Sorry to be posting this one so late.  I still have yet to do my creative thing for today but I’m at work and it looks like it’s going to be a long one tonight.  On the plus side, the piece I’m working on at the moment is going to be playing on the big screen at Grauman’s Chinese this Tuesday.  I won’t be able to see it because its meant for executives but that’s cool.  I’m actually doing wire removal which is a first for me.  It’s challenging and pretty cool.  ANYWAYS…

 

 

Yesterday was wonderful day.  I was playing with June for most of the day but by the end of it, I was exhausted.  I really had to work up the energy to go out and do something.  I was looking over the blog and I realized that I hadn’t taken the contact mics out for a long time.  Day 034 was the last time.  So, since its not such a complicated project I decided to lazily record some noises.

 

 

I am not that satisfied with the outcome.  I was surprised too because I thought Jenny and I had chosen a good group of things to record.  I think it was a mixture of mic issues as well as execution.  I was hearing this beating hiss in everything I recorded and I had a premonition it was noise from my digital field recorder.  Contact Mics have a tendency to record quite loudly even the lightest touch across the cable.  The other problem was that I think I selected perhaps the wrong areas on the objects to record.  Oh well.

 

 

I removed as much of the hiss as I could in the computer and I juiced up the sounds a bit in Ableton.  Nothing crazy, just a bit of panning and EQ.  Anyways, press play on the three audio players below in any order and enjoy the creak-scape.

 

Gate
Car
Water Heater

4 Replies to “Day 189 / Contact Mic Fiasco”

  1. Bite

    I buy my contact mics because of you.It,s cool to see new things with them…I can,t find in my house many things to record.I put on speakers, and in my chair in movement and putting tape over them, but nothing very creative.
    I have a Zoom H2 and thanks to you I realized that with a portable recorder I can take them anywhere!!!! No need for a laptop or soundcard!
    Silly me!
    Thanks for the inspiration…

  3. The B-Roll

    Thank you so much guys!! I appreciate your comments.

    @bite, I know! I think it’s great that I inspired you to get contact mics. I have to get to the bottom of what is causing the noise. Isn’t it funny how the sound of just the tape on the contact mic can sometimes sound cooler than the object you’re recording.

    I heard your song on the monome tour disc. I have to say what a wonderful song! and what a wonderful disc as a whole. I couldn’t recognize my sample but I thought maybe it was the crank sound.

    Oh well, thanks again!

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