The sound of summer Crickets

[Blumlein 88]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fmogwro9pdzxukn/Crickets.zip?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fmogwro9pdzxukn/Crickets.zip?dl=0
You can download this zip file which will open into 3 recordings of crickets. A couple are 3 minutes long and one is 1 minute long.

Many think they always recognize the best most natural recordings innately. That simply listening can be a reliable guide to fidelity. So I wonder will everyone or most people reach a consensus on which of these cricket recordings sound most like the real deal.

So download, listen, give your opinion. I would also like for everyone to list which speaker or headphone they used for the auditioning.

The recordings all used only two microphones feeding directly to the ADC. No processing or level changing was done.

I found that starting with my volume setting normally used for moderate music playback I needed to lower volume by 6-8 db for these recordings to have the same loudness as the crickets outside the front door.

Have fun with this.

 

[Wayne]

I maybe missing something here, I performed the tests quickly (as I am leaving for a few days). I will have time to repeat when I return.

Because the sounds (all three) don't (didn't) sound like what I think crickets should sound like, it was difficult for me to evaluate the sounds. I could detect little difference that I could articulate on the first pass. If you are looking for differences due to microphone placement and how it reproduces in a good "listening room," I can't help you there as my room is far from ideal.

What my mind thinks of as "crickets:"
https://www.soundsnap.com/tags/cricket

Thanks for thee exercise, sorry I couldn't be of much assistance.

The real "sound of summer" is my AC running.....

 

[Tks]

Doesn't sound like crickets at all to me. I like 2 the most if I had to choose simply because the noise floor of the microphone seemed lowest there for whatever reason.

Used HD6XX's running off an RME DAC, and Vanatoo T1 Encore speakers.

Sounded more like distant muffled ducks going crazy.

 

[TungstenC]

"Cricket two" sounded the most natural to me, more spacious than "Cricket one".
"Cricket three" sounds muffled.

Test done using HD650's with an O2+SDAC.

 

[cshake]

All sounded like crickets to me, with a nearby road and an A/C unit or fridge or something whirring. The background mechanical hum tone was matched between #3 and after the loudest car driveby in #1 (between 1:15 and 3:21 or so), then the tone through the rest of #1 was the same as all of #2. I believe the higher pitched hum in #3 and middle of #1 is masking the hum in #2 (i.e. the one in #2 is always there in all three), but am not 100% on that, it could be rotating machinery that changed speeds instead of one continuous and another intermittent. #3 is noticeably quieter at the same volume settings which makes it a bit harder to compare fairly.

My overall impression is that they were recording the same thing with the same microphones but with different amounts of background noise reduction applied (actively in software/DSP or passively with acoustic absorbents next to the mics or something), with #1 having the most noise and #3 the least. The noise profile is like wind noise or another broadband style noise (white, pink, etc). The biggest difference is between #3 and #2.

In terms of the hypothesis that people innately can pick which is the most "natural": at first the level match between #1/#2 and quieter #3 made me instinctively think #3 was not as good, but intentionally trying to ignore that, I would rank them #3 > #2 > #1 if I wanted to add it as a background to another mix to add ambience. I know that's not exactly a decision on "natural", but I'd call it the best recording (although the mechanical hum ruins it for that purpose for me, so...). I may have "cheated" a little by using foobar2000 with the spectrum trace across the bottom, which showed different density for the tracks and caused some unconscious bias even when I wasn't watching it since I'd seen the differences when I first played the files.

Test done with AKG K612's fed with an Atom amp and desktop motherboard DAC, with EQ using the oratory1990 preset for EqualizerAPO tweaked to have less bass boost.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

I thought for a moment that this was about Jofra and Smith

 

[graz_lag]

I thought for a moment that this was about Jofra and Smith

They call it baseball on the other side of the pond ...

 

[restorer-john]

So download, listen, give your opinion. I would also like for everyone to list which speaker or headphone they used for the auditioning.

They don't sound like crickets to me. I know they are because you told us, but perhaps your crickets over there are different to ours. We get more cicadas which are absolutely deafening. And drop-bears.

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and AKG-702s.

I should run out with the recorder next time the kookaburras go off laughing- that'd be a fun sound for you guys.

 

[pkane]

Have fun with this.

I like 3, mostly because of the greater high frequency content. I'm often outside at night (my other hobby is astronomy) and I am very familiar with the sound These things can be deafening.

Apogee Element24 -> HE560 headphones. Levels matched in Audacity before listening.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Okay, I posted this some two years ago here and elsewhere. I took a lot of flack because it wasn't crickets on the other forum, it was katydids you hear. I actually had a biologist PM me on the other forum and say there were crickets here and there, plus some cicadas, but the bulk of the sound was katydids. Oops, sorry. Apparently even those vary by region. I'm in the southeastern USA.

Funny this is now getting some attention as it received only one reply back at the time 2 years ago.

Okay, spilling the beans. No processing at all. Straight out of the microphones. Not even level changes.

If my memory is good, #1 was X-Y pair of Shure KSM 32 microphones. Mid-size electret cardioid.

#2 was the same only in a DIN pattern (similar to ORTF, but 90 degree angles).

#3 was DIN pattern Lewitt LCT 540 microphones which is an LCD cardioid. I think #3 did the best job.

Recording was late night on my front porch. A medium size tree full of the critters making noise was left maybe 15 degrees 50 feet away though plenty of trees in the neighborhood so some sound from all around. The tree was in that position. Last summer a thunderstorm struck it with lightning splitting it leaving only half standing. Then later that same day another thunderstorm with really high winds blew most of it down. No tree there now.

 

[pkane]

Okay, I posted this some two years ago here and elsewhere.

Ha! I thought it was posted this year I normally surf the forums by most recent new activity, so something posted two years ago will never get my attention unless someone responds to it today.

 

[Dimifoot]

A week ago at my summer house in Kalymnos, Greece.