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Author Archives: Thomas Alf

Metal bowl with water and more

June 9, 2011 – 10:46 am

This is yet another test of my homemade contact microphone. I used the same metal bowl I did in this post. This time I tapped the bowl with my fingers, filled it with water and rolled objects around in it, among other things.

The homemade contact mic seems to be making more and more noise. Time to invest in a properly made mic, I think..

Equipment: Homemade contact microphone -> SD744T

Tags Contact microphone, Metal, Water | Permalink | Comments Off

Metal bowl and handheld massager

May 25, 2011 – 5:13 pm

I have been thinking about buying a contact microphone for a while. I’ve seen plenty of blog posts where contact mics are used for recording interesting sounds. Buying a professionally made contact mic is not at the top of my shopping list at the moment, so I made my own using this tutorial as a starting point. I used an XLR connector instead of the 1/4″ jack mentioned in the tutorial.

I have a metal salad bowl that I’ve been meaning to record forever. It became the first subject of my contact mic test recordings. I placed the mic on the outer side of the bowl and put a small, battery powered handheld massager in the bowl. The massager vibrated and rotated slowly in the bowl, sounding louder whenever one of the legs passed the mic. When the original recording is slowed down, it kind of sounds like heavy machinery at work at a distant construction site.

Equipment: Homemade contact microphone -> SD744T

Tags Contact microphone, Metal, Vibration | Permalink | Comments Off

Airport ambience

May 5, 2011 – 10:51 am

I really need to get better at bringing a small recorder when I’m going places. During the christmas holiday in 2010, I travelled back and forth a bit. I figured this would be a good opportunity to start bringing my recorder, so I did.. I set up my Zoom h2 when I was waiting at the different airports, and I got some useable ambience out of it. It’s nice to spend the waiting time “working” instead of just sitting around.

Below are some samples from Oslo airport.

Equipment used: Zoom h2

Tags Ambience, Field recording | Permalink | Comments Off

Covert operations / Subway ambience

April 30, 2011 – 9:07 pm

“Hey! Is that a microphone?” We’ve all had recordings ruined by the guy who spotted you and your equipment. Time to leave the blue/orange Petrol bag and the zeppelin at home and use something more discreet.

I found an old army medic bag and decided to use it as an undercover sound bag. My SD744T recorder, NP1 battery and Rode NT4 stereo mic easily fit in the bag. I have yet to find a way to suspend the microphone, so to minimize handling noise I just have to stand still or sit down while recording.

My first test run was on the subway in Oslo. I found a seat on the train and rode around for a while. With the business end of the microphone sticking out of the bag and my hand resting on the other end to to keep it still, it worked pretty well. There was some occasional handling noise, but not bad at all.

bag3 — Microphone capsules sticking out. Ready to record.

It was also easy to gather ambiences in different places by resting the bag in my lap or next to me. The lack of a fuzzy windjammer was a problem when recording outside. I guess I’ll have to try to put one on the next time I go outside to record. I recorded some ambience on the subway platform and the trains passing by occasionally caused wind distortion. I tried to position myself to avoid that, but a windjammer definitely would have made it easier.

Despite of some small problems I got some good material. Below are some samples.

Equipment used: Rode NT-4 -> Sound Devices 744T
Join me on the subway from Majorstuen station to Nationaltheatret station.