Recording only the mechanical noise of analog instruments

Toki987

Toki987

Rock Steady
It would be intersting to hear a recording of the mechanical sounds of analog instruments without the tone they produce, such as guitar squeaks, sqeaking bass drum pedal, scratching high hat stand, just the uneven harmonics of a cracked cymbal, the wood of piano keys, the grating of the damper pedal, the drum throne squalling, the ambient background hum of guitar amp tubes with the bias improperly set, the rattle of bass strings against the fretboard, all in one recording, I bet it would have an interesting and discernable rythmn.
 
Well, I don't know about that,... but my question is "why"?

Anyway, not to get off the point too much, but I've always used the 'ambient' mechanical sound of my instruments to augment the notoriously 'dead' sounding line-in sound.

I'll mix the 'dead' line-in sound with the 'ambient' mic'd sound, and record it down to one track. That's almost a must-do method in the studio, for me. I find it gives the track a nice, live sound, which is how I prefer it.
 
authentic room ambience is the "breath of life" to a mix that sounds like a group of musical mannequins.
 
Some folks spend ages trying to get rid of guitar string squeaks and other stuff like that - but I'm with the "keep it in, keep it real" brigade. Plus, that way you don't waste any time that would be better spent writing your next masterpiece. :)

Oh, yes, I tried adding the acoustic string slap from a fretless bass guitar to its DI'ed sound - only mediocre success though. The best acoustic bass sound I had was when the battery in my active preamp was just on the point of dying. Go figure...
 
I think the bass I play the most has a battery in it. They said it did when I got it about 8 yrs ago. I wonder if its dead yet?
 
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