I like this section, from a seven minute recording in a relatively quiet New York Subway station, because of the quality that the voices and environmental sounds take on in the very reflective surroundings. Tile, cement, glass, and metal surfaces cause the sound waves to reverberate back and forth in a confined yet expansive maze.
I captured the sound a very old looking group of subway cars going by at the Battery Park City, Chambers Street station. They had an aging deep red paint job and looked as though they were full of some sort of cargo as they flew past.
I came across this busker in a Times Square subway station surrounded by several battery powered dolls gyrating to his music. Fortunately I had my Sony PCM-D50 along to capture a few minutes of his performance, and a few dollars for his tip bucket. The scene was surreal and difficult to describe, but enchanting never-the-less.
He was an older gentleman wearing an over sized beige trench coat hunched over a Yamaha electric organ playing an uptempo rendition of La Vie En Rose. The dolls were similar to those annoying dancing Santas, but among them there was a gyrating saxophone player and a creepy, blond, female, dancing doll with “sound, moving head, hands and buttocks”, as described on the web and shown here.
This recording from the New York City subway system includes the classic and familiar chimes to indicate that the sliding doors are about to close. Newer cars have a spoken message, “stand clear of the closing doors please”. The doors open and close at a couple of stops. There’s quite a bit of talking going on in the car along with the track noise, electric motor acceleration, and screeching brakes. If you listen carefully you can hear Ray telling an embarrassing story about how he once fell over onto another passenger as the car took off. Sorry, Ray!
Sunday afternoon on February 8, 2009 it was fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit in Manhattan, so we took a stroll through Soho en route to brunch with our gracious hosts Ray and his lovely wife Nicole. Street vendors were out in full force selling paintings, photographs, rugs, pottery, and all sorts of other sundries. Here’s thirty-four seconds of our walk illustrating a variety of activities going on in the area.
Here’s a nice one minute and twelve seconds long segment with very little talking from an eight minute recording inside a New York City taxi cab. I was in the taxi with my friends Simone Giuliani and Benjamin Montag on the way to Nublu from Simone’s studio where we had been listening to each others music and catching up after not seeing each other for over a year. You can hear rough roads, typical New York cabbie lead footed acceleration, the muffled sound of traffic outside the cab, and my quip at the end in response to Simone saying he was tired as well, “my [lack of] energy is bringing you down”.
I managed to capture most of both of the Keston and Westdal sets at Nublu last Saturday on my Sony PCM-D50. The recording is pretty chatty, but that’s about what you’d expect in a jam packed small venue like Nublu. Although the mix and quality is bad, these kind of recordings are good for gathering ideas. You never know what might come out of a late night, or rather early morning, jam session. This particular jam started sometime during our second set, shortly after three in the morning, with a loop of drums and synth bass Nils put together that Graham O’Brien (drums) and I joined in on.
I made this recording during a five minute walk to one of the several subway stations in the Battery Park City community of lower Manhattan, New York. On this particular Saturday afternoon traffic was light. There was a great deal of construction going on in the area, but most of it was on hold for the weekend. I think it’s a nice example of quiet, weekend afternoon, city ambiance. The recording is quite long, and although I did plan on editing it down to a shorter segment, after listening to it a few times I decided to leave it as it is, including the part in the middle where a car went by blaring early Herbie Hancock.
Now that the holidays are behind us I think it is safe to post the sound of this very odd musical lighter shaped like a snowman. It plays a high frequency medley of Christmas tunes that will drive you and your family and especially animals crazy.
In spite of this, for some reason I had a strange affection toward this bizarre instrument. Perhaps it was the cheap metal construction, or the glistening lead paint. In any case, instead of engaging in the conversation with my companions at the pub, I pulled out my PCM-D50 and proceeded to made a recording of the lighter’s despondent squealing.
Musical Snowman Lighter in the Pub
As I was editing this document two dogs came running into my studio. They were very attracted to the squeaky toy sound for obvious reasons. I only have one dog so it might seem a little strange that two dogs came into my studio.
The answer is that we have a friend staying with us for the month of February who has a charming female boxer named Georgia. Here’s the squeaky toy sound, recorded in stereo on the Sony PCM-D50, and a photo of Georgia in front of the Rhodes suitcase model.