the loneliest mix

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52 HertzThe Loneliest Whale

Imagine roaming the world’s largest ocean year after year alone, calling out with the regularity of a metronome, and hearing no response.

I came across an article on Good earlier today about the loneliest Whale in the World - the headline caught my eye being that I am partial to Blue Whales - citing a 2004 New York Times story, this particular whale has been closely monitored by the NOAA since 1992:

It sings at 52 Hertz, which is roughly the same frequency as the lowest note on a tuba, and much higher than its fellow whales, whose calls fall in the 15 to 25 Hertz range. […] To make matters worse, the high-pitched whale “does not follow the known migration route of any extant baleen whale species.

Most amazing is the NOAA has shared an audio file of this truly unique song - the recording signal was sped up by 10x, I’m not sure of the reason for the increase, but I wanted to hear the whale’s song slowed back down. Bringing the original .wav file into FCP and adjusting the playback speed produced the most beautiful dream-like noise; there’s a strange trembling / vibration effect from the NOAA speeding up the signal and then my slowing it back down, but something about it makes me feel calm.

Erica and I loved it so much I cross faded the song together into a 10 minute file, which if you’d like, you can download here ( .aif / 345 MBs ) or via soundcloud.

This rare hybrid has been traveling alone almost all its life - I hope one day it stumbles across another Blue Whale, even if just for a moment.