Best recording of the ocean?

[sKiZo]

I had firefighting training on a little island in the Bay Area, called Treasure Island. The place was not like heaven on Earth. Getting screamed at by a fricking squid. At least I didn't get my ass kicked in front of everybody like the guy who kept forgetting to ground the CO2 canister.

Place was a hoot, wasn't it? I spent some time there after getting back from sunny SE Asia awaiting separation. Rows and rows of dirty gray barracks, and come around a corner and find something like this, left over from the Golden Gate Exposition back in the /40's ...

Navy sold it to the city some years back - plan was to turn it to condos, but they have to do something about the radioactivity first ... apparently, there was some less than stellar safety standards for off loading of nukes on the island ... dOH!

 

[bhunter]

Here is another view (probably better) of the Grotto. Once again, the Grotto1->4 recordings were done in the shadowed area behind the big rock, under the overhang. You can see a person crossing from the Treasure Island cove, to the more easily accessed public beach. At high tide he would be completely underwater where he is at.

The recordings were close mic'd, to catch the sound of water in motion. You can hear lots of glorps, gurgles, hisses, swirls, farty noises, as the water surges in and out of this area. You can hear the waves breaking; they are what forces the water up into the Grotto. If you listen closely, critically, you can hear water move from left-to-right, right-to-left.
What I really like about the recordings is all of the water moving, and, not so much the sound of the waves.

Laguna is one of my favorite areas. I lived about 100 yards from the ocean in the Birdrock area of La Jolla for 15 years and enjoyed the relaxing sound of the ocean. Your recordings are excellent and I appreciate that you made them available.

 

[tubed]

 

[mfrench]

Laguna is one of my favorite areas. I lived about 100 yards from the ocean in the Birdrock area of La Jolla for 15 years and enjoyed the relaxing sound of the ocean. Your recordings are excellent and I appreciate that you made them available.

Thank you. That was a very nice thing to say.
There are so many ways that recordings like this can be done. I've never done one before, and have not since.

Backstory....
In this image link, HERE, you can see this same stretch of coastline (clicking on the image in the link will supersize it). To the left of the image, you can see the Grotto. To the far right of the image, you can see Aliso Creek pouring into the ocean, and also a parking area. This stretch of beach is technically called Aliso Beach. You can also see what became of the Treasure Island Park.
On the night of the recording, I parked across the highway from the parking area by the creek, and took a tunnel underneath the highway. I had to cross Aliso Creek, which I'd done numerous times before, without any issues.
On this night however, something was different. I got to the edge of the creek, and waded in. The water was flowing really quite hard, but not exceptionally deep. It looked to be below knee deep. So, I waded in, and started to cross.
Now, for some reason, this time, I hit a soft pocket of sand, quicksand, at mid-stream, and quickly sunk up to my mid-thighs, and started to come off-balance; creek to my right, waves to my left.
Under normal conditions, no big deal,... but tonight, I had my recording rig with me, and, a mic stand in a bag; my hands were full of gear. The recording bag contained my mics, a two channel preamp, and the recorder. All totaled, it was a $7,500+ portable recording rig, and I was near huevos deep in quicksand, and being pushed over.
I was able to get my legs back under me, and out of the sand, and, made it across the creek without further incident. It left me feeling a bit freaked out that my rig had come so close to a dunking, which would have been the end of it.

 

[mfrench]

I need the storage space in my DropBox account. So, I'm going to be pulling this folder tomorrow. If anyone is interested, grab it now.
I hope that people have enjoyed it!

I used to live in a trailer park in south Laguna Beach, called Treasure Island.

Trailer park, you say?!?

This place was like heaven on earth. It was anything but your basic trailer park. In fact, it was the final resting place for Ricky and Lucys Long Trailer, which a friend of ours lived in.
Treasure Island was at the edge of the coast, and in a beautiful area of Laguna Beach.
It had mostly private beaches (they were public, but, extremely difficult and hazardous to get to without going thru the park gates, which were a private entry point.

In that park, we lived three rows back from the cliff edge. At that row, there was a series of concrete garages that were built into the hillside, and, on top of these garages, was a row of mobile homes. We lived on top of the garages, and had a 180º unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean. Our mobile home was fully 10’ taller than the other two rows in front of us. The first row had great views at the cliff edge. The second row had no view, and our row had majestic views, to the horizon, and 180º+ wide.
A feature of Treasure island were secluded beaches, and a small fishing pier. These beaches were in small semi-private coves. At the south and of these coves was what we called, The Grotto.
At high tide, the Grotto was not passable without wading chest deep in rocky wave surf (rocks with sharp rocks embedded in a lava-like stone). If you lost your footing, you’d get cut to shreds. The Grotto kept the tourists and general public to the south, and away from the coves, as it was a very hazardous crossing unless you knew exactly what you were doing. At low tide, if you slipped, you'd still be cut to shreds.

These rock outcropping also made for great fishing platforms, and great sunset/sunrise watching.
I always loved the sound of the Grotto, and decided one night that I was going to go down there and record the sound of the grotto, after all of the birds had settled in, and the people had left the beach.
So, I grabbed my portable recording rig, and went to the Grotto, and set up to record.
The rig is an extremely high end recording rig, and very revealing.
These are the resulting recordings that I did that night.

The Treasure Island Grotto and Arch:
View attachment 744334
The Grotto recordings 1->4 were done in the shaded area that is in line with the arch, at the base of the big rock in the foreground. The Open Ocean recordings were done on the same rock, on the sunny side, higher up.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dpt81m0b6fn3uh5/AAAfnmY8Oza8bRILFXVSldzja?dl=0

These will only be available for a short time in this DropBox folder, as I need the space. So, a week or less is all they'll be available for. Grab them if you're interested, as they won't be there for very long.

Treasure Island Park is no longer. It got bulldozed, and is now, The Montage Spa and Hotel, for the wealthy and trendy.

 

[bhunter]

I need the storage space in my DropBox account. So, I'm going to be pulling this folder tomorrow. If anyone is interested, grab it now.
I hope that people have enjoyed it!

Thanks again. I became interested in ambient/nature recordings when I acquired a CD called The Digital Domain. IIRC, it was done at Stanford in the early 1980s. I listen to everything from rain forests to freight trains.

 

[chef free]

I found a really realistic recording called Waves by Scott Wyker. It was mostly recorded at Pieffer Beach near Big Sur. It really captures that sound and feel!

 

[WaynerN]

I made a digital recording of the incoming waves on Lake Superior. I was using a Tascam DAT recorder, a 12 channel mixer and several microphones. We were staying at a well known resort, and we had the condo on the bottom level. So I ran power out onto the rock beach and set up a make shift studio. Others were sure curious as to what the hell I was doing. The results were impressive. Extremely loud and dynamic. About as "real" as one could hope for.

'ner

 

[mfrench]

Thanks again. I became interested in ambient/nature recordings when I acquired a CD called The Digital Domain. IIRC, it was done at Stanford in the early 1980s. I listen to everything from rain forests to freight trains.

You're most welcome. I didn't realize that people were interested in that kind of recording. I hope that it was worth your time in d/l'ing.