Bowed spring vs Contact mic

skip to 2’00” in if you want to cut to the chase – its music to my ears! I’ve been hunting for a similar size spring ever since & damn they are hard to find!?! But I have been messing with bowed cymbals & also have some large I-beam chunks of metal that I’m going to try – will post some samples…

4 thoughts on “Bowed spring vs Contact mic

  1. mike

    awesome. reminds me of “Schaben” by Einstürzende Neubauten or the Robert Rutman steel cello album

  2. Kevin Seward

    Thanks for the cool video post. Good springs (big, but not too light-weight or heavy) are indeed hard to find.

    On a totally different scale: Have you ever fooled with springs in an old reverb tank? Just plug the tank (some spare cast-off from a busted home organ or guitar amp) via it’s output jack into an amp or DI and play the springs lightly.

    Also, you’ve prob. seen this ten times already, but the documentary Touch The Sound about percussionist Evelyn Glennie not only features her playing but that of Fred Frith violin bowing sundry objects in an old abandoned factory.

  3. tim

    Yes! love that Fred Frith bit in the film & its just before a beautiful improv between the two of them in that old abandoned factory… i linked to a low rez youtube vid of that bit in a previous post here:
    http://musicofsound.co.nz/blog/?p=49
    Soon after seeing that film i was off to emusic to get as much of his music as they had 🙂 I also bought the films soundtrack when i was in japan, but it didnt have that particular improv on it – doh!

  4. Pingback: the music of sound » More springs & contact mics!

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