Odd recording techniques anyone???

[stepXinXtheXmix]

One of my favorite bands Thrice, have been known to do some odd things with mics.

For instance...

Once they took a water cooler jug, cut it in half and put their kick mic in there, taped it back up and stuck the whole thing inside the kick and the end result was used for a kick and snare pattern on Red Sky - Vheissu

On their latest venture they took a mic and put it in a wooden box, dug a hole, put the box with the mic in it in ground and recorded the sound of it being buried to simulate the sound from a dead persons perspective of being buried.

Anyone ever done weird things like that to get a sound that you could reproduce using virtual instruments or plug ins?

 

[mattr]

Done many things. Not that odd, just the everyday stuff...

Once used a long corridor inside a studio/theatre complex as a reverb chamber: guitar amp or speaker at one end, mics a various places along.

I haven't done it myself, but I've sat in on a session where they had several kick drums placed together AND a large pespex tunnel! That was fun to watch!

Again, haven't done it myself, but seen drums being recorded using two perspex sheets in a V shape facing the drums with a boundary mic taped to each one.

Nowadays people often use guitar amp modelers to do distortion or lo-fi effects on vocals and stuff as they're quick and easy to experiment with. I do this as well if I'm not quite sure what I want, but if I'm aiming for a particular sound I won't hesitate to experiment with megaphones, radios, little loudspeakers, etc.



Now, onto the really weird stuff! Note, I have never done any of this...

A friend told me once about some sound designers he encountered who mic'd up a dog with several contact mics, then fed the dog food and recorded the sound of the food travelling to the stomach. Strange stuff

There's that video on the Rode website of that sound designer guy (can't remember his name) who does stuff like record burning pianos. Hmmm...

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Anyone ever done weird things like that to get a sound that you could reproduce using virtual instruments or plug ins?

You had me until that last sentence. Why would one go to those physical extremes if those sounds could easily be artificially reproduced? Maybe I don't understand the question.

Probably my favorite "weird" thing I used to do (it's been a loong time since I've messed with this kind of goofiness) was to hook up a stereo EQ in an in-line daisy chain with a 3-head cassette or reel deck. It would have to be an EQ with a tape monitor send/return option and an EQ tape/mon selector. I'd patch the gear so that the signal looped through the tape deck set to record with the tape signal EQ'd uin such a way whereas a feedback loop could be triggered by boosting any one of the EQ sliders, with each slider (or combination of them) causing it's own bizarre delay/feedback effects. You could effectively "play" the EQ like an instrument, pulling up the feedback effects you wished as you wanted by "playing" the band sliders. It most likely won't work with plugs; you need that analog circuit overload for it to happen.

But I think my favorite I've seen, but not tried myself for obvious reasons, was what Blue Man Group did in their live concert with the Who's "Baba O'Reily". During the synth sequence intro (where BMG obviously used PVC instead of a Moog ), when it came time for that famous three-chord piano triad (buuum....BUM.buuum) they used a piano alright, except it was a grand piano laying on it's side with the top off, and the one BMG guy playing it by whacking the piano's harp with all his might with a gigantic mallet. Not just a great visual, but it sounded really cool.

G.

 

[dodgeaspen]

Not really on topic, but when the genius Brian Wilson was making Pet Sounds he wanted to do something that sounded different so he took paperclips and put some of them on the strings of the piano to get overtone vibrations from the strings. It's sad that people are no longer interested in trying things like that. Instead all they want to do is have some digital machine reproduce the sound. BTW the song I am thinking of is You still believe in me. It's also cool with a bicycle horn in the song as well.

 

[gecko zzed]

I once used a cat purring and an inkjet printer as a percussion track.

 

[mattr]

I once used a cat purring and an inkjet printer as a percussion track.

Any tips on mic'ing up a cat?

 

[gecko zzed]

Any tips on mic'ing up a cat?

depends on whether they're a tom!

wait till they're asleep, and point an SDC at them

 

[RAMI]

Anyone ever done weird things like that to get a sound that you could NOT reproduce using virtual instruments or plug ins?

You had me until that last sentence. Why would one go to those physical extremes if those sounds could easily be artificially reproduced? Maybe I don't understand the question.

I might be wrong, but I think he meant to say "NOT", like in the quote I edited.

 

[d.bop]

I once wrote a song using a set of keys rubbing against a desk, a "clickable" ball point pen, my fingers tapping on a desk and a big glass with water in it.

Loaded it all into a sampler and adjusted the pitch of the water glass to create a melody. The pen and keys and taps were percussion. (Then I cheated and added a bass synth and a pad) Pretty neato


Found it!

Geez...2006.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I might be wrong, but I think he meant to say "NOT", like in the quote I edited.

Yeah, that's what I ran with, hoping I would be at least close to his target .

I've been thinking about that old EQ trick I described, and realized it's dates back to the days when I first started with this stuff, and haven't messed with it in probably 25-30 years. That was back in the days of the old Arp 2600 when playing with obscure sounds was still fun. I think I ought to try and re-visit some of those days and try the old EQ feedback trick again, just to re-ground myself. Though the smallest graphic EQ I have these days is an AudioSource 10-band (the dbx is 15-band), I'm not sure how going that narrow will work (I used to do it with old 5- and 7-band EQs). It might be fun to try though.

G.

 

[stepXinXtheXmix]

You had me until that last sentence. Why would one go to those physical extremes if those sounds could easily be artificially reproduced? Maybe I don't understand the question.

Probably my favorite "weird" thing I used to do (it's been a loong time since I've messed with this kind of goofiness) was to hook up a stereo EQ in an in-line daisy chain with a 3-head cassette or reel deck. It would have to be an EQ with a tape monitor send/return option and an EQ tape/mon selector. I'd patch the gear so that the signal looped through the tape deck set to record with the tape signal EQ'd uin such a way whereas a feedback loop could be triggered by boosting any one of the EQ sliders, with each slider (or combination of them) causing it's own bizarre delay/feedback effects. You could effectively "play" the EQ like an instrument, pulling up the feedback effects you wished as you wanted by "playing" the band sliders. It most likely won't work with plugs; you need that analog circuit overload for it to happen.

But I think my favorite I've seen, but not tried myself for obvious reasons, was what Blue Man Group did in their live concert with the Who's "Baba O'Reily". During the synth sequence intro (where BMG obviously used PVC instead of a Moog ), when it came time for that famous three-chord piano triad (buuum....BUM.buuum) they used a piano alright, except it was a grand piano laying on it's side with the top off, and the one BMG guy playing it by whacking the piano's harp with all his might with a gigantic mallet. Not just a great visual, but it sounded really cool.

G.

sorry about the confusion that should have been "couldn't reproduce...."

 

[stepXinXtheXmix]

I once used a cat purring and an inkjet printer as a percussion track.

Another favorite band of mine....Tool recorded a cat meowing and slowed it down. The song is called Mantra I believe....

Yeah I think it cool when artists do stuff like that, it may be something people would never pick up on. But when you spend all day in the studio doing the same thing all the time, that kind of gets old.

 

[noisewreck]

Yeah, that's what I ran with, hoping I would be at least close to his target .

I've been thinking about that old EQ trick I described, and realized it's dates back to the days when I first started with this stuff, and haven't messed with it in probably 25-30 years. That was back in the days of the old Arp 2600 when playing with obscure sounds was still fun. I think I ought to try and re-visit some of those days and try the old EQ feedback trick again, just to re-ground myself. Though the smallest graphic EQ I have these days is an AudioSource 10-band (the dbx is 15-band), I'm not sure how going that narrow will work (I used to do it with old 5- and 7-band EQs). It might be fun to try though.

G.

I've built something along these lines in Native Instruments Reaktor called "Twisted Delay", although I am sure it doesn't sound anything like what you'd have with a feedback loop with tape, however, from "playability" point of view my contraption is incredibly flexible. The only thing is, it's done in Reaktor version 4. I'll probably update it to use Reaktor 5's Core capability sometime in the not-so-distant future... although not before I finish the quirky monster I'm working on right now.

For those that have Reaktor, you can download it from:
http://co.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=userlibrary&type=0&ulbr=1&plview=detail&patchid=2987

You can learn more about the workings of it fron the description in that link.

If you're into the weird, read up on some of the stuff that Matmos has done. They've used anything from stethoscope to swallowing a contact mic (!!!) to get some true weirdness.

 

[noisewreck]

That was back in the days of the old Arp 2600 when playing with obscure sounds was still fun.
G.

I assure you, playing with obscure sounds is still fun. The only thing is, it has moved from rock to electronica. Why do you think systems such as Reaktor, Kyma and Max/MSP have such popularity?

 

[legionserial]

An effect I used to like playing with years ago was repeatedly pausing and unpausing the tape really fast while recording something. It worked best with voices...talking or siniging or whatever. The result is probably self explanitory.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I assure you, playing with obscure sounds is still fun.

I meant that more as a self-commentary, that that was a phase I went through that I should revisit to keep in touch with such things and to keep things fresh.

Actually, I was just thinking of you this weekend, George, when I found a new way cool TV show - or at least an episode of it - that you would have loved, and now that I think of it, is probably appopro here, even though it's not directly about recording.

Check out the show's website at www.makezine.tv and check out episode 6 for a guy that uses just about anything to make music. There's also some stuff about using PCs to make music in episode 9, but I have not yet seen that myself. Elsewhere in there, there's the people who built their own hand-held versions of Theremins that somehow look like over-sized bobbleheads and play them as a mini-orchestra, the guy who makes musical instruments out of vegetables, the guy who controls his musical instruments by using his hands to bounce laser beams around, etc. etc. etc.

Also some cool stuff there that is quite OT to this thread, but might be of interest to readers here. Check out the "Steampunk" piece for a guy that makes modern technology look like it was built in the steam age, some way cool stuff there including one of the neatest-looking custom made Strat pick guards I've seen (acid-etched brass.) And then there's the guy that took a gorgeous old 1940s radio console, discretely built a turntable, a Sansui receiver a Mac computer and an iPod port into it, and turned it in to an automatic iPod ripper and player that you control from the original 1940's radio buttons and dials.

G.

 

[legionserial]

Check out the show's website at www.makezine.tv and check out episode 6 for a guy that uses just about anything to make music. There's also some stuff about using PCs to make music in episode 9, but I have not yet seen that myself. Elsewhere in there, there's the people who built their own hand-held versions of Theremins that somehow look like over-sized bobbleheads and play them as a mini-orchestra, the guy who makes musical instruments out of vegetables, the guy who controls his musical instruments by using his hands to bounce laser beams around, etc. etc. etc.

Interesting you should mention that. I have a friend who's been working on an experiment wiring plants up to computers and using some kind of spectral bioenergy (or something) to make music. He ended up being asked to go to universities and give talks on the whole thing. I don't think he could be bothered.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Interesting you should mention that. I have a friend who's been working on an experiment wiring plants up to computers and using some kind of spectral bioenergy (or something) to make music. He ended up being asked to go to universities and give talks on the whole thing. I don't think he could be bothered.

That sounds pretty cool! I seem to remember seeing something somewhere in the dim, distant past about someone who clipped up a galvanometer or some other kind of device to house plants to measure their electrical conductance or something like that, and the output was hooked up to a speaker so that you could easily hear the results as a series of squeals and other noises. I think this maybe was during the "talk to your houseplants" fad several years ago, and this was some kind of way to try and measure the plant's reaction to talking to them, but I'm not sure, the memory is very fuzzy.

It seems to me that if that theory were true, that plants did react "negatively or positively" to certain sounds, that such a device could have a biofeedback mechanism; i.e. the plant would hear it's own sounds and wind up actually changing its composure to generate what it "considers" a pleasing or helpful sound.

I can see it now, you could plant your own garden, hook all the plants up to a different track, and mix them together. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Rhododendron Orchestra, with special guests, Chrys Anthemum and the Azaleas!"

The hard part would be getting cue mix headphones on the plants without crushing them.



G.

 

[Sir_Matthew]

I once used a cat purring and an inkjet printer as a percussion track.

Ditto the inkjet printer. Used a phone ring along with that myself.

I keep having people ask me about the rhythm track on Office Suite, Part I from my first record. It's just me drumming with my hands on a wooden table, with my wedding ring on one hand acting as a snare drum of sorts. I ran that through a megaphone filter on my Roland VS880, and it came out rather cool.

I don't think there's an either/or rule on manually generated oddball effects vs. electronically created ones. When in doubt, use both.

 

[Monkey Allen]

I think all of my recording techniques would be described as odd...I mean if anyone who knew what they were doing, saw what I was doing, they'd probably say 'geez, why's he doing that?'