I've been slacking off for a few weeks, only working on urgent projects and enjoying the short Scottish summer. Today I didn't have any tasks for the morning so I decided I'd go out and record material for my next library. According to my weather app sunny spells were going to alternate with showers, so I went out hoping for good weather.

As soon as I drove off the wind picked up and it started to rain. When I reached Harperrig reservoir I realized the wind and the rain would make it impossible to record anything, so I just sat in my car sipping on coffee and listening to the weather. Although only a 30 mph breeze, the wind was powerful enough to rock the car at times and the occasional rain sounded like a huge centipede crawling on the roof of the car. (I have to remember to go back come winter when the gale force winds of 70 mph or more are in season.)

I have countless rain and wind sounds in my library, but most are recorded outside. Last winter I tried recording a storm from indoors and got great results so I decided to not waste the opportunity and record this as well. After trying different ways of placing my PCM D100 I ended up leaving it on the passenger's seat facing the window. This got me a great deal of wind gusts and rain drops hitting the window, which I'm sure will be handy in recreating a storm as perceived from indoors.

I recorded three 10 minute takes of wind rumble and rain drops. I also tried leaving the car windows slightly open but the rain drops falling on the interior plastic didn't sound that interesting so I gave it up.

Back home I was surprised to see the recordings were clean and didn't sound that boxy. I put together a 5 minute demo that I'm giving away for free via my soundcloud account. The first half is just wind blowing while the second half also contains water drops hitting the car at various speeds and intensities. The file can be listened to and downloaded from Soundcloud: