A Landscape That Reveals Itself Slowly
Some recording environments feel cooperative. SWAMPS do not. They are humid, unstable and often unnervingly still until the moment they erupt with life. Their sound world shifts with light, wind, water levels and temperature. Wildlife behaves on terms that cannot be predicted.
For SWAMPS, field recordist Matt Mikkelsen returned to the wetlands of Florida over several years, not because the first attempt fell short but because the habitat itself cannot be captured in a single outing. The environment gives what it gives, when it chooses. Matt already proved he has the temperament for this sort of work with THUNDERSTORM CHASER, one of BOOM Library’s most successful weather collections. SWAMPS demanded the same level of stamina and observation, but in conditions that were far less forgiving.
Matt’s fascination began with the sheer density of life. “I knew I wanted to record swamps because there’s an incredible amount of life happening in them, between the insects and the birds and the mammals.” The swamp is busy even when it appears silent, and that quiet density became the foundation of the project.
Learning an Environment Before Recording It
Matt does not begin with microphones. He begins with observation. “With all my sound libraries, I try and learn these ecosystems before I start recording them, and I try and appreciate them and just admire them, because what I find compelling to listen to is what is going to be compelling for people to use.”
This reflective approach matters in a place that does not behave as one coherent habitat. SWAMPS are collections of micro environments layered together. “They’re not fully water and they’re certainly not fully land. There are cypress groves, there are kind of more open style swamps, and each one of them has different sonic activity going on in it.”
A cypress grove has a different acoustic profile to an open water passage. Insects surge and fade with temperature. Birds feed on rhythms dictated by water levels. Matt spent long periods simply being present, letting the ecosystem reveal how it works.
A Project Measured in Years
The pace of the project was dictated entirely by the swamp. “This library took two separate trips down to Florida to record over the course of three years.” Wildlife behaviour is inconsistent and often invisible. The environment does not care how long you have left on your batteries.
Heat becomes a factor early in the day. “By 8 a.m. it might be 90 degrees.” Working in that temperature affects equipment stability and personal concentration. Matt’s descriptions make it clear that this sort of field work becomes total immersion. “You have to really not only be obsessive about your equipment and what you’re doing when you’re recording these sounds, but you also have to have all this other knowledge and awareness about being outside and staying hydrated and keeping the bugs off of you.”
Humidity, Failure and Equipment Fatigue
Recording in a swamp is a test of endurance. Humidity infiltrates everything and defeats even the most robust equipment. Matt experienced full microphone failure. “I had a microphone end up giving up towards the end of the trip because of all the humidity. Those are things that end up throwing off a whole day of recording.”
The wet air also ruins optics and seals. “You have to be willing to accept the fate of having broken microphones, of having cameras that are permanently fogged up, of breaking weather seals on your recorders.”
These failures are not exceptions. They are the background conditions of the work.
The Relentless Pressure of Insects
The insects were not an inconvenience but a constant assault. “The mosquitoes in particular were so vicious they were biting through thick hiking pants and thick jackets.”
The team wore full body netting, which quickly became stained with the evidence of constant swatting. “Luckily they’ve been cleaned because they were full of blood from smashing all the mosquitoes on us.”
The situation escalated to the point where even the vehicle became collateral damage. “There was so much blood on the vehicle from killing mosquitoes that the rental car company ended up charging me a biohazard cleaning fee.”
These conditions are inseparable from the atmosphere and tension captured in the recordings.
Capturing Wild Alligator Behaviour
Among the most striking moments in SWAMPS are the alligator bellows. They required patience and careful judgement. “There are multiple different takes of different distances of alligator bellows in this library. They were really hard to record because you have to get close enough to the alligator while staying far enough away, and also being safe.”
Matt highlights a key distinction for audio professionals. “Lots of the sounds that we have of these mammals and of these birds, and especially alligators, are from animals that are in zoos or are in some sort of safari. All the sounds that you’re hearing in this library from wild animals exhibiting their natural behaviour, and I think you can tell.”
Captive animals behave differently. Their performances feel different. SWAMPS captures the genuine rhythms of a wild, functioning habitat.
The Scale of the Material
Matt returned with far more sound than most projects would justify, and that is precisely why SWAMPS feels so complete. “I probably had 150 plus hours of raw recordings. Often I’d roll for days at a time in one location.”
Long continuous takes capture the subtle changes that give a swamp its identity. A short visit cannot replicate that.
The Breadth of the Sonic Palette
SWAMPS is not built around a handful of signature sounds. It is built around the full acoustic behaviour of the habitat. “There’s all the variation that you could ever want in a sound library. Not only do you have extremely close wild alligator bellows, but you also have distant, subtle wind flowing constantly through cypress trees. You have the sounds of egrets and ibises fishing in ponds.”
Rather than offering isolated highlights, the library presents the ecosystem as a living system. “You get a realistic experience of what it’s like to witness all the diversity of the sounds happening in these environments.”
What the Library Is Designed to Deliver
Matt is clear about his intention. “I want my sounds and the sounds that people use from these collections to help tell stories and to help evoke emotion.”
He frames SWAMPS as a complete representation of the wetlands rather than a palette of individual clips. “You buy this library so you have the full breadth of the experience of what it’s like to be in the swamps throughout the course of a day, a night, a dawn, a storm.”
Recording an environment like this demands patience, judgement and an acceptance that discomfort is part of the work. Matt summarises it simply. “You just have to be willing to kind of roll with the punches and take what’s given.”
It is a reminder that the most compelling environmental recordings are shaped not just by microphones but by the willingness of the recordist to endure the conditions required to capture them.
Explore the World of Swamps
If your work in film, television or games calls for authentic wildlife behaviour, long-form environmental beds or the sense of depth that only real ecosystems can provide, SWAMPS offers that range in full. Following the success of THUNDERSTORM CHASER, this library continues Matt’s commitment to documenting environments with honesty and patience
Part of BOOM Library’s Stunning 3D Sound Collection
SWAMPS is the latest addition to our breathtaking collection of 3D Surround sound libraries. This expanding collection offers unparalleled spatial audio experiences, ensuring sound designers have the highest quality assets to work with. Explore the full range of our 3D Surround libraries here.
SWAMPS is available now from BOOM Library and ready to bring an entire habitat into your next project.
About Matt Mikkelsen
Matt Mikkelsen is a sound recordist, audio engineer, and documentary filmmaker based in Duluth, Minnesota. He has worked as a sound designer, director, and producer on several award winning documentaries, but has also devoted much of his professional career to observing, recording, researching, and preserving natural soundscapes. His clients include Skywalker Sound, Emergence Magazine, and Amazon, and his work has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, WBUR’s On Point, New York Times Op-Docs, National Geographic, and CBS Mornings. Matt is the Co-Founder of Spruce Tone and also serves as the Executive Director of Wilderness Quiet Parks for Quiet Parks International.
