FX009 MUD POOL X HYDROPHONE
On the same road trip to Ruapehu (See HISSandaROAR’s New FX009 METAL GATE CREAK), Tim Prebble also revisited a large-scale mud pool near Rotorua and recorded the geothermal activity using a pair of Aquarian H2A hydrophones. Tim had checked with Aquarian Audio that their hydrophones could cope (they confirmed they have boiled them when testing!) but he started out cautiously, dropping the hydrophones into bubbling mud near the edge of the pool, listening, then retrieving them to check the temperature.
Half an hour later Tim Prebble was attempting to land the hydrophones right out in the middle of the pool, and it was fascinating to listen to so much activity below the surface, and with such variety and range, by moving the hydrophones. Eventually, Tim landed them right on a gloopy bubbling mud vent and captured individual bubbles, as well as later risking them in a small fumarole.
Thankfully the hydrophones coped fine and the only challenge was getting the mud off everything: the hydrophones, cables, recorder bag, and Tim!
MUD, EVERYWHERE!
Check out the Making Of video below – in total twelve different pairs of locations in the mud pool were recorded. The resulting library is delivered as stereo .WAV files for convenience but is really dual mono as there is no stereo correlation between the two hydrophones. While the H2A microphones do not capture a lot of high-frequency content when in mud, the low frequencies are quite extraordinary and while editing I often felt the air movement from my subwoofer.
Pricing and Availability
FX009 MUD POOL X HYDROPHONE is available now.
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