RURAL NATURE COLLECTION SFX: Woods, Fields, Insects & Footsteps

RURAL NATURE COLLECTION SFX is a body of location work recorded across the woods, fields and hill country of Tuscany: pine forests loud with cicadas in August, gales pushing through the canopy, summer nights with scops owl, nightingale and frogs, bees working a field of flowers, sheep grazing with their bells, and boots moving through dry leaves, mud and gravel.

The emphasis is on long, usable takes rather than short one-shots. Most forest ambiences run three to six minutes, and the longest past ten, so they can be laid straight under a scene without looping. The same locations were often covered in more than one format – conventional stereo, binaural dummy head, in-ear binaural and 4-channel Ambisonic AmbiX – so you can pick the perspective that fits your delivery rather than converting one that doesn’t.

The collection also includes material you will not find in most nature libraries. One recording was made inside an underground anthill, with a contact microphone buried in the nest: the dry, granular rustle of thousands of ants moving through soil, structure-borne rather than airborne. At 32-bit float it pitches down into swarms, infestations and something considerably less pleasant than an ant.

Inside the Collection

The library is organised into UCS-compliant categories to streamline your workflow:
• Forest & Woodland Ambience (29 files, 2h 4m) – The core of the library. Summer pine forest with cicadas, wind moving through the trees from a light stir to a full gale, woodland with birds, nightingale and crickets, and a creek running through the woods. Eleven of these are 4-channel Ambisonic AmbiX soundscapes for immersive and VR work, and several are binaural dummy-head recordings.
• Insects (16 files, 18m) – An underground anthill recorded with a contact microphone buried in the nest, bees working a flower field with birds and crickets behind them, and night cricket beds in mono and stereo.
• Footsteps (16 files, 10m) – Walking and running on dry leaves, woodland mud and swamp, crushed stone paths and loose gravel. Clean, close and repeatable for Foley replacement.
• Weather (6 files, 12m) – A binaural thunderstorm with rain, distant thunder over a rural edge with birds still active, and rain drumming on an umbrella recorded in binaural.
• Rural Night Ambience (3 files, 13m) – Summer countryside after dark: scops owl, nightjar, frogs, crickets and nightingale, including a nine-minute ORTF stereo take with a storm building in the distance.
• Sheep & Bells (4 files, 5m) – Sheep grazing with their bells, and a herd crossing a road.
• Frogs & Wings (4 files) – Frogs calling from a stream, and close pigeon-like wing flaps.

Audio Technical Info

• Total Files: 78
• Total Running Time: approx. 3 hours 6 minutes
• Format: WAV – Mono, Stereo, Binaural and 4-Channel Ambisonic AmbiX
• Sample Rate: 192 kHz / 32-bit float (60 files), 96 kHz / 24-bit (11 files), 96 kHz / 32-bit and 48 kHz / 32-bit float
• Recording Gear: Zoom F3, Zoom F6, Zoom H3-VR, Zoom H1essential, Tascam Portacapture X8; Audio-Technica AT897 and BP4025, Lewitt LCT 440 Pure, Røde NT-SF1, LOM Usi Pro, AKG C411 PP, I.S. Earsight Nano, Roland CS-10EM and binaural dummy head
• Metadata: Fully integrated with the Universal Category System (UCS) standard, with embedded descriptions and originator info
Please note: these are working rural landscapes, not protected wilderness. A number of takes carry the traces of that – a dog barking in the distance, an aircraft at altitude, wind turbines, or the metallic creak of communication pylons and their cooling fans in the wind. Each file’s description states what is audible in it, so you can choose accordingly.