Recording forest rain in Hampshire, England

I am lucky enough to live in an an area close to a national park, with some of the UK’s richest and beautiful woodland and forests. But on a day like the Saturday just passed, when rain drizzles from the sky and an imposing blanket of dark cloud sits firmly in place overhead, most people head indoors and wait for things to clear up.

However not me… days like this can create ambiences so rich in sound, it’s hard to resist the urge to venture out and record it. So microphone (AT825) and recorder (Zoom H5) in hand I headed out to capture the beautiful rainfall sound effects in one of my favourite forests, situated in Liss, Hampshire.

The forest floor had become saturated with rain water, however the fallen autumn leaves provided an amazing bed for the drips and rain to hit, creating a beautiful pitter patter of raindrops. Here is that first sound I recorded that day

Moving through the forest I was able to capture a few more rain ambiences before deciding to head under the cover of a rather dense arch of leaves (something my children would have spent hours playing within). Now quite wet myself and wanting to sit down I hung my recorder bag up on a branch, nestled the microphone inside sticking out and sat down to let the recording roll. The wind really picked up and some amazingly strong gusts of wind made for a dramatic sound, which can be heard here.

After an hour of getting soaked, it was time to head back to the car, where I set the microphone and recorder to capture the rain falling onto the parked cars around before heading home.

Check out all our free forest sound effects and free rain sound effects to download here at zapsplat.com.