As I have recorded most of the sounds I am using, I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on the sounds I collected for this project, and for any that went wrong, a suggestion as to why that was. I have already gone through a couple of sounds in particular in the posts about problems with the recording process, but I’m also going to talk about some of the better sounds too.
Without a doubt, the easiest microphone to use has been the coil pick up. Not picking up any ‘normal’ outside noise, it can’t pick up any dialogue, people moving around or general background ambience. This means anything can be recorded at any time. This microphone also comes with a suction cup, so it also doesn’t need to be held or stuck in place. Aside from the ease-of-use, it also creates the most interesting sounds. By interesting, I mean intriguing, sounds that you can never hear normally. You can also find these with the other microphones, but not all the time. At the start of this project, when I first heard about coil pick up microphones from Jez Riley French’s website, I knew I was going to enjoy using them, and I was excited to start recording with it, but I didn’t realise how fascinated I would be with every single clip. Even just slightly moving the microphone over my laptop can produce two completely different sounds. Additionally, recording a plug socket for an hour is much more exciting than recording a washing machine for an hour with a contact mic, because the sound varies so much. Static builds up and then falls again, and random bleeps surprise you in the middle of the track. It has been a joy discovering this microphone.
Using a contact microphone on metal objects has been the best material for me during this project. The resonance creates some amazing effects, and I love the way a leaf hitting it further down the line can send an echo all the way along the material, something you wouldn’t hear usually. Household appliances were not as exciting to record, they sound very similar to how you would expect, but higher or lower in pitch. Some of them produced noises or pitches you can’t hear usually, but most of the time is was almost exactly the same. This mic caused the most problems during recorded, both with attaching or holding the mic, and also picking up a lot of background noise due to it’s sensitivity.
Equally, with the hydrophone, the sounds were basically what you would expect most of the time. However, the pond and fish tank did have the occasional quiet ‘click’, which are presumably the creatures in the water interacting with the hydrophone. Another surprise was the bath bomb dissolving in the bath. What started off as a fairly expected sound actually became something quite interesting. The sound began as a bubbling mass, fairly similar to recording a boiling pot. However, as the bath bomb dissolved, the sound started to lose the higher frequencies. The whole process of it dissolving was a gradual frequency change that was very interesting to listen back to. Using the hydrophone wasn’t too difficult, though I did need to time my recordings due to sound’s ability to travel through water very well, and I didn’t need to worry about attaching the mic or holding it, as I could just hand it over the side of the bath/pond/tank/sink etc.