Ambisonic Overview: Alaska

For this sound effects library, we traveled across Alaska, from the extreme north to the south coast to capture the spirit of these nordic and wild landscapes: Boreal forests, arctic and alpin tundras, glaciers, rivers, and lakes.

Here the soundscapes reflect the extreme weather conditions: Silent ambiances punctuated by the elements: Wind, snow, rain, serving the erosion.

In this wilderness, animals remain discreet. We had the chance to capture many birds with our microphones: Owls, ducks, seagulls, trumpeter swans, bald eagles, common ravens, migratory birds, and many other species – and a few other animals: Hoary marmots, arctic marmots, squirrels and moose.

The sound bank contains 66 sound takes recorded in Ambisonic at 24/96khZ (a total of 330 files).

Here is an exemple of an ambisonic recording embeded in a 360° movie (go on youtube to listen the 360° sound) :

Recordings included:

– 20 sound takes recorded in the Boreal Forest.
– 17 sound takes recorded in Tundra environment.
– 17 sound takes recorded in Glacier environment (glacier, ice cavern, icefield)
– 4 sound takes recorded in the Rain Forest of the south coast of Alaska.
– 5 sound takes related to River and creek.
– 3 sound takes related to the Pacific Ocean.

We went to record in these different locations: inside the Arctic Circle to the Brooks Range, Chena River Forest, Denali National Park, Hatcher Pass, Portage Valley, Byron Glacier, Portage Glacier, Harding Icefield, Lowell Point, Lake Louise, Wrangell Saint Elias Natinal Park, Chicken Area, Hyder. All GPS coordinates are include in the sound sheet.

Formats: The sound bank contains 66 sound takes recorded in 24/96khZ in 330 files:

66 B Format (AmbiX) files, for use directly in 360° movies or VR applications, or to be decoded in many differents formats (binaural, 7.1, 5.1, stéréo, mono, etc…). To decode it you can use the Harpex plugin or the free Soundfield/Rodes plugin.
66 5.0 files, directly decoded from the native A Format from the Sennheiser AMBEO microphone.
66 2.0 (stereo) files, directly decoded from the native A Format from the Sennheiser AMBEO microphone.
66 1.0 (mono) files, directly decoded from the native A Format from the Sennheiser AMBEO microphone, for use directly as 3D sources in games or 360° movies or VR applications.
66 original files, without any treatment (EQ) except the A/B conversion from the AMBEO plugin from Sennheiser (B Format – AmbiX)

Recording equipment: Sound Device Mixpre 10T
Ambisonic FORMAT B Files/5.0/2.0/1.0 : Sennheiser AMBEO

This sound bank was recorded as part of the Phonography project, an art and itinerant project dedicated to field recording that will take us from Alaska to Ushuaia.