Audio Cookbook

52 Minutes of Music for the Brave at Heart

On Monday, July 19, 2010, my latest trio featuring Jon Davis on bass guitar and bass clarinet, Tim Glenn on drums, and me on Rhodes and Sequential Circuits Pro-One, played at the Kitty Cat Klub for the Experimental Music Mondays series.

I recorded the set on my Sony PCM-D50 and applied some subtle mastering with Ableton Live. I’m pretty fond of how the music and the recording turned out other than the fact that the bass clarinet is too low in the mix.

Here are the three tracks of improvised music from the evening adding up to around fifty two minutes. If you like experimental improvised music be prepared to have a long and challenging listen.
 

Davis-Glenn-Keston Track 1
Davis-Glenn-Keston Track 2
Davis-Glenn-Keston Track 3

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.

Trainers in The Dryer

Classic Circular Saw

In this recording I captured my neighbor sawing through some wood for his new fence.

Circular Saw

Nils and Graham Goof Off at Rehearsal

During a recent rehearsal I managed to catch a few seconds of a really nice improvised jam between Nils Westdal on Bass and Graham O’Brien on drums just before we captured a run through of a new piece we were working on. The kick has a nice thump considering that I was only using the mics built into the PCM-D50. I like the way the kick and rim shot pattern counter the bass harmonics. Undoubtedly there’s a loop in there worth experimenting with.

Nils and Graham Goof Off

Rhythmic Rolling Carts

Here’s another example of the sound made as we rolled our carts along cement paths to the Artists on the Verge opening reception show at the Weisman Museum. At a consistent pace each section of pavement made the cart rattle rhythmically.

More Rolling Carts

Empty Dumpster Sounds

I recorded some sounds from this giant dumpster in the alley behind my house. It’s there so my neighbor and I can dispose of some construction waste that will not be taken away by the city, including wood posts stuck in cement that I dug up while replacing old decaying fencing.

At the time the dumpster was almost completely empty allowing it to resonate for an extended period of time. If I get a chance I will make some more recordings of this metal behemoth.

Dumpster

Practice Recording

This recording was made on my PCM-D50 as Keston and Westdal rehearsed with Graham O’Brien on drums for a recording session this week at McNally Smith.

Practice Recording

Rain on the Tent

Here’s a recording I made last weekend on our second night of camping during the MS150 fundraiser cycling event. The weather for the ride was actually fairly dry, but in the early evening we experienced a brief downpour after the first stage of the ride in Hinckley, Minnesota. As I waited out the rain in my tent each drop of water that landed made a nice popping sound. The recording sounded much different than I expected, almost like static with a surprisingly wide stereo spectrum.

Rain Recorded Inside the Tent

Post Heliotrope Bells

After checking out a few bands during the Heliotrope festival at the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis, I starting riding home as a light rain began to fall. It was about 1:07am. Halfway home I heard church bells. Loud, cacophonous, church bells. Not what you’d expect to hear at that time. I dug my recorder out of my bag and started cycling quickly toward the sound. There are churches (plural) on almost every block in my neighborhood, but it didn’t take long to find the one making all the racket. I stopped in the middle of the street and recorded the ringing for more than six minutes. There’s a lot more to this story, but for now, here’s one minute and sixteen seconds of what I captured.

Post Heliotrope Bells

Newspaper Printing Facility Ambiance

Recently I escorted a group of students on a tour of the Star Tribune’s printing facilities. I couldn’t stay for the whole tour, but managed to record a little bit of sound while I was there.

There were lots of chatty students and a wordy tour guide, but I managed to sneak away and record a few examples of conveyor belts, fork lifts, robotic paper transporters, and general machine noise.

Here’s an except of some ambiance I captured in the paper warehouse area where these giant reams of news print were brought in by railway cars.

Warehouse Ambiance