Listening on monitors or good quality phones will allow you to hear the deep tone created when I smacked my palm against the side of the rigid front fork from my Surly 1×1 single speed mountain bike. I captured this sound with my PCM-D50 using the built in mics. This was a quiet sound so I needed to record in a quiet space.
This time I used my bedroom. The first step was to turn down the heat and wait for the fan to stop on the forced air heating system. Secondly I put the recorder on a stable surface (i.e. the bedside table) held the fork with my left hand while smacking it with my right palm.
Surly 1×1 Rigid Front Fork
The tone sounds 26″ but in the picture it looks like it could be a 29″ fork. : ) You know tuned down that might make a cool 808 kind of drum sound.
Nice one, Jeff. It is a 26″ fork. And the pitch created is a G flat. It very well could make a good 808. I may just give that a go.
Thats funny, I’m repainting an old Schwinn right now, and I accidentally wanged the fork and really liked the sound…then I saw this post. I have a bunch of forks, maybe I’ll setup a fork orchestra.
Fork orchestra. That an interesting idea.
You’ve all probably seen this but here’s a guy that has recreated the nutcracker suite on bike parts. Interesting, quirky sound.
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/11/28/nutcracker-suite-played-exclusively-on-bicycle-parts/
He scored a spot for Specialized bikes.