 am
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