When you take the ferry between Halifax and Dartmouth, you are always above the water. No sound from below ever reaches your ears. So I went out to get that sound from underwater.
Swimming and diving is not permitted close to the ferry terminals, so there was only one thing left to do.
Take out the hydrophone I got on Etsy (I am not the DIY type of guy for this). I took the version with “only” 5m of cable. As a result of the short cable I had to lean over the water to keep it where it belonged.
I recorded with the Zoom H6 as this mic comes with a 6.3mm TRS jack, no XLR to be found. So after fiddling a bit with the levels I started recording, but without plugging in the earphones for feedback. I should have known better.
When I looked in the water to see where the mic was supposed to be, I saw a bunch of fish, trying to play with the yellow “ball”. They bounced it back and forth! As a result, I had to put a limiter on the sound to get rid (mostly) of the bumps. The ferry’s propeller sound was a bit disappointing, I expected that to be much louder underwater.
After a while I pulled up the mic and went on my way, having no idea I recorded fish play along with a ferry boat…
Until next time…