Fuyuan Forest, August 2026
Fuyuan National Forest Recreation Area, Ruisui Township, Hualien County, 16th August 2026
富源國家森林遊樂區, 花蓮縣瑞穗鄉, 2026年8月16日
I have never managed to capture truly quiet natural sounds in Taiwan's low-elevation forests, and Fuyuan Forest was no exception. Located at an elevation of roughly 250 to 750 meters, the area consists of forest and stream valleys, so the sound of running water in the distance is almost always present in the recordings. Because of this, some of my previous recordings along the forest trails were dominated by the sound of flowing water and didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.
This time, I decided to take a somewhat counterintuitive approach. Instead of looking for a recording location deeper in the forest, I recorded in the recreation areas and gardens. By avoiding the daytime hours when visitors are most active, I was able to greatly reduce the frequency of human-made noise.
The recordings above were made at different times from night through early morning. The first captures the calls of frogs on a summer night. The chorus of frogs was so loud that I had to set the recorder's gain much lower than usual. The second and third recordings feature cicadas and birdsong in the early morning, respectively.
📍 Location: 23.587566, 121.353030 Ruisui Township, Hualien County, Taiwan
🌤 Weather: 21-23°C, Sunny and Clear, 86-91% Humidity, 0.3 m/s Wind Speed
🌿 Ambient Sound: Frogs, Birds, Cicadas, Insects, Flowing Water
🎤 Setup1 (Track 1): Chris Trevino O-Mini (AB), Sony PCM-A10 (Gain: 14)
🎤 Setup2 (Track 2-3): Sennheiser MKH 8020 (AB40), Sound Devices Mixpre-3II (Gain: 55)
🎚️ Editing (Track 3): 100Hz HPF 12 dB/oct
富源森林, 2026年8月
我過去一直沒有在台灣低海拔森林錄到真正靜謐的自然聲音，富源森林也不例外。這裡海拔約 250 至 750 公尺，森林與溪谷交錯，因此錄音中始終可以聽見遠處的溪流水聲。也因為如此，我過去在環山步道錄製的幾段聲音，常常受到過大的水流聲干擾，效果並不理想。
這次我選擇了違反直覺的做法：不再往森林深處尋找錄音地點，而是在園區的休憩區與花園中錄音。只要避開遊客活動較頻繁的白天時段，就能大幅降低人為噪音的干擾。
上面的幾段錄音，分別是在夜間到清晨不同的時段錄製的。第一段是夏夜的蛙鳴，一群蛙的共鳴聲音非常響亮，以致於我必須將錄音機的增益調的比平常低很多；第二、第三段則分別是清晨的蟬鳴與鳥叫。