John Leonard

John Leonard's Field Recordings

John Leonard has given me permission to make available here his recordings that were on Ambisonia - thanks, John!  I have grouped them according to subject (some could go in more than one place, but I've not duplicated them).

This is what he wrote about them on Ambisonia:

Assorted recordings made with my portable recording set-up: Soundfield ST250, Metric Halo 2882 +DSP Firewire interface, Apple Macintosh PowerBook G4 1.5 Gig. Recording are made direct to hard-disc using the excellent Record Panel software supplied by Metric Halo. My main field of work is for theatre sound design and the gathering of sound effects is part of the job. This set up has finally allowed me to make location recordings in B-Format for which I am very grateful. I recently added one of Len Moskowitz's excellent Core Sound TetraMics to my recording kit, along with a new, as yet unreleased. audio interface. It's all sounding very good so far. The material posted on this site can be used for demonstration purposes and personal study, but may not be sold, lent, hired or otherwise distributed or used commercially without permission. In demonstrations, please attribute the files to me. Feel free to ask questions or make comments, rude or otherwise.

Bird Sounds

When Geese Go Bad is particularly well-known, I think.

When Geese Go Bad A recording of some wildfowl on the River Avon, mostly Canada Geese.	AMB	DTS
Gulls A short effect of a flock of seagulls recorded in a deserted car-park in Folkestone, which should yield some nice height information. Mix with Brighton Sea for instant sea-side...	AMB	DTS
Pair of Buzzards I went down into the English countryside with my wife to visit her luthier (she's a 'cellist with a 17th century instrument that needs special care) who works in a converted barn in the middle of a part of the UK called Hampshire. Nearby is a very old church and some open fields and I've done some good birdsong recordings down there before, so I took the kit on the offchance. A lot of distant traffic and fall-out from Gatwick Airport didn't bode well, but I set up anyway and was rewarded with this recording. The buzzards are wonderful - they circled around for about 15 minutes before going off to hunt and I lay on my back in the grass watching them watching me! I'll probably go back soon, if the weather stays good, and try and find a day when there's not so much external activity.	AMB	DTS
Central Park Birds & Jet Central Park, NY. I found a place to record near the boating lake. There would have been some more recordings in Central Park, but when I'd found the perfect location and was just about to start recording, a nice lady came to talk to me. She and her invisible friend Lou talked to me for quite a while, identifying the birds "see that big black one over there - that's a wren" and expounding on the sanity of President Bush and the superiority of the British press over the American press and how the birds would be noisier if Lou had fed them.... I got about a minute's worth of useable stuff including a jet airliner fly-over.	AMB	DTS

Aircraft Sounds

A favourite kind of noise for John, I think!

Concorde Flypast Recorded from the roof of an office building in London during the celebrations for HM Queen Elizabeth II's Jubilee celebrations. The recording is of twenty-seven aircraft flying over: the flypast was led by an RAF C17 Globemaster and ended with Concorde and the Red Arrows trailing red, white and blue. You can hear distant church bells being rung in celebration as well as the massive air-conditioning units from the next-door building which, coincidentally, are the offices of one of Prince Charles's trusts.	AMB	DTS
Jets & Kids At the Salthill Airshow in Galway, this recording has a mother and her children gathering shellfish on the shore as the Red Arrows aerobatic display team strut their stuff in the air. It's quite a large file, but should contain some good localisation with the children's voices front left and the planes going over and round to the rear.	AMB	DTS
Small plane fly by This is another recording made at Wattisham Airbase in Suffolk. This small plane circles the airfield on a regular basis, checking that the radar and other instruments are working. Nice little pass.	AMB	DTS
Copters'n'Creaks This recording was made on a floating pontoon on the Hudson River near Newport-Pavonia PATH Station, Jersey City. The original intention was to record the creaks of the gangway as the pontoon moved up and down, but there was a lot of helicopter activity that day, due to a terrorist alert in Manhattan. The resultant recording has a nice sense of space and movement with some very good localization. The creaks should mainly come from behind and to the right of the listening position and the copters should pass above and in front.	AMB	DTS
Apache & Lynx Helicopters Slow Pass More stuff for those who can reproduce height info, although everyone else should enjoy these as well. Recorded at Wattisham Airbase in Suffolk, whilst waiting for a Sea King helicopter to show up. The first helicopter arrives more or less centrally then moves off to the left and the second moves steadily from right to left.	AMB	DTS
Chinook & Tornado Part of an RAF demonstration at the 2007 Biggin Hill Air Fair. The Chinook flies past followed by a Tornado fighter giving cover. Some nice low frequency rotor blade effects.	AMB	DTS
Chinook Slow Pass Part of an RAF demonstration at the 2007 Biggin Hill Air Fair. Another pass from the Chinook, this time without the Tornado support. Should disappear behind you and to your right.	AMB	DTS
A couple of Chinook Helicopters I was set up to record a Mark IX Spitfire at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, near Cambridge when an announcement came over the PA system that a couple of Chinook helicopters would be carrying out a "Tactical Landing"... Well, why am I telling you this? You can hear for yourselves: the PA announcement comes mainly from the left and slightly to the rear with a lot of excellent bounce-back from assorted hangars. Some kids run up to watch the fun and the two Chinooks duly arrive from the left and depart to the right, with more bounce from the rear. Rather nice, I think.	AMB	DTS
Warbirds 1 - A Close Shave The first of three recordings made at The Flying Legends Airshow at Duxford Airfield, Cambridgeshire. A selection of USAF fighters from World War 2 did low level runs along the crowd line, starting at my recording position far away from the main crowd. The planes pass at about a hundred feet at around 200 mph. You have been warned.	AMB	DTS
Warbirds 2 - Helicopters Anonymous The second of three recordings from The Flying Legends Airshow. These are planes from The Fighter Collection based at Duxford making very low level passes along the crowd line. They pass from right to left, almost directly overhead. Duck!	AMB	DTS
Warbirds 3 - How do you like your hair parted? The third recording from Duxford Flying Legends. Hear those engines scream...	AMB	DTS
Duxford Spitfires Several passes from Spitfires, with a big finale. The picture shows The Grace Spitfire - ML407, piloted by Carolyn Grace, the only female Spitfire pilot in the world and an amazing lady. Visit the website to learn more about The Grace Spitfire and to join the supporters' club.	AMB	DTS
Boeing 747-400 Power Climb Recording made at Biggin Hill Air Fare 2007. The Boeing did a few low level circuits and then did a full power climb away from the airfield. Watch out for extreme low frequency content - speaker damage could result.	AMB	DTS
Mustang P51-D Power Dive Biggin Hill Air fare 2007 again. This time it's the turn of the USAF to show off and this Mustang did escort duty to a stately B-17 Flying Fortress and then indulged in a solo demonstration.	AMB	DTS
Movie Sound Cliché disproved! (F15) On a web-site dealing with film sound clichés, there's the following example: “An approaching airplane or helicopter will make no noise until it is directly over the characters, at which point it will suddenly become thunderingly loud.” Here's a recording of an F15E Strike Eagle doing a fast pass at Duxford Airshow. Judge for yourselves how much of cliché this is and bear in mind that the plane is travelling at around 300 mph - about a fifth of the speed of which it is capable. There's no fade in before the plane arrives and this is the only recording that's usable from the batch that I made, as in almost every other pass, all the car alarms in the car park went off as the shock wave hit. You really don't hear these planes coming, but you sure know when they've passed.	AMB	DTS

Crowd Sounds

Recorded in various venues. 

Applause & Chat Long One of a series of recordings made in The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on Avon, during performances of Romeo & Juliet. The microphone was mounted at the front of the first balcony, about 50 cm away from the balcony edge. There are two recordings made at the interval of the show, both including some audience noise, one recording made at the end of the show, and one recording of more sparse audience chatter in the auditorium. Individual voices are mainly American as Stratford is a hugely popular tourist destination.	AMB	DTS
Applause & Murmur 1 One of a series of recordings made in The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on Avon, during performances of Romeo & Juliet. The microphone was mounted at the front of the first balcony, about 50 cm away from the balcony edge. There are two recordings made at the interval of the show, both including some audience noise, one recording made at the end of the show, and one recording of more sparse audience chatter in the auditorium. Individual voices are mainly American as Stratford is a hugely popular tourist destination.	AMB	DTS
Applause & Murmur 2 One of a series of recordings made in The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on Avon, during performances of Romeo & Juliet. The microphone was mounted at the front of the first balcony, about 50 cm away from the balcony edge. There are two recordings made at the interval of the show, both including some audience noise, one recording made at the end of the show, and one recording of more sparse audience chatter in the auditorium. Individual voices are mainly American as Stratford is a hugely popular tourist destination.	AMB	DTS
Audience Sparse Murmur One of a series of recordings made in The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on Avon, during performances of Romeo & Juliet. The microphone was mounted at the front of the first balcony, about 50 cm away from the balcony edge. There are two recordings made at the interval of the show, both including some audience noise, one recording made at the end of the show, and one recording of more sparse audience chatter in the auditorium. Individual voices are mainly American as Stratford is a hugely popular tourist destination.	AMB	DTS
Laughter 1 One of several recordings made during a performance of a comedy in London's Glittering West-End! The microphone was mounted on the front of the first circle and there is some sound from the stage to give location. The theatre is a traditional horseshoe shape, so the audience noise should wrap round about 180 degrees and there should be sounds from both above and below.	AMB	DTS
Laughter 2 One of several recordings made during a performance of a comedy in London's Glittering West-End! The microphone was mounted on the front of the first circle and there is some sound from the stage to give location. The theatre is a traditional horseshoe shape, so the audience noise should wrap round about 180 degrees and there should be sounds from both above and below.	AMB	DTS
Laughter 3 One of several recordings made during a performance of a comedy in London's Glittering West-End! The microphone was mounted on the front of the first circle and there is some sound from the stage to give location. The theatre is a traditional horseshoe shape, so the audience noise should wrap round about 180 degrees and there should be sounds from both above and below.	AMB	DTS
Temple Bar Crowd 1 Recorded on a chilly Friday night in Dublin's Temple Bar area. Dublin is a favourite destination for stag and hen parties from the UK, so the atmosphere can sometimes be a little rowdy. Voices and music from bars all around the mic position.	AMB	DTS
Temple Bar Crowd 2 Another recording made in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. Outside on a cold December night with music from bars and young people milling around.	AMB	DTS

Miscellaneous Sounds

Boat and steam train noises, fireworks and suchlike.

Fireworks Recording of fireworks, screaming crowds in the distance, lots of reflections off buildings. Recorded on one of the roof terraces of The National Theatre on the south bank of the River Thames during a Thames Day celebration.	AMB	DTS
4th July Fireworks The New York July 4th Fireworks have a great deal of LF energy, but I think I had the End-Fire switch pushed in on the ST250 control box, so some fiddling may be required to get the right set-up. (Hey, it was dark and I'd forgotten my flashlight.) The recording was made on the FDR Drive at about 46th Street. Not ideal, as the United Nations buildings and gardens overhang the road at this point, so very little in the way of building bounce. Better for me though, because far fewer people and far enough away for the music to be pretty much inaudible. These fireworks should have the same peak levels as the Thames Day recording, but overall, the levels will be down as I was a good distance away from the display - about 1.5 km, I estimate. This was partly deliberate, as the display is set to music and for me to be able to use it publicly, the music must be inaudible. In New York, I was at ground level with an elevated roadway directly behind me, which was masking the building reflections from the rear. As the display is launched form a barge in the middle of the East River, which is very wide at that point, there are also fewer close buildings to provide reflections.	AMB	DTS
Cannons 1 The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fire off gun salutes on various occasions in London's Royal Parks. On Queen Elizabeth II's official birthday I popped down to Hyde Park with the TetraMic to grab a few gun-shots. Unfortunately, there were rather more security people than usual around and I was moved from place to place until I was right in front of the guns at a distant of about sixty feet. This is not good as the pressure wave effectively records as a DC pulse and comes out as a click. There are six cannons and the last two produce sounds that are just about usable. In this recording, I've taken six of the furthest gunshots and joined them together, with a quick-ish fade at the end. But be warned, there's a LOT of LF in this recording.	AMB	DTS
Cannons 2 Please note that this recording is included purely for the sake of interest, i.e. this is what happens when you position a microphone about fifty feet away from the front of a WWI field gun firing blank charges. It's not meant to be a great recording, but it does show how well the TetraMic can cope with that sort of abuse. This is a recording of the six guns firing in order. You can hear how the initial pressure wave diminishes as the distance and angle increases. High level playback will probably harm your speakers - don't blame me!	AMB	DTS
Brighton Sea Gentle sea on shingle - recorded under the pier in Brighton in the very early morning (for a production of Brighton Rock).	AMB	DTS
River Avon Boat Ride A recording made in a small motor-boat on the Avon. The outboard should appear to be to the rear left and you should be able to sense the water banging against the hull of the boat more towards the front of the sound field. About a minute into the recording the boat passes under a small bridge and you can hear the acoustic change slightly.	AMB	DTS
Sailing By - 1 This is the first of three recordings made on the yacht Chantilly, owned by an old friend of mine (and ex-sound designer) Terry Saunders. Terry has a yacht charter business called Alba Sailing near Oban in Scotland, which he runs with his wife, Jacki. He took a day off and we went out on a near-perfect day last year to make some recordings. This is a recording of the bow-wave as the yacht slips though the water. And yes, I'm the one holding the microphone, with no form of head protection in the blazing heat of the mid-day sun. Bad idea...	AMB	DTS
Sailing By - 2 The second of three recordings on Chantilly - this time from below deck in the fore cabin. The capable looking chap in the picture is Terry, who sailed the yacht single handed whilst I mucked about with microphones and stuff.	AMB	DTS
The Wind in the Rigging The third of three recordings on Chantilly - this recording was made through the hatch in the main cabin after we'd docked. You can hear the wind moaning in the rigging and that characteristic tinkling sound of wire rope against aluminium mast.	AMB	DTS
Steam Train Nostalgia If all is well, this steam train should arrive and depart behind you and the footsteps that follow the departure should pass in front of you. This recording was made at Rothley Station on The Great Central Railway, Loughborough, near Leicester. A great place for a family day out when they're running steam and the only heritage railway in the UK that has two lines running, making it a great place to record sounds of a steam railway as it would have been in the 1950s.	AMB	DTS
Here's Smut in your Eye Remember when you were a kid and you rode a steam train? Despite the notice telling you not to, you stuck your head out of the window to see the locomotive chuffing away and to hear the rattle of the wheels on the track as the wind and smoke blasted you in the face. Sooner or later, you'd get a soot smut in your eye and, eyes watering, you'd be hauled back in to the carriage for some serious hanky work. Now you can recreate those days: download this file, set up a fan in front of a smoky old fire and stick your head in the breeze. Then press play...	AMB	DTS
Coney Island Roller Coaster This is The Cyclone - a wooden roller-coaster in the Astroland Amusement Park, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. To make the recording, I dragged a trash-can up to the surrounding fence and stood on it with the microphone poking over the top of the fence. Not ideal, but quite fun. My arm got tired after a while - must buy a lightweight fishpole! Should have height info, if nothing else...	AMB	DTS
Summer Night in New Jersey Recorded just outside Newport-Pavonia PATH station on a hot summer night in August. A lot of crickets, a few people and a prat on a motorcycle.	AMB	DTS

Prague Sounds

Prague Incident Start Recorded in the old Town Square, Prague. Whilst waiting to record the clocks in the square on a very hot day, someone obviously succumbed to the heat. Just as a horse-drawn cab starts to pull away and cross from right to left, an ambulance arrives from rear right and progresses towards stage centre front. The crowds continue to mill around, unconcerned.	AMB	DTS
Prague Incident Finish Another horse drawn carriage passes as the ambulance, having dealt with the collapsing tourist, reverses out and leaves the square.	AMB	DTS
Prague Clocks & Bells During the incident recorded elsewhere, the Astronomical Clock chimed the hour, then another bell joins in. Shortly after, the bell of a local church starts to ring on the opposite side of the square and the crowds wander off. The second church bell is, I think, replayed over a loudspeaker system, hence the slight distortion.	AMB	DTS
A bit of bad weather in Prague Recorded during a heavy storm in Prague. Initial attempts to get anything sensible were rendered impossible by the ferocity of the storm, in particular the heavy gusts of wind caused by the rapid changes in atmospheric pressure. I managed to get one reasonable thunder rumble and some distant stuff, along with faint sirens as the emergency services responded to various flooding incidents. It's not the greatest recording, but it's quite atmospheric and there's a great deal of detail in there. See if you can hear the paper cup being blown around, the very distant train rattle past during the first siren section and the small child calling.	AMB	DTS

Music

The Orfeo Trio & TetraMic First recording using a Core-Sound TetraMic and a new, as yet unreleased, audio interface. The Orfeo Trio is Lucy Jeal, violin, Simon Brown, viola and Alexander Somov, 'cello. This was a pre-concert run-through for a small invited audience in a North London church which is shared with a nursery school, hence the occasional small child. The piece is the second movement of Beethoven's Trio in C Minor, Opus 9 No.3. I think it shows off both microphone and interface in a rather good light, as well as the trio.	AMB	DTS
Aran Music Mix A short piece, recorded on the fly in the main harbour area of the island called Inishmore, off the coast of Galway in Ireland. There are voices all around and the band are a little off-centre to the left. Hard left, you should be able to hear the driver of a mini-bus tapping his fingernails on the side of his vehicle. While I was watching, they must have collected about €50 from the tourists and that was in the course of about twenty minutes. Each time the ferry from the mainland arrived, they'd do another little performance, so at a conservative estimate, they were clearing about €250 a day, and this was just the beginning of the season. Not bad going, I think.	AMB	DTS
Stanbrook Abbey Choir Stanbrook Abbey Choir. Stanbrook Abbey near Worcester is the current home of an order of Benedictine nuns. The Abbey chapel is a wonderful space and I was able to make this recording for a theatre show about a past Abbess, Dame Laurentia McLachlan and her relationship with George Bernard Shaw and Sir Sydney Cockerell. The present Abbess, Sister Joanna Jameson, made my visit extremely pleasant and easy. The order will move to a new location at some time in the future and it is hoped that this space will survive intact.	AMB	DTS
Stanbrook Abbey Organ Piece Recording made inside the chapel at Stanbrook Abbey, near Worcester, UK. Sister Margaret at the organ, playing a piece to be used in a theatre production called The Best Of Friends	AMB	DTS