Berlin Vignettes: Ambiences and Sonic Curiosities

Calm and universally useful ambiences that are unmistakably Berlin.

As a sound designer, I try to bring a recorder with me whenever and wherever I can. When traveling to Berlin to take some much needed time off, I immediately know that I wanted to capture some of the ambiences of the city; Not just to create a library from them, but also to let me dwell on the trip for a little longer by immersing myself in these recordings once back home.

From the balcony of an AirBnb in Berlin-Wedding, I captured several long-form ambiences (ranging from 5 to 30+ minutes) during different times of day. The location of the apartment allowed me to capture the sounds of the city in a very cohesive and uninterrupted way without having people walking or driving directly in front of the recorder.

You’ll hear gentle traffic sounds, the S-Bahn 41 and 42 arriving and departing regularly in the distance, occasional ambulance pass-bys, church bells, birds, and, in some cases, even the thumping bass from a nearby wedding venue.

Also included are recordings captured at train and subway stations, animal vocalizations captured at the two zoos, and some very calming suburban ambience.

Library Specs
Categories: Ambience, Room Tones, Animals

Location: Berlin Wedding, Tierpark Berlin, Zoo Berlin, various locations

Total number of Files: 18

Total Duration: 120+ min

Metadata: UCS file naming, Soundly, BWF

Recording Specs: 24 Bit / 96 kHz, Stereo

File Format: WAV

Size: 4.2 GB

Gear used: Zoom H1, furry wind protector

Processing: Level adjustment, High-Pass filtering where necessary