Hebdomadal sound project: August 2013
Week 34
Jacob’s Ladder, Edinburgh
August 26th
Taken from close to the bottom of Jacob’s Ladder, a steep pathway that runs between Regent Road and Calton Road, at the point where trains arriving to and departing from Waverley Station thunder above you:
(06.30pm (8:20))
Setup: 2 DPA 4060 lavalier mics in stereo position to Tascam DR-680
Week 33
Lochwinnoch nature reserve, Renfrewshire
August 18th
Castle Semple Loch
When I visited the RSPB’s nature reserve on the outskirts of the village of Lochwinnoch, there was little in the way of bird song or calls, so the first thing I did was put a hydrophone into a small dipping pond and got the following mix of insects, air bubbles, and road traffic from the nearby A road:
(12.30pm (05:00))
The second recording is from within a small patch of woodland that runs parallel to Aird Meadow Loch on one side, and a railway line on the other. Trees bend in the wind, and a train goes by.
(02.15pm (04:15))
Setup: Pond recording: 1 mono hydrophone to Zoom H4; woodland recording: 2 DPA 4060 lavalier mics in stereo position to Tascam DR-680
Week 32
Neighbour’s cat
August 8th
This week’s recording is of a sound that is in my life quite a lot, but that I have not tried to properly record: one of my neighbour’s cats. In fact, this recording was inadvertent; I had just received a pair of DPA 4060 microphones that I had bought with some prize money I had won for my PhD thesis, when my neighbour’s cat strolled into my flat and sat on one of the mics on my bed. I recorded the cat purring, and at times you can hear her belly gurgling via the mic she is laying on, as well as me giving her appreciative rubs on her head. My front door is open, so you can also hear a few sparrows in the garden.
(10.30 am (05:00))
Setup: 1 DPA 4060 lavalier mic in mono position to Tascam DR-680