Thomas Rex Beverly records the sounds of Patagonia with Sennheiser

Adventure sound technician Thomas Rex Beverly travels through Patagonia capturing the sounds of nature with the help of microphones. Sennheiser such as the MKH 8020, MKH 8040 or the latest figure-8 microphone MKH 8030.

Beverly has compiled over a hundred sound libraries offering an amazing selection of sounds from the natural world. Beverly's sound libraries are used by Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winners for major film, television and video game projects.

As he said Tim Farrell, Emmy-winning sound designer and sound effects editor (Star Trek: Picard, Antman: Quantumania, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Walking Dead, Crash), “Thomas's unique and well-recorded sounds have helped me create the Star Trek sound universe.”

Now on his expedition to Patagonia, Beverly admits that he is surprised by "the impressive landscape of Patagonia, with its wide open spaces, gigantic mountains and a very wild climate, has deeply captivated me. There is an amazing ecosystem down there."

For the expedition to Patagonia, Beverly prepared a variety of outdoor equipment, eight recorders, eight microphone sets adapted to various recording needs and session lengths, homemade hydrophones, cameras, SD cards, a few sets of Sennheiser HD 280 PRO headphones and several sets of batteries.

"When I travel by plane, there is a restriction on the allowable battery size, usually around 100 watt-hours, which directly affects the number of recording sessions I can do. My microphone setup includes high-quality options such as Sennheiser MKH 8020 y MKH 8040, powered by 48V phantoms, along with 24V phantom power and plug-in microphones for my free fall equipment," he details. Beverly also tried the latest MKH 8030 figure 8 microphone from Sennheiser during this trip.

Thomas and his colleague Andy, who accompanied him on this expedition, set up their base camp in El Chaltén, known as the national trekking capital of Argentina and the starting point of several trails that surround the peaks of Cerro Torre and Mount Fitz Roy.

They did day hikes and overnight camps for a total of 12 days, exploring and recording the sounds of the region. Beverly explains: “You go from extremely dry desert landscapes with cacti, guanacos and bushes, to 100-foot trees, to smaller alpine trees, to moss, to giant mountains, to the ice sheet, all in a span of maybe 10 miles.”

Recording of howling winds

When hurricane-force gales swept through El Chaltén, Beverly had the perfect opportunity to record extreme wind sounds. "One of the best ways to record howling, whistling winds is by capturing high-tension wires reverberating in the wind or the sound of windows breaking when the wind blows at 80 miles per hour. These produce very melodic whistles that sound editors love to use in movie scenes."

During the first few days, Beverly ventured out on shorter hikes to experiment with the MKH 8030 microphone hoping to record wildlife such as southern parakeets, southern pygmy owls, greater Magellanic woodpeckers, guanacos and Andean pumas. Beverly jokes that when it came to cougars, she definitely didn't want to attract attention, so she used some of her “free fall” microphone rigs, which recorded for up to seven days on their own.

“When I'm trying to get wildlife sounds, I like to position my equipment so that I can record isolated wildlife that will hopefully get very close to the microphones,” Beverly explains. "When the budgerigars fly by very close, it sounds like a small fighter plane whizzing by. When they land inches from the microphones, the whirring of their flapping wings is like a Dragon from Game of Thrones landing."

backpacking adventure

After filming in El Chaltén, Beverly, her friend, a specially hired mountaineering guide, and a porter embarked on a four-day backpacking trip to the Torre Glacier. A river crossing marked the point separating hikers from climbers, who crossed the river to reach the giant peaks.

Beyond the river, the team found themselves in a forest composed entirely of beech trees. “Most of these trees are very old and tall, protected in the valley from strong winds,” says Beverly. "Interestingly, the lenga has very small leaves that do not vibrate, like a typical deciduous tree. Instead, the entire branch moves, more like a coniferous tree with long needles. It is a very relaxing sound when the wind is at a low speed, but it has an incredible roar when strong gusts of wind arrive."

One of the most captivating sounds she recorded was that of rain inside a giant hollow beech tree trunk, which Beverly affectionately calls the “cello of the forest.” “The log adds a unique character by allowing you to hear the rain both outside and through the wood,” he says. "You have to find a well-worn log with a thin layer of wood around the hole and large flakes falling off. This creates a chromatic rain sound that is relaxing, with a woody texture, which sounds like a splash and tick, resulting in a beautiful rain melody."

One night while they were camping, they had a truly unique experience. "The strong winds were very intermittent and sometimes stopped completely between gusts. The calm between gusts made you feel like you were in the eye of the hurricane. Then you could put your hand or ear on the ground and feel it vibrate. You could feel the wind coming because sound travels faster through dense soil than through air. That was the first time I experienced the thunderous roar of the wind coming across the land before it came in waves. gigantic,” says Beverly.

Beverly points out that recording the wind is always a challenge, the key question is how to capture all the details amidst the noise. “Sometimes the wind can turn into a roar, so a lot of what I was doing was getting a mix of the power of that roar, but also the details up close, whether it's leaves rustling, sounds from the awning, or a branch cracking with a sinister, eerie moan as the wind passes by,” he explains.

Beverly used the Sennheiser MKH 8040 to capture this unique experience, choosing these microphones because "I can mount them in an ORTF setup that is compact but still retains a wide, immersive stereo image. You get a strong sense of movement through the stereo image as the wind blows. The MKH 8040s were perfect for capturing that," he adds.

Recording of glacial sounds

The Torre Glacier, which the team eventually reached, has retreated significantly into the valley over the past ten years. Following their mountaineering guide, they came to a place where icebergs were breaking off from the glacier and then became trapped by rocks in a small area.

“I was able to throw some hydrophones into the part of the lake full of icebergs, capturing the sound of them moving and melting,” he explains. "I found that the icebergs here, confined in such a small space, produced more screeching and crunching sounds. It revealed sounds I didn't know existed. One night it rained a lot, so the hydrophones also picked up underwater rain."

"When I first heard these recordings, I thought they were horrible; they sound terrible at normal speed. However, when you lower the pitch by two octaves, from 192 kHz to 48 kHz, magic happens. The way raindrops hit the water makes the rain is much more ultrasonic, which makes it sound hissy and piercing at normal speed. But when you slow it down, it sounds amazing. Most of these recordings were made in a glacial lagoon under strange conditions. The icebergs all clumped together and rubbed against each other because of a rocky peninsula that allowed some water to pass through, but kept the icebergs confined. The icebergs were so dense that there was not enough room for the wind to create waves. The wild winds of Patagonia battered the icebergs, but all they could do was rub against each other. They creaked, moaned, purred, growled and crackled. Adding rain to the mix created a stunning meteorological soundscape in which the cracking of icebergs and screeching of bubbles replaced the emotive cracking of branches and chirping of birds of a real forest in the middle of a storm.”

Beverly recalls a shocking moment when, after leaving one of her recording equipment in an ice cave for two days, she returned to find the entire cave had melted. “It is quite surprising to witness the rapid rate at which glaciers are melting,” he admits. “This particular case was quite revealing.”

Surrounded by the majestic valley, with Mount Fitz Roy on one side, Cerro Torre on the other and the immense ice sheet behind, Beverly reflects on the imposing ecosystem of Patagonia. “The combination of towering mountains, deep valleys and the extensive ice sheet creates a truly unique environment,” he says. “It is a place filled with incomparable beauty and unique sounds that resonate with a purity and grandeur that simply cannot be found anywhere else.”

"The Patagonia expedition has been an extraordinary experience, which not only challenged me to explore new territories, but also allowed me to discover sounds I never knew existed. Each trip is unique and this one, with its mix of challenges, incredible moments and fascinating ecosystems, stands out as truly unforgettable."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqDJGx_xulo