- Today, Jared's excited to record
in the Park's Big Meadows,
located at the top of a mountain
and surrounded by dense Appalachian forest.
It features a unique combination of mountain, forest,
and meadow ecosystems that Jared has never captured before.
- What I'm really hoping to capture in the meadow
is really biodiverse landscape of sound,
because all those pollinators are out there,
pollinating the plants.
- Yeah.
- All those birds are out there eating the pollinators.
So we're gonna see what it sounds like.
- Listen to the circle of life.
(acoustic guitar music)
- Welcome to the Big Meadow.
- I see why it has the name.
- [Jared] Yeah.
Right now the sun is starting to go down,
which is actually a really good time to start recording,
because wildlife is starting to wake up.
People are starting to go to sleep.
Those roads are quieting down.
- [Baratunde] Yeah.
So it's like rush hour.
- [Jared] Yeah, it may be pretty busy out there.
- [Baratunde] Even in this high mountain meadow,
it's impossible to escape human made sound.
(aircraft overhead)
But it should quiet down enough at night
for nature to rise above the din.
- So let's pull off to the side here and set up our mics.
- Great.
- All right.
(cricket chirping)
- [Baratunde] As I scan the meadow,
different sounds slide in and out at the silence.
(chirping)
It's like a radio with thousands of different stations.
As I point it up, I don't hear much.
And then right at the tree line,
there's like a,
a cricket right there.
Nope.
Yeah, there it is.
(cricket chirping)
Wow.
(cricket chirping)
This is creepy.
In a good way.
And this is just the opening act.
What can we expect to change sound wise,
as the sun goes down?
- The birds are gonna really quiet down,
as they come back home and go to sleep,
and the insects are gonna really come alive.
I think there's gonna be a ton of crickets,
and we may hear even some moths with that, buzzing around,
then it may even be really, really loud with the insects.
They tend to be very high decibels.
- [Baratunde] As the daylight makes its exit,
sound takes center stage.
(birds chirping)
(insects chirping)
(animal hooting)
(animal howling)
My ears are open to sounds I have never experienced before.
from small creatures with so much to say.
What do you want people to know about sound?
- And I think people are really like
feeling the effect of missing nature.
And one of the things that I use
my collection of nature sounds for,
is to bring me back to that connection with nature,
so that when I don't have the time
to get out here in the woods, I can still experience it.
And it just is another way to bring my body
into being connected with planet Earth.
- Yeah.
- Which is really where we're meant to be.
That's where we came from.
- There's a memory associated with sound too,
just as there is with photos.
So I look at a picture from a trip,
and it kind of takes me back to that trip.
And sometimes I hear a sound, I hear a song, I hear a sound,
I'm like, oh, it takes me back to that moment.
But what you've just described feels like a deeper memory,
almost like a species level memory.
- [Jared] Yeah. - Right?
In sync with, in tune with the environment.
Hey you!
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