This video illustrates the amazing sound art of Christine Sun Kim. Rather than explain it, or give away any details, please watch the video. You will thank me afterward!
The Amazing Sound Art of Christine Sun Kim
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Tag Archives: Field Recording
Brash Ice Video
Jack Sack alerted me to the work of Cheryl E. Leonard who makes instruments, sounds and music from natural materials such as stones and ice. Visit her blog for more information about her work.
F1 @ Silverstone Grand Prix 2011
Having asked around the forums (http://socialsounddesign.com/) for tips, I headed up to Silverstone this weekend to camp & record some sounds for the F1.
The cars were LOUD. I must have been 50 metres away and had to wear ear plugs and cans…the gear changes kick you in the chest!
It was an entertaining race, and great experience. Tech below:
I was up by Abbey (and walking around) and managed to get lots of useable material. I sampled at 24/96 but there’s not much going on above 20-25k, only the really raspy exhaust stuff.
I hired out some low sensitivity DPAs and ran them into a fostex FR2LE at almost 0dB gain, coming up to -10dBFS.
The recordings do sound small and tinny. I remembered distinctly they had weight and size to them, although if you played them back at normal levels, you’d probably get near to the feeling – it’s the extreme volume.
The Lotus F1 engines had a new front firing exhaust and this made some entirely wierd noises, great for SFX.
(click for audio)
F1 Silverstone 2011 © Lostrack
Sounds from a Contact Mic Frozen in Water Ice
I just got a note from Dan Pugsley of Radium Audio. regarding their new resource Radium Audio Labs. The site will feature a broad variety of sound experiments and explorations. Dan writes,
“Radium Audio has recently started a blog demonstrating some of our explorative processes, and though it’s very much in the early stages of development we have some pretty interesting pieces uploaded already and I was wondering if any of it might be suitable for Audio Cookbook? We have two new explorative projects in the works at the moment, one of which is based on binaural recordings and the other will be revolving around the use of dry ice to create a variety of sounds.”
The projects posted so far include using a coil mic to record the electromagnetic fields from various electronic devices, like an iPhone and a printer/scanner, and my favorite at the moment, sounds captured from a contact microphone frozen in water ice as it melts.
Frozen Contact Mic in Ice by Radium-Audio
An Exclusive Holiday Gift from Ostraka
Here’s a set I recorded live to Ableton during a performance at Nick and Eddie Thursday Funhouse hosted by Jon Davis, December 16, 2010. This is all new material that I’ve been working on, except for the last track, which is a remix of Illuminator Console from Precambrian Resonance (Unearthed Music 2009). Here’s the download link for the 37:28 minute set hosted on Unearthed Music. Expect to hear lots of Grain Machine, as well as synth sounds from the Casio CZ-1000, the Korg MS2000, the Roland D-50, my Sequential Circuits Pro-One, some old Hammond rhythm programs, and even a little bit of Rhodes electric piano.
Download Live Ostraka Set at Nick and Eddie Thursday Funhouse (89.9 MB)
Book Ideas for a Sound Design Class?
I am excited to have the opportunity to teach an upper level sound design class to digital film students this Fall. I have several books in my collection that relate to sound design that cover very specific topics, but what I’ll need for the class is a book that covers a broad spectrum of concepts within the field. The course competencies include multi-tracking, mixing, sampling techniques, signal processing, equalization, editing, synchronization of audio and video, Foley, and ADR. Does anyone have any suggestions for a book focused on sound design, but general enough to cover all of these topics?
To give you an idea of what I’m looking for, I currently use Real World Digital Audio by Peter Kirn for an entry level audio production class that is a prerequisite for the sound design class. Peter’s book works really well because it’s current and covers exactly what I wanted for the audio production class in an illustrated, thorough, yet clear and concise way.
Diego Stocco on Sound Builders
Motherboard.tv has just released the second episode of their Sound Builders series featuring sound designer and composer, Diego Stocco. This is a really nice glimpse into Diego’s fascinating working method. If you’re unfamiliar with Diego’s work, make sure you visit his site and check out the videos of his recent creations, and sometimes destruction.
Exploring The Sounds of Ice
This is one of the coolest (no pun intended) sound design projects ever. Marlin Ledin rode his bike and camped around the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior covering about 150 miles on the ice recording the creaks and groans of the shifting ice plates. Listen to his recordings and checkout photos and videos of his expedition at www.bikingtheapostles.com. Marlin describes the ice sounds:
The Lake Drums, as some people call them, are an amazing phenomenon that rank right up there with Aurora Borealis. Lake drums, or drumming perhaps, occurs when a shift in the ice creates friction between sheets of ice, like tectonic plates of the earths crust. The unique sounds created come after these shifts in the ice. I ventured out and captured some of these sounds with modern recording techniques.
Off to CNMAT
In a few hours I’m headed to California for a night class on MaxMSP at CNMAT, the Center for New Music and Audio Technology, UC Berkeley. I am very excited to be visiting this historic college on their twentieth anniversary. In preparation for my trip I put my favorite pair of my trainers in the dryer after a wet ride in the rain. Naturally I recorded the stumbling rhythm they produced while tumbling in the heated bin.
Throwing Cement Chunks into an Empty Dumpster
Please enjoy the sound of thrown cement chunks landing with a loud clang in an empty dumpster.