Sounds Of The Night

[southernyahoo]

Thanks JKH , we have always been a bit too slow to find out what visits our recorders in the night. We collect our recorders every morning, upload the files to laptops, erase the files on the recorders and reload with batteries for the next nights deployment. Being able to review the audio quickly to find the visits will help identify places you need to focus on.

We are also working on fm radio live broadcasting that could alow one to listen to one of these visits live, which might allow you to maneuver for a visual.

This would be the ultimate in success for me as for myself, I don't plan on imposing any other consequence on them.

[Lake County Bigfooot]

So my question to everyone is what are you using to review your audio files, are you using a scrub feature that lets you pan over the file as you listen for anomalies, it has been my experience that some of the best stuff I captured was not that apparent in the wave form, just a little to low in volume. I use the NCH platform because I can scub over the file very slowly and find those anomalies, nothing else I have tried seemed to allow me to do that as well. I never got very far trying to use the spectrum analyzer feature offered by some software. I guess if you know exactly what you are looking for it might be an easier task, though I still would prefer to listen over the whole file, which downloading and listening to 8 hours of audio can take better than a 1/2 of your day. Sometimes as much as an hour, and even more if you have glitches in downloading which can happen. It can be very time consuming when you get real hard core and record 12 hours or more nightly and several recorders, but as we know these creatures seem to run a circuit of sorts, so you have to be persistent and catch them when they are coming through an area, which can take weeks of dead time, so then you just have to view it as a overall study of the critters in that area, and hope it becomes something more interesting as you progress.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Lake County Bigfooot

[JKH]

Thanks folks, SY that's pretty much what I do. Recording typically 10 pm to 6 am, but now the nights are getting shorter. Have been doing it once or twice a week, depending on weather, for 1.5 years so far. That's why I've been able to id some patterns at a few locations. It's been an education, and every drop naturally has different acoustics, but I've acquired some skills which I wasn't aware of when I started. I can identify a lot of sounds visually using the spectrogram functions. I use audacity and zoom in to a file a lot to identify the quieter sounds. The critters can make a variety of subtle sounds, it's not all knocks and howls. It's like anything else, it gets better with practice. While still taking up some time, I've pared it down quite a bit. I frankly don't care if I ever see one, but listening to what goes on out there is telling me a lot. I have more thoughts, but another time.

[Lake County Bigfooot]

So did you sort of put together a library of audio signatures to identify what was making what sound and translate that into the spectrographic? I am inspired and am recording a bit tonight, only a window drop, but hey, I heard them communicating in my back yard. Interesting antidote, my wife routinely puts the kitty litter into a black heavy trash bag, sets it on the porch out front to let me haul it the rest of the way to the trash, the bags weigh pretty near 30 lbs. Yesterday she discovered an unmolested bag just on the end of the marsh, begs the question of what hauled it there? I thought to myself, could I have put it there to see what would happen to it? I think either way I would remember something so odd, so what hauls something of that weight and size around without hands to grasp it. Well since I am growing old and senile I will keep on wondering? Although I have some suspicions...

Edited April 18, 2016 by Lake County Bigfooot

[Lake County Bigfooot]

If you have not listened to the bigfoot outlaws radio show with Coonbo and Bear please give it a listen, start with the "how to call bigfoot episode, given our discussion it would be of particular interest!

[TritonTr196]

If you have not listened to the bigfoot outlaws radio show with Coonbo and Bear please give it a listen, start with the "how to call bigfoot episode, given our discussion it would be of particular interest!

Fact. These guys have secret calls that will bring Bigfoot to you.

[TritonTr196]

Audio analysis is very tedious and time consuming. I listen to any where from 50 to over 100 hours a month of audio. Both mine and one of my friends. With audio you gotta listen to every second, not minute. If not, your gonna miss the best stuff. You will hear some of the most crazy animal sounds. I have a vast catalog of recorded animal sounds I've kept over the years we've recorded. For example, owls just don't always "hoot". They can make some of the most crazy scary sounds. If you were out in the deep woods late at night and heard them, you would think some demon from the fourth dimension was about to physically rip your soul out.

We leave our audio recorders out for a week and then pick them up. I can get a full 5 to 6 nights of audio at a time with 2 AAA's with the recorders we use. I have time to listen to all this audio in the evenings on my side job when I'm in my shop building custom guitars and doing local setups and repairs for local musicians. I listen back through a program called ProTools with a pair of special isolation headphones so I hear nothing on the outside.

[southernyahoo]

Yeah, I often get to feeling like too much audio consumption can be counter productive. You have to find a way to use what you learn from listening to it, and take into account of how and when it is collected to make another step forward. Some may not want to get further than what you are getting, while others want to see the visitors or vocalists.

JKH, I use a program called gold wave, and it will allow a visual wave form representation of the entire file. It often will not show you the detail you need at that compression, but you can copy an hour from it at a time, which expands the graphic and you can see more. I'll peak hop or scrub to the high points to find the more audible events. I won't catch everything that way, but what I found in the events with bells is that they will mark the audio file, so that you won't miss a bait taking event. That's where the most information can be had about what moves and or vocalizes out there. This is useful when you need to know what took the bait before the next night. It could make the difference between seeing it and not knowing you need to.

[JKH]

So did you sort of put together a library of audio signatures to identify what was making what sound and translate that into the spectrographic? I am inspired and am recording a bit tonight, only a window drop, but hey, I heard them communicating in my back yard. Interesting antidote, my wife routinely puts the kitty litter into a black heavy trash bag, sets it on the porch out front to let me haul it the rest of the way to the trash, the bags weigh pretty near 30 lbs. Yesterday she discovered an unmolested bag just on the end of the marsh, begs the question of what hauled it there? I thought to myself, could I have put it there to see what would happen to it? I think either way I would remember something so odd, so what hauls something of that weight and size around without hands to grasp it. Well since I am growing old and senile I will keep on wondering? Although I have some suspicions...

 

Hmm, that is suspiciously like hands. Good luck recording!

 

The main area I do this could be called semi-rural. I just learned the sounds on my own. It's near water, so lots of night bird noise, also near livestock, including horses, goats, donkeys. Coyotes come through and dogs are around. I have to recognize and eliminate all those, except sometimes it's interesting when canines go off. On a side note, it's funny that the FB show has now emphasized the relationships between BFs and canines.

 

In Audacity, if I zoom in far enough, I can see very "small" sounds like taps or some kind of distant vocal. The info at this link is what got me started, although I've modified the method on my own. This greatly speeds up the processing. Triton, welcome to you. Your way sounds like it works for you if you need your eyes on your work, but you might like this if you try it.

 

http://sasquatchbioacoustic.blogspot.com/2011/10/using-audacity-spectrograms-to-review.html

 

Thanks, SY. The novelty does wear off, and the work can become tedious. However, I've branched out into more areas and record whenever I travel to a potential habitat area. That can be very interesting. Mentioned it in the field trip thread about a desert trip which unfortunately didn't work out for recording. I did record one night at a place we can revisit on the Olympic peninsula, and of course they are there, IMO.

 

Coonbo and Bear have so much to share, but I missed where they actually told how to call one. Listening now about the mimicry stuff. Coonbo hasn't been here in a long time, I miss his posts. If anyone knows how to contact him, I'd appreciate it.

[TritonTr196]

JKH, let me explain about "ProTools" is a world class recording program used to record every famous song  you've heard for the last 15 years. It's graphs are 100 times better than Audacity. I use it just the same as you use Audacity.... The problem is it's set up in my home recording studio in a empty bedroom so I don't use it when I'm working.. Audacity is what I use in my shop on the laptop.... I love Audacity for it's simple use... When I'm working, I have headphones on and when I hear something I walk over and right down the time stamp for where it happened on the graph... Basically Audacity was made for music recording... It just happens to be great for listening for Bigfoot audio.. And it's great for beginners. Very simple to watch and also very easy to cut out the exact segments you want to keep... The amplify function comes in very handy for those far off sounds.... I listen to every second because 90% of all we've ever found is in the quite places on the graph with no spikes at all... Spikes are just things within a few feet of the recorder, loud birds, wind, ect.. Not always but pretty much all the time... The quite places are where you want to listen too.... Howls will usually be far off from the recorder and will never show the slightest rise in the graph..

Listening and learning how to interpret audio is kinda like learning how to track.... After you do it so much and learn the in and outs, you will be able to determine distance and other things crucial for for making an educated guess on what that sound was and where it came from.. We use three audio recorders and triangulate them just like you would if you were bass fishing and needed to mark an under water brush pile... These three recorders tells us exactly where this sound came from within the area... The scenery and landscape plays a huge roll in where you should set out the recorders... It's taken me quite a few years trying different things and coming up with stuff.... It pays off in the end though...

We use the sony icd px333 audio recorders with the external sony mics. And with two double AA lithium batteries you can get five or more solid straight days and nights of audio without having to put in new batteries..... These recorders record without stopping for a really long time. With regular alkaline batteries you should get least four straight days of audio without having to replace....

[southernyahoo]

I think my groups efforts are now turning to "on the fly" detection and identification. With close approaches to the recorders, the where, what, and when of it, can be established quick enough that real time response can come into play. These things really can be just outside your normal perception range.

[JKH]

Thank you so much Triton, I've only done this for about two years. I've recorded distant howls and they're always visible, but maybe that's because I zoom in so much. I will certainly check out the software you guys recommend, as well. It's always fun to try new stuff. I guess what I've been doing is trying out different areas over time in order to see IF they are there. To my surprise, they have been right on the outskirts of civilization and sometimes in urban areas. Totally agree with your last sentence, SY.

[Lake County Bigfooot]

Yah I like the triangulation method, is there anyway to sync the playback and hear all three simultaneously, I also am a musician of sorts and I have a home studio as well. I have not used my recording studio as of yet, but I am sure that would be another method of playback and adjustment at a higher level. I am firing back up the recorder, I will at least try spot recording for a couple of weeks to see if I can detect anything, this might sound odd, but I think I know when they are present, I have a sixth sense of something that tells me. It seems to correspond with activity I have recorded or not. It just is a strange feeling, a heightened sense of awareness, like be on your toes. It could be all made up in my mind, but activity has fallen right around those times, so perhaps your processing sounds without even knowing it. Last year that happened one night, then we kept hearing wood knocks right at sunrise, distinct pops on hardwood. It has happened fairly consistently in my couple of years right around June and also in November, I know the difference between the surrounding sounds.

I already listen to Coonbo and Bear's Bigfoot Outlaws show, I practically cried laughing so hard when I heard the intro, it was perfect, the bass line and guitar fit them to a tee. The bigfoot calls they seem to be suggesting are probably owlish calls and other imitation type calls. I bet they use birds and other imitation calls. I had a response two a bird type whistle one night that sounded metallic, and definitely imitating me. Like a half step chromatic one step up. It was very weird, I know night birds might imitate a whistle, but it was a weird type of texture, more metallic in tone, I bugged out after that cause I got creeped out. It is funny how you try to detect them, but then retreat when you do, it is just not a comfortable feeling knowing they are around.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Lake County Bigfooot

[TritonTr196]

Yah I like the triangulation method, is there anyway to sync the playback and hear all three simultaneously, I also am a musician of sorts and I have a home studio as well. I have not used my recording studio as of yet, but I am sure that would be another method of playback and adjustment at a higher level. I am firing back up the recorder, I will at least try spot recording for a couple of weeks to see if I can detect anything, this might sound odd, but I think I know when they are present, I have a sixth sense of something that tells me. It seems to correspond with activity I have recorded or not. It just is a strange feeling, a heightened sense of awareness, like be on your toes. It could be all made up in my mind, but activity has fallen right around those times, so perhaps your processing sounds without even knowing it. Last year that happened one night, then we kept hearing wood knocks right at sunrise, distinct pops on hardwood. It has happened fairly consistently in my couple of years right around June and also in November, I know the difference between the surrounding sounds.

I already listen to Coonbo and Bear's Bigfoot Outlaws show, I practically cried laughing so hard when I heard the intro, it was perfect, the bass line and guitar fit them to a tee. The bigfoot calls they seem to be suggesting are probably owlish calls and other imitation type calls. I bet they use birds and other imitation calls. I had a response two a bird type whistle one night that sounded metallic, and definitely imitating me. Like a half step chromatic one step up. It was very weird, I know night birds might imitate a whistle, but it was a weird type of texture, more metallic in tone, I bugged out after that cause I got creeped out. It is funny how you try to detect them, but then retreat when you do, it is just not a comfortable feeling knowing they are around.

 

 

Syncing the sounds is easy but would be tedious. Not sure what recording medium you have in your studio but if you use some type of computer program to record with you should be able to add tracks the way a guitarist would when recording multiple takes of the same riff so to fatten up that guitar riff..... The problem is when you cut out the segments in whatever program you use to listen to bigfoot audio. You need to cut the segments from each audio containing that sound you recorded, and make sure to cut each one at the very same time stamp or it won't line up correctly when you are ready to bring them in to your music recording program... Then just open the tracks in your recording program each on a different track and then play them back and see how they sound... I've done this in years past but problems occur and generally they don't line up together correctly due to numerous reasons.. One of the main reason is depending on how far apart your audio recorders are there will be a distance problem that will cause phasing and delay between the three recorders. Only thing I can liken it too is when you hear a gunshot a long distance off, you're just hearing the delayed report of the gunshot so the farther off recorder won't get the sound as fast as the other two recorders... We triangulate our three recorders in a quarter mile spread. It's a good distance, but we place them where if you hear a yote howl or something else you can hear it in all three recorders. We put them in open areas that aren't blocked by hills and ravines, ect.. So there's not much to block the sound from one recorder to anther one. We do put recorders in tight places but we only use one recorder in those places where it's not feasible to use the three recorder method..

 

I and pretty much everyone that does work in the woods gets those same feelings you're talking about... I just think it's more that I'm already thinking I'm gonna be stressed out before we even get there, so I get startled by anything when I'm in certain places.. Since I'm already tripping out, I just think the feelings I get once we get there is already in my mind to begin with and I'm already on edge... For instance, I'll be walking down a path and hear something behind me and in a split second I've already got my hands on both 1911's and I turn around expecting to see bigfoot about to grab me and it's a squirrel that just jumped off a tree into the crunchy leaves lol.. But I'm always alert because I don't play around in some areas and I never go alone because I'm one of those that thinks bigfoot is an opportunist and will grab whatever he can if hungry..

 

I can tell you the outlaws will say if you're doing calls at all, to do them like bigfoot would. As a mimic and not truly trying to sound like the animal you want to mimic.. Make it sound off from say an owl, or a yote instead of just like one.. The outlaws also have some secret bigfoot calls no one hears, but they got calls that was used just last weekend and they called a group to within yards of my buddy I listen to audio for, and just a few other people. Bigfoot can't exactly sound like the animals they are trying to mimic so why would a bigfoot be interested in someone trying to sound like a yote or owl... This is why we can sometimes tell it's not a real yote or owl because bigfoot can only mimic so much and they certainly don't do it perfectly... So far there's absolutely no evidence of bigfoot being able to hit falsetto or any other range. A yote can get pretty high up in vocal range, bigfoot can't. And bigfoot has a different vocal range as can be seen by using a spectrograph when you compare yotes ranges to supposed bigfoot sounds. Of course a spectrograph isn't proving anything but it lets us know more about bigfoots vocal ranges. And for those of us living in the real world, getting audio and trying to capture video and doing this stuff is all we got to do so I use everything I can to learn more about bigfoot....

[Lake County Bigfooot]

I have heard some fairly high pitched whoops, I do not know how they look on the spectrograph, they may have more bass in them than is simply heard. Though I am referring to a juvenile, of what age I know not, but old enough to be left alone. The mother has a much deeper tone to her whoop. It all happened right in my backyard adjacent to a marsh, but I have not heard them before or since, though wood knocking and strange moaning have occurred, check this out on head phones and tell me what you think. This type of thing is fairly common in my yearly captures.

TURN VOLUME DOWN!!!!

This in "NOT" me trying to solicit a response, knocker unknown...If it were coyote they all would have gone off..the moaning continues, the cough you hear is a neighbor who is older and sits out much of the night, he is probably listening to this stuff if he can still hear it, he is in his 80s. Car traffic on my road which is fairly constant at night due to bars in the area, does not hinder them at all to my knowledge, my marsh is secluded from view and lined with tall banks and softwoods, it must be frustrating to have to bang on them softwoods, though you can hear the amount of force in those bangs, which are probably at least 50 yards from my recorder. There is a blind of sorts along a deer trail that runs along my backyard, the blind is where I think the knocker is at. It sounds more to the left and forward of my recorder which is where it is at.

Banging Moan Howl.mp3

Edited April 21, 2016 by Lake County Bigfooot