So I was just about thinking of going to bed tonight, when I suddenly heard thunder outside. I got excited. I love thunderstorms! A few minutes later it started raining. The place I’m staying in right now has a tin roof over the back porch, so I thought I could make some awesome recordings. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the 744T or Sanken CSS-5 with me, so I had to work with what I had. I had my laptop, Mbox 2, and a few random cheap mics, plus some expensive LDCs that I would never put out in the rain.
So I grabbed my laptop and mbox, a homemade contact mic, an Audio Technica 815b shotgun mic, and my Røde NT4, and headed to the porch. I taped the contact mic to the underside of the tin roof. I thought I i might be able to get some sweet sounds that way. I put the shotgun on the porch, aimed out at the yard. Couldn’t use the NT4 right now since I only had 2 inputs with me 
Here’s the contact mic:
Here’s the AT815b:
I recorded that for about 10 minutes, then switched over to the NT4, because I didn’t want the storm to pass without a stereo recording of it. I was able to get about 15 minutes on the NT4. Unfortunately, only about 8 – 10 minutes of it is clean. The storm was bad enough at the beginning that the nearby executive airport didn’t allow any incoming air traffic. After it calmed down a bit, you can hear some traffic starting in. Oh well, at least I got some clean stuff…
Here’s the Røde:
So, fortunately for me, I live in Florida, and we’re just about to start into the wet season. I’m planning on getting a bunch of storm recordings this year (maybe even do a little storm chasing for some clean thunder 
).
Oh yeah. Last year I was able to get a pretty cool binaural recording of a pretty serious rain storm. Below is the recording from that. Because it’s binaural, let me set it up for you so you have a visual to go with it: I started out from my second story apt, walked down the stairs and stopped at the bottom. There was a waterfall from the roof right in front of me hitting the cement sidewalk. I put my hand in it a few times, playing with it. There was a metal drainage system to my right (you can hear the metallic ringing on the metal). I then walked through the “waterfall” and down the sidewalk about 20 feet to the tin roof carports. During this walk you can hear water sloshing because the sidewalk was flooded. You can also hear the rain hitting my head! haha. I stayed under the carport for a while, then walked back.
This recording was done with a Lectrosonics Venue system. I used Countryman B6 transmitters (flat cap installed) into Lectro LM400 transmitters, which shot back up to the Lectro Venue system in my apt, then into the 744T.
My apologies for a few of the flukes – the left transmitter took a few hits during the recording (as they tend to do in fowl weather…), and I didn’t want to do it again because I was already soaked head to toe. It is most likely repairable with RX or simple copy/paste/c-fade, but I wanted to keep it as original as possible. Below the recording is a picture of the setup (B6 pushed through a foam plug) and a picture of the sidewalk and carport from my old apartment (where the recording was done).
Binaural Recording: (Must have headphones to listen correctly!!!)
My Setup:
The Carport:
Hopefully I’ll get some more cool rain recordings soon. It’s all about being where the rain is, having the time to record it, and having the gear with you. When those stars align again, I’ll post my results.
Thanks for listening! 
UPDATE!!!!!!
Here’s a picture of the positioning of the mic capsule in my ear. Apologies for the poor quality. It’s difficult taking a picture of your own ear! Next time I’ll have someone else take it…
