Earlier this month I left my studio in sunny England and embarked on a field recording trip through Romania. I have visited multiple locations in the Carpathian Mountains, forests and woodlands in the Moldova region and now I'm in the Danube Delta. I'm joined by fellow sound recordist/designer Daan Hendriks with which I've been sharing the miserable weather that the month of April has so far thrown at us.

We weren't exactly expecting 2 mph wind and clear skies, but more than half of the time we've been here has been raining (and snowing on occasion). It has also been fairly windy so recording anything was possible only on a few select days.

I have discovered some excellent recording spots however, both in the mountains and in the Delta. Here's a downloadable snippet from a dawn chorus trip I did last week, recorded on my Sony PCM D100:

My trip doesn't end yet so I plan on recording as much as possible for the next week or so. Even if I don't manage to capture anything too interesting, I already have decent material that I will offer as a free update for the Woodland Atmosphere library. If you haven't purchased it, now would be the right time since I'm thinking of raising the price with the next content update.

Field recording tools of the trade

At the lower end of the price spectrum, field recording equipment will yield relatively similar results. A few dB of self noise won’t make a huge difference if the recordist hasn’t mastered the other tools of the trade, the ones that can’t be bought. Let’s examine some lesser known but rather more important tools that are sure to improve your field recording practice.

Introduction to Freestyle field recording

Freestyle field recording is a flexible approach to recording nature and wildlife sounds outside of the studio or any controlled environment, developed by George Vlad. While traditional methods are prescriptive and rigid, Freestyle field recording encourages deliberate experimentation and a very organic workflow.

Listening session at the House of Lords in Westminster

I recently received an invitation to play some of my soundscapes and to tell stories about conservation. While there’s nothing unusual about that, the setting was definitely novel for me.

A collection of Owl sounds

Owls are awesome and worth learning about. What better place to start than a curated selection of owl recordings, captured by your favourite wildlife sound recordist!

The 2025 Soundscape Fund

How can field recording make a difference for conservation and environmental causes? I get this question a lot, and one of the answers is here. Once a year I team up with Thomas Rex Beverly and Andy Martin to raise money for environmental NGOs.