Swimmers at Plimmerton beach, Porirua. Evening post (Newspaper. 1865-2002) :Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1957/0027-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22728205

New pedestrian subway under the railway being built at Plimmerton, Porirua. Evening post (Newspaper. 1865-2002) :Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1958/1226-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22595973

Worst time of year to be receiving mail but having seen the tracking stall I was very happy to see two boxes appear at my front door!

Managed to find these in Japan & buy them – shipping was surprisingly not so bad… The two VTE-2000 I got for 36,500yen (US$310) and 35,500yen (US$302) – one has rack ears, both came with power suppleis although one is 110-240v and the other is 110v only…. freight via EMS Japan > NZ cost me 7,423 yen (US$63)

FWIW the new price of the VTE2000 when it was available was ￥59,800
http://www.vocu.jp/products/VTE2000/vte2000.htm4

I got inspired to find one of these weird MC09 after seeing a live set by Kyoka

2015 01 20 Kyoka Live from studio r° on Vimeo.

New Year might get a little loud!

shot with 5D3 and EF100-400L lens

Looking across the beach at Plimmerton to the hills above the bay. Ref: 1/2-046859-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23240062

The store of J W Johnson, grocer and provision dealer, Plimmerton. Daley, J M :Photographs of Paraparaumu and Plimmerton. Ref: 1/2-071014-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22680825

wahoo – Contact Mics arrived just in time for the holidays, thanks Leafcutter John – these are going to be used primarily with 4 x Mutable Instruments Ears Modules… but I will do some side by side recording tests with the Barcus Berry Planar Wave

10,045 Xmas presents have just been delivered, and as there are some fun & quirky sounds in the present I thought I’d post them here too…

CICADA Kamikaze flying wing buzz hits light shade
One evening last summer a rather confused cicada somehow got in my house and was buzzing around the lights in my studio. Occasionally it would hit one of the glass light shades, each of which has a different pitch, so I thought I might as well set up my microphones… I love the thrum of its wings, but the recording slowly turned into a weird random percussion track….

CREAK METAL Fireguard shrill
The house I rented in Charleston earlier this year while recording Cave Ambiences (one of the new libraries coming in 2017) had a fireplace and while it wasn’t actually cold, one night I decided to light the fire for entertainment (its better than most TV!) As soon as I opened the metal fire guard I stopped in my tracks at the horrendous metal shriek it made. So of course the next night I set up my microphone and recorded about an hour of various moves & hits with it….

DEBRIS Impact Cane chair throw
DEBRIS Impact metal drum hits
DEBRIS Impact recycling bottles cans hit rattle
I like the Japanese idea of O-souji, the end of year custom to clean your house so it is ready for the New Year. My house has a covered back porch which over the course of 2016 has slowly filled up with various crud. So before I clean it all up I decided to throw it around & record it!

DRAIN water drips wave booms
My neighbor here in Plimmerton knows about my sonic obsession and one day mentioned this great sound he had heard down in the local park. There is a stream that flows through the park and out to the sea via a large covered drain, maybe 500m from the park to the ocean. We had a very large king tide one day, so at high tide I wandered down to the park with my 722, 8040s and boom and stuck my microphones down between the grating of the drain. The tide was so high the waves were making a great soft BOOM sound every so often…

GONG 1A Soft mallet hard hit
GONG 1B Soft mallet soft hit
GONG 1C Medium mallet medium hit
GONG 1D Hard mallet medium hit
In the photo the gong you are hearing is the largest one, direct in front of the microphones. I rented these gongs from a local percussionist and am going to spend some quiet time over the holidays, exploring & recording them for a new HISSandaROAR library in 2017. So if you have a gong sound you’d like email me! (I also plan to deep sample each gong for velocity layers and round robin, for release on FoundSound.com when it launches in 2017!)

SUCTION CUP Shower matt INT verb
This shower matt was in the same house as fireguard grating, and as the bathroom was one of those tiled wet rooms, it made some great sounds as it released from the floor! I’d like to record more of this, without the bathroom reverb!

WIND Boatyard yacht whistle rattle flap
This was recorded at Plimmerton Boat Club during a Northerly gale, which in NZ sounds ferocious but is actually quite warm (unlike the Southerly direct from the South Pole) – I suspect this recording could be great source material for Doppler-izing!

Thats about it for me for 2016!

 

Have a great holiday & New Year
and if you’re travelling, stay safe!

 

See you in 2017

ps

HISSandaROAR Xmas present is being sent tomorrow morning, exclusively to our mail list.
Sign up if you want it!