Product Description
A forest is a truly immersive environment surrounding you in endless variation. Every square metre is alive with activity. Birds call from the canopy, insects move through the undergrowth, leaves rustle in the wind, branches creak, and distant trees sway. The soundscape never stands still. The goal of this library is simple: not just to let you hear the forest, but to let you feel present within it.
Over the past year I recorded the forests of Tyresta National Park in autumn, late winter, and spring, not searching for dramatic events, but for the continuous natural ambience that defines these environments. Wind moving through the trees forms the foundation, while countless subtle sounds constantly appear and disappear around it. The forest is rarely silent to those who take the time to listen.
To truly recreate the experience of standing in a forest, spatial recording is essential. Stereo can present a beautiful image, but an immersive recording allows the listener to be surrounded by the environment. When I listen back to these recordings, I’m transported to those places again. Not as a memory, but as an experience.
Download Rolling Thunder multi-channel demo
Spatial recording:
This library was recorded using the Multi-channel Ambient Sample System (MASS), a multi-channel evolution of the classic Stereo Ambient Sample System (SASS), a technique widely used by field recordists.
MASS uses omnidirectional microphone capsules with full-bandwidth frequency response. Directional separation is achieved acoustically by the microphone enclosure and carefully designed foam wedges rather than by directional capsules.
The system used for this recording consists of six microphone capsules in the horizontal plane and four capsules in the upper hemisphere. The six horizontal channels were chosen to match the horizontal resolution of Dolby Atmos 7.1.4, while omitting the Centre and LFE channels. The increased horizontal sampling density provides for more precise localisation, smoother spatial reproduction around the listener and a more immersive listening experience.
This microphone design preserves both inter-aural time differences (ITD) and inter-aural level differences (ILD), providing precise spatial localisation and a stable 360° sound field.
Metadata:
File naming and basic metadata follow the Universal Category System (USC). Additional metadata, including detailed descriptions, keywords, detailed microphone perspective and embedded images from the recording sessions has been added using Soundminer and is provided in a separate metadata document.
Files:
The library is provided as 12-channel, 24-bit, 96 kHz WAV files using the following channel layout: L/R/C/LFE/Lss/Rss/Lrs/Rrs/Ltf/Rtf/Ltr/Rtr. Please note that Centre (C) and LFE channels are intentionally left silent. They were added only to ensure compatibility with a standard Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 object bed. A channel guide file is also included in the library, making it easy to verify the channel layout.
Specification:
39 files, 2h 3m (excluding the channel guide), 24-bit / 96 kHz, 12-channel WAV, embedded metadata including a photo from each recording site, library guide included.
Keywords for included sounds:
Wind, wind gusts, birds, bird song, woodpecker, cuckoo, crows, seagulls, ducks, insects, bumblebee, flying, rustling leaves, creaking trees, twigs, rain, running water, splashing water, lapping water, flock, dog