HOW TO RECORD FLOWING WATERby Gordon Hempton, 12/31/2013

Flowing water is one of natures’ sonic miracles. It produces every frequency

audible to the human ear, from the faint taps of melting snow, to the gurgling
flow of a winding brook, to the roaring thunder of a mighty waterfall. Plus, it is among the easiest, safest,
and most enjoyable of the planet’s music to record.

I have recorded the Mississippi River from Lake Itasca to New

Orleans (twice), backpacked the west face of Mt. Lyle high in
Yosemite National Park to capture what John Muir called
Song of the Merced River, including its dramatic plunge to the
base of Vernal Falls. I’ve gone with the flow on six continents
and never fail to marvel that everywhere the sounds of flowing
water are surprisingly different. And always fascinating. As in
most nature sound recording the single most important
decision for the field recordist is: where.

LOCATION
Do you want to record a sparkling trickle, a babbling brook, a
gurgling stream, or a raging river in flood stage eroding its
banks? There are lots of choices but your project needs, time
considerations, and budget probably determine this for you.
Under ideal conditions this is what I recommend.

Pick a remote watershed relatively free of transportation noise

with cool temperatures and be prepared to record at night.
Cool temperatures will reduce insect activity, and recording at
night will minimize distant road and air traffic. If you operate in
a flash flood zone stay alert.

Start as close to the headwaters as you can and work

downstream. The actual beginning of a stream will be small
enough to step across and even onto stones and will allow
you to maneuver freely with minimum risks, whereas the
farther downstream you go, the more likely you are to
encounter dams and noise pollution.

1
STREAM ORDERS
Streams are generally classified by orders using the Strahler rating system. First order streams are the
smallest. Should they join another first order stream, the result is a second order stream, and so forth. The
length of each order is usually longer than the preceding.

Just imagine yourself on a leaf…another flowing system.

Depending on where you are, the streambed might be made up of large angular rocks (splashy), smaller
rounded stones (babbling), fallen logs with mixed substrates (gurgling), or even smooth wide beds of sand
or mud (rippling surges). This is the natural series of substrates you will encounter as you travel from higher
to lower elevations. Higher elevations are characteristically steeper (faster release of potential energy), often
with rapids and waterfalls, while lower elevations are more gradual or nearly level (slower release of
potential energy). The higher elevations are younger and the lower elevations are older. The changing sound
of water from headwater to mouth will be addressed in Sound Designing with Flowing Water.

2
STONES ARE NOTES
Each kind of substrate makes its own kind of sound
with flowing water. Think of the stones as the musical
notes. Try these demonstrations.
First, walk along the edge of stream or river during the
dry season when the stones are completely exposed.
Hear how the unstable stones will teeter and clatter as
you go? The different stones make different sounds
depending on kind, size, and shape. You can also
shuffle your feet to make this even more obvious. The
water that flows around and over these stones during
other times of the year will make different sounds, too.
Now sit and look at where you just walked. Notice that
your feet disturbed the rocks and stones and some are
now tilted. When the wet season returns and the
stream flows over these stones they will be pushed
into new positions, out of the way, like stragglers in
front of stadium exit at the end of a game. As this process continues, the stream in effect becomes naturally
tuned--it sounds smoother and more eloquent than disturbed streams. When major disturbances occur
such as major floods--the resulting stream is rougher sounding. But over time, without further disturbance,
the stream once again moves everything into positions of least resistance and the music of a naturally-
tuned stream returns.

Now, simply sit beside a small stream about two feet across that you know has not been disturbed in
awhile. If you can’t recognize this by sound then look at the stream bank. Are there large trees on both
sides or otherwise well vegetated without exposed soil? If so, this is a stable stream. Look at the stones,
again, notice how the water is flowing. Listen. Memorize the sound. Take your time—as long as five
minutes. Notice that what initially might sound like “just white noise” soon becomes an elaborate braiding
of individual streamlets. Now, slowly pluck stones out of the stream, one at a time. Ten should be enough.
The stream will sound different. Then place the stones back and attempt to return the stream to its original
tuned condition. This is nearly impossible. Only the stream can tune itself.

3
FIELD RECORDING
Unlike forest creatures, the water is not going to run
away--so take all the time that you need. You’ll want
to explore freely every nuance of flowing water,
recording close-up, moderately distant, and even far
away. Even if you think a minute is enough, record at
least three to five minutes at each location. Although
the final product might only use one minute, five
minutes will give you plenty of room for editing out
handling noise and adding cross fades.

One’s first assumption might be to record as close as

you can, as if you might be interviewing a person on
busy street. But these recordings are often harsh
sounding. Back off and twist the broader stereo field
just a little to add spatial definition and have more
opportunity for capturing numerous sound sources in
the same recording. Holding the microphone steady for five minutes can feel like an hour if you’re in an odd
position. If so, loosen your grip and relax. Consider wearing padded bicycle gloves and using a monopod
instead of a boom. The monopod can double as a trustworthy wading staff.

If you want to naturally brighten a composition then get close to rock surfaces and take advantage of
boundary influence. You can also boost low frequency content by positioning your microphones near rock
cavities, sometimes discovering rhythmic patterns that are inaudible elsewhere. I particularly like recording
near the current-exposed twisted roots of a large tree. I find these wood spaces bring out warm tones.
Distant perspectives are becoming increasingly more valuable for replacing digital silence in mixes,
especially when highly processed files show digital anomalies that need masking. If the air is still and all
else is quiet, 250 feet would not be too far away.

WATERFALLS & RAPIDS

Active volumes of water are sometimes called white noise; nothing could be further from the truth. John
Muir describes Yosemite Falls in The Yosemite.

This noble fall has by far the richest, as well as the most powerful voice of all the falls of the Valley. Its tones vary
from the sharp hiss and rustle of the wind in the glossy leaves of the live-oaks and the soft, sifting, hushing tones of
the pines, to the loudest rush and roar of storm winds and thunder among the crags of the summit peaks. The low
bass, booming reverberating tones, heard under favorable circumstances five or six miles away, are formed by the
dashing and exploding of heavy masses mixed with air upon two projecting ledges on the face of the cliff.

Loud water events create complex acoustic patterns that are unpredictable. If you want to turn white noise
into a rich powerful voice you are going to have to maneuver your microphone through the air and into rock
spaces before you find it. Don’t give up—it’s there!

4
UNDERWATER
Hydrophones can be used to explore the underwater world, where sound propagates much more readily
than in the air, especially when stones on the streambed are in transit during flood conditions. When I
dropped my hydrophone into the Hoh River in Olympic National Park for the first time during a spring flood I
thought I was hearing concrete hurtling down a shoot. I could hear pebbles tinkling, boulders thud-by, and
tree roots breaking.

WILDLIFE
Flowing water naturally attracts thirsty wildlife. But it
offers a double-edged sword. As an animal
approaches to quench its thirst, the relatively loud
water sounds interfere with the animal’s ability to
maintain auditory surveillance over its surroundings.
Each step closer to its drink renders it more and more
vulnerable. Deer, for example, approach a stream
slowly, look around often in every direction, and then
quench their thirsts quickly, without lingering. While
recording flowing water your surveillance may be
jammed, too. Look around often. While recording the
headwaters of the Merced River at night in 1994, I
wore a headlamp. Each night the amber eyes of a
cougar would shine back at me.

The more you listen, the more you learn. Some wildlife vocalizations are adapted for communication in
areas with high rates of water flow. Muir describes the song of the American Dipper, a robin-size grey bird
that lives beside mountain streams and waterfalls,

Perfect arabesques of melody, composed of a few full, round notes, embroidered with delicate trills which fade and
melt in long slender cadences. In a general way his music is that of the streams, refined and spiritualized. The deep
booming notes of the falls are in it, the trills of rapids, the gurgling of margin eddies, the low whispering of level
reaches, and the sweet tinkle of separate drops oozing from the ends of mosses and falling into tranquil pools.

We will learn about wildlife sound recording in How to Record Wild Voices.

5
SUMMARY
So go with the flow by starting high and ending low. Record when the nights are cool and try lots of
different perspectives. Flowing water is one of the easiest and most enjoyable nature sounds to record.

ADDITONAL RESOURCE
1. Sound Designing with Flowing Water, Gordon Hempton, 12/31/2013, available with „How to Record
Flowing Water“, inside the BOOM Library „Flowing Water“ product on www.boomlibrary.com.

2. USGS Water Watch

3. List of Wild and Scenic Rivers
4. World Waterfalls Database
5. Footwear for wadding

All Copyrights Reserved by Quiet Planet LLC.

www.quietplanet.com