Keep up to date with Evocative Sound and Visuals here on our Stories (blog) page. Learn about new sound effect libraries and soundscape album releases, photography, how-to, behind-the-scenes and more.
Amish Country Steam Train
Listen to the distant sound of a turn-of-the-last-century steam train whistle reverberating through the valleys of Ohio’s Amish Country during the Fall Steam Festival at the Age of Steam Roundhouse on Saturday, September 29, 2024.… Read More
Rowing on the River
Submerge yourself in the relaxing sounds of a modern-day rowing regatta in this latest soundscape album by Evocative Sound and Visuals. For Rowing on the River, listen to the graceful rhythms of single-scull (1x) and eight-person (8+) sweep rowing crews … Read More
Sounds from a Rowing Regatta
What would it be like to be able to listen to the 28th annual Head of the Cuyahoga Regatta with your head above and below the water at the same time? Let’s first assume for the moment that you’d even want to do this. Granted, the Cuyahoga River hasn’t caught fire in 55 years. That’s due in large part to many groups, both government and volunteer, doing positive and determined work to clean it up and keep it pollution-free, mostly. Even so, yuck. Let’s say however, that with the aid of a pair of underwater microphones, or hydrophones, one can achieve this simultaneous perspective. Well then, it would sound a little like the video below. Put on your snorkel tube and enjoy sounds from a rowing regatta.… Read More
Antique Engines
Introducing Antique Engines, Evocative Sound and Visuals’ latest sound effects library. In it, hear expressive examples of restored late 19th and early 20th-century stationary and moving engines. Some appear to hiss, spit and cough. Others puff and snort. Some just … Read More
The Inner Sounds of a Covered Bridge
Last month, I drove over to Newton Falls, Ohio (pop. 4,500) to record the sounds of an old round bank vault for my sound effects library Vaults, Safes, Keys and Locks. While there, the owner of the former bank, who … Read More
Vaults, Safes, Keys and Locks
I’m pleased to announce the launch of my latest sound effects library, Vaults, Safes, Keys and Locks. This library contains impactful sounds of massive steel-doored vaults slamming shut, plus a wide variety of safes, keys and locks. There are plenty … Read More
Who Was This Katrina Victim?
Today marks the 19th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Every few years, I put out a passionate inquiry asking the question, who was this Katrina victim? I firmly believe, after all these years, it’s worth … Read More
Vacuum Cleaners
Vacuum Cleaners sound effects library by Evocative Sound and Visuals includes 35 machines that will clean up and enhance your next project.… Read More
Recording at the Scene of the Northeast Blackout of 2003
Tomorrow marks the 21st anniversary of the history-making cascading power failure that put much of the northeast United States and parts of Ontario, Canada in the dark. On August 14, 2003, a series of events occurred that switched off the lights for much of the eastern seaboard. High afternoon temperatures that day in much of the region lead to an increased energy demand on the power grid. This caused power lines to sag, some of which came in contact, or flashed, with overgrown trees below. … Read More
Abandoned Prison
Evocative Sound and Visuals presents Abandoned Prison, featuring sounds captured at the historic Ohio State Reformatory (OSR) in Mansfield, Ohio. Included are nasty squeaks, loud bangs and deep thuds from the cavernous prison’s cell block doors and massive chapel door.… Read More
Periodical Cicadas
Periodical Cicadas features the sounds of millions of periodical cicadas singing en masse. In this library, there are extended drones and screeches, up-close wing-fluttering pass bys and multiple pharaoh (mating) calls. Two broods, XXII and V, were recorded in 2014 and 2016 respectively. … Read More
Electromagnetic Fields
Evocative Sound and Visuals is pleased to release Electromagnetic Fields. This library contains 163 sounds from 68 devices and structures captured in high-quality stereo with a Sony PCM D100 recorder and two small induction coil microphones. Included are hums, drones, beeps, bleeps, buzzes, glitches, pulses, static and more strange sounds I cannot describe. They’re all lovingly recorded and meticulously mastered.… Read More
Goodbye American Queen
Today’s news of the likely scrapping of the American Queen riverboat got my attention this morning. As a newspaper photographer at The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I was on and around paddle boats quite often. … Read More
Northern Lights Above Lake Erie
See sunspots and the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, above Lake Erie at Fairport Harbor, Ohio.… Read More
Wind and Metal
Wind and Metal explores the awesome ways metal responds sonically under the influence of wind. Large objects like wind turbines, windmills, a geodesic dome, an overhead power line transmission tower, a fire tower, flag poles and a giant crucifix, were recorded under varying wind speeds from airy breezes to howling gusts. Each structure produces resonant tones unique to its design, location and weather affecting it. There’s the sound of wire fences too.… Read More
Oval Track Racing
Cover your ears. It’s going to get LOUD, introducing, Oval Track Racing. This high-octane stock car racing library features cars of various makes, models and performance characteristics circling a quarter mile (.40 kilometer) oval track in Meridian, Idaho. This track distance is referred to as a ‘short track.’ The sounds were captured from multiple perspectives inside, outside, and alongside the asphalt track with a variety of microphones and recorders.… Read More
Riding Along the Detroit People Mover
Riding along the Detroit People Mover. This nearly 3-mile elevated people mover forms a loop around downtown, with brief stops at 13 stations and some sharp curves along the way. … Read More
The Amish
Step back into a simpler time when farm living was a non-mechanized affair. No GPS-guided, 17-foot wide combines with air-conditioned cabs. No crops that are doused from the air with pesticides. To where cow’s milk is hand-squeezed into metal buckets before the break of dawn. Where horse and human work side by side. Evocative Sound and Visuals is pleased to announce its latest sound effects library entitled, The Amish. A rare collection of high-quality recordings featuring life among the Amish community of northeast Ohio. … Read More
Seashells and Sound Waves
Capturing the sound of Lake Erie waves – as heard through a pair of conch shells – at Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park on Saturday, December 16, 2023.… Read More
Mounds and Sounds of Poverty Point
In August 2015, with the imaginative hope of listening to a time long since vanished, I visited Poverty Point State Historic Site, a series of prehistoric earthworks made up of five mounds of varying height and concentric half-circle-shaped ridges dating back 3,400 years.… Read More
Interview with The Natural Curiosity Project
Interview with Richard Alan Hannon of Evocative Sound and Visuals for The Natural Curiosity Project podcast.… Read More
Typewriters
Typewriters is a sound effects collection chock-full of vintage typewriters making sounds beyond the simple click-clack-clunk heard in so many TV shows and movies. I was curious if there was more to the sound of these old machines than meets … Read More
Commercial Fireworks: Up Close and Loud
Fireworks: Up Close and Loud is a collection of commercial-grade fireworks – the big stuff – shooting from mortar tubes not 20 feet from my microphones. Each colorful burst can be heard directly overhead with a healthy decay at the end. The result is an assemblage of sounds filled with power and punch. Every round leaving its tube gives off a solid thump. Only such nearby access can provide this perspective. But if you’re not into the patriotic thing and are just looking for mortar round sounds for a battlefield scene, this library has you covered too.… Read More
Wind Chimes
Wind Chimes is a collection of meticulously recorded wind chimes purposely recorded with a pair of high-end Barcus Berry contact microphones. By using this type of mic instead of traditional ones, the attack, sustain and decay of each tube struck by its clapper are experienced in ways unheard by the naked ear. Every tinkle and plink, every clang and rattle sound a bit more removed from its environment than normal. Harmonics can easily be heard alongside fundamental frequencies. Every recording is unique to its moment in time, each note as random as the wind that played it. These wind chimes are anything but showroom new. Some are weathered. Some are outwardly neglected. A few sound pretty, others not so much.… Read More
Irrigation
Irrigation is a collection of water flow ambiances captured in and around the Treasure Valley of southwestern Idaho, where the Payette, Boise, Weiser, Malheur, Owyhee and Burnt rivers drain into the Snake River. Follow the flow of crystal clear water as it travels from mountain-fed streams and rivers down into large reservoirs. Listen as water courses through the pipes and along the canals that carry it to sprinklers large and small. Finally, the water fans out onto verdant golf courses, people’s front yards and farmland.… Read More
Hydroelectric Power
In Hydroelectric Power sound effects library, witness the power of water in this collection of recordings captured at and inside historic hydropower plants and massive concrete dams in the United States.… Read More
Strong Wind Makes Geodesic Dome Sing
Strong Wind Makes Geodesic Dome Sing. Recording the sound that strong wind makes as it runs across a geodesic dome.… Read More
Trains in the Valley
Trains in the Valley is a 55:19 nature recording album featuring the sound of both steam and diesel-electric locomotives traveling through Cuyahoga Valley National Park.… Read More
The Tinkling Sound of Tiny Icicles
The tinkling sound of tiny icicles along a bridge in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
… Read More
Soak, The Soothing Sound of Idaho Hot Springs
Put on your swim trunks or bathing suit, turn your thermostat up to 100 F (38 C) and listen to my latest blog post on making Soak, The Soothing Sound of Idaho Hot Springs, featuring the soundscape of Pine Flats Hot Springs along the South Fork of the Payette River in south-central Idaho. Recorded in April 2021, the 55:42 album transports you down a 100-foot jagged algae-covered cliff to the source of the springs, where hydrothermal water comes from the underworld at 138 F (59 C), onto a relaxing and comfortable waterfall-fed soaking pool, then finally to Class II rapids along the blue-green river.… Read More
How to Record Ultrasonic Bat Echolocation
This post deals with how to record ultrasonic bat echolocation using a variety of microphones and recorders, specifically the Sony PCM D100 recorder.… Read More
Sights and Sounds of the Beaver Marsh
Look at and listen to sounds of the Beaver Marsh at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in northeast Ohio. For a different kind of recording, I used a pair of high-end contact microphones clipped to the boardwalk that spans the 70-acre marsh. You hear the 70-acre wetland from the wood’s perspective.… Read More
Beneath the Crooked River during Blazing Paddles Paddlefest
Listen to the underwater sounds of the Cuyahoga River as contestants paddle upstream past Scranton Flats during the 3rd annual Blazing Paddles Paddlefest, on July 24, 2021, in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cuyahoga River, famous for catching on fire many times, … Read More
DIY SASS Microphone Rig for PIP Microphones
How I turned a vintage plastic file box … into a DIY SASS microphone housing for plug-in-power (PIP) microphones. Why have one DIY SASS microphone rig when you can have two? I came across a vintage brown plastic file box … Read More
My DIY SASS Microphone Rig
My DIY SASS Microphone Rig. How I turned a vintage Samsonite train case purchased at a thrift store for $3 into a SASS (Stereo Ambient Sampling System) microphone rig.… Read More
Shooting Two Comets and Counting
In April 1997 Life Magazine’s Director of Photography David Friend called out of the blue asking me to photograph comet Hale-Bopp, which at the time was streaking through the sky above sparsely populated Wyoming, where I had lived and worked … Read More
How Oil from BP’s Deepwater Horizon Spill Looks 10 Years On
A recent move has unearthed the dormant sand collection I keep inside my grandmother-in-law’s vintage American Tourister blue train case. The satin-lined case, complete with a fancy little mirror on the inside, is stuffed from top to bottom with bubble … Read More
Rumble of the John A. Roebling Bridge
Field recording of the Rumble of the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge which spans the Ohio River.… Read More
DIY Crush-Proof PVC Zeppelin Travel Cover
My vintage Rycote Zeppelin and matching Windjammer came in the mail yesterday. This eBay purchase cost $25. I know, I got a sweet deal. Upon delivery, It had a few cracks where the back cap meets the body. Hence the … Read More
Deep South Memories
Come, and take a 500-mile sonic journey with me through the Deep South in August. It’s the time of year when the humidity is so thick it smacks you right in the face morning, noon and night. That time of … Read More
Sage Grouse Serenade
Join me as I spend a cold April night under a full moon in the wide-open sagebrush steppe of southwestern Idaho. Listen to the bizarre sounds of male Greater sage grouse performing their annual courtship displays on ancestral mating grounds … Read More
Wind Chimes
Tinkling. Plinking. Clinking. Clanging. Rattling. Ah, the beautiful sounds of wind chimes blowing in a gentle breeze. Here are 16 of them, in all shapes and sizes. Some are old. Some are new. Some are borrowed. Sorry, none are blue. Each one is meticulously recorded and layered in a unique way that will have you thinking they are all hanging from your back porch, and you are in the middle of it all.… Read More
Say Hello to Binaural Bill
A couple of months ago, I decided to do something about the two big limitations of using my Luhd PM-01 AB microphones. These small, low-noise, high-sensitivity handmade electret microphones run on plug-in power (PIP). I paired mine with a Sony … Read More
Mohican Through the Seasons
Mohican Through the Seasons is a four-part album series highlighting the natural soundscape of Mohican State Park in north-central Ohio and its vast surrounding forest during winter, spring, summer and fall.… Read More
Drum Roll, Please
Drum. Drum. Drum. For several mornings earlier this month, that sound is all I heard. A Downy woodpecker was using a cottonwood tree I walk past on my route to see the morning newspaper as its sounding board. The woodpecker … Read More
Minidoka Visitor Center Grand Opening
Photos from the Minidoka Visitor Center Grand Opening in Idaho.… Read More
Give Me Steam
There is an adage of late in the photography world; the best camera is the one you have with you. I’m not exactly sure where this pithy saying came from. It’s not something I recall quoted from the mouths of … Read More
Dusk to Dawn on the Camas Prairie
A sea of blue-violet wildflowers stretches toward snow-capped mountains to the north. It is late May, and the camas are at the peak of their bloom. The western horizon bursts into flames as the sun peeks out from behind cottony clouds. Birdsong begins to ring out across the marshland. Sights and sounds build in layers. Mother nature has arranged a perfect feast for the senses this fine evening. And I am in the center of it all, past my ankles in thick dark water, here on the Idaho prairie, recording the wonderful soundscape.… Read More
The Secret Sound of Snags
Field recordings of the sound of snags, downed trees, captured with special contact microphones that allow you, the listener, to hear the tree from the inside out. … Read More
Aspens in Autumn
Listening to the wind blowing through the trees is one of life’s simple pleasures. There is no better time to lay down and relax beneath the branches than in the fall when deciduous trees trade their greenery for vibrant displays of yellow, red and orange. Here in the Rocky Mountain West, the Quaking aspen puts on the show. The unique sound their leaves make before falling to the earth is not to be missed. … Read More
Supper Worth the Sting, a Squirrel Stirs up a Hornet’s Nest
Sharp-eyed striders walking the Greenbelt in Garden City this summer most likely saw, if they were looking up that is, a hefty quantity of gray paper nests hanging from the cottonwoods that line the riverbank. Crafted by bald-faced hornets, these basketball-sized, … Read More
Capturing the Sound of World War II Warbirds
Field recordings to capture the Sound of World War II Warbirds.… Read More
Finding Frames at the Fair
I love looking for frames within the camera frame. We look into frames all the time. Take for example car windshields, television screens, smartphones, doorways and alike. Be it a square, a rectangular, or whatever, the camera frame is a … Read More
Making Music Among the Pines
“Please do not underestimate the mountain roads,” it says. “Do not follow your GPS.” “BE SURE TO BELIEVE THE SPEED MARKINGS AT THE CURVES!” The road to the Yellow Pine Music and Harmonica Festival is not for the faint of heart. … Read More
Sounds From a Simple Life
Sounds From a Simple Life. Field recordings of the Amish of north-central Ohio.… Read More
For the Birds
Walking our dog along the Boise River Greenbelt every morning generates many rewards. One of the greatest has been in meeting new people. This past winter, when Maggie and I dressed in double layers of wool to combat morning temperatures … Read More
Evocative Sound is Happening
Thank you for reading my introductory blog post for my new website and business Evocative Sound & Visuals. I’m so glad you’re here! Let me begin by shouting out the launch of my latest multimedia story and first-ever album entitled … Read More
Beneath the Crooked River
To uniquely commemorate the 50th anniversary of the June 22, 1969 Cuyahoga River fire, I traveled the length of the river – from headwaters to Lake Erie – recording its underwater soundscape during a nine-month period in 2017 and 2018. Dipping hydrophones (underwater microphones) into the water opened up an otherwise unheard sonic world. Now I was able to listen to the subtle sounds of barely audible aquatic life, to the natural sounds of flowing water where a dam stood for years before, to rhythmic sounds of kayak paddles cutting into the water, and finally, to the penetrating noise of tug boats and lake tankers motoring through the Flats. What I discovered is that this once polluted environmental disaster is back from the dead.
I hope you enjoy the journey.