Segment of Recording from Nublu

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.

After Three AM

Light Traffic in Battery Park City

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.

Battery Park

Musical Snowman Lighter with Pub Ambiance

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

 

Squeaky Toy

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.

Squeaky Toy

 

 

Central Avenue Bridge Recording

I made this recording half way across the Central Avenue bridge from Northeast Minneapolis, to the downtown area. This bridge crosses the Mississippi, which was virtually frozen over except for water flowing rapidly over stages of a lock and dam system.

Huge formations of ice were hanging over the falls collecting on logs caught in the flow. The stereo image of the recording consists of the raging river below on the left hand side and sparse traffic on the right. I used the built in mics on the PCM-D50 covered up with a nice fuzzy wind screen like a winter hat.

Central Avenue Bridge Recording