Un-orthodox recording

B

Bleach

New member
I was just wondering what's the most
un-conventional way any of you guys or gals
(that would be cool if there were any)
have recorded something to tape? Drums, vox,
gtr...whatever. I will go first to get things started..

The most recent was drums. I made the drummer set up in the parking lot outside the studio.
I ran headphones for him(it was a long run) and I was armed with a portable DAT player and 2 microphones. I walked around him while he played. Depending on where I was I would get the slap back from the building in front of him or from the one at the other end of the lot combined with his direct signal. It was pretty cool! It created this breathing spinning effect with all this wild ambience comming in and out of (for lack of a better word) view. Also,some cars drove by which added that much more crazieness to the whole thing. I woudln't do that every day,but for this track it seemed to work.
So there is one of mine...tag,you're it.

Bleach
 
I'd like to hear that!

The only "interesting" thing I ever did was stick a walmart microphone into a plastic cup and stuck the whole thing behind my guitar amp. Created this "sea shell" whooshy kind of really tin-like guitar tone.

Do you have an MP3 of your recording?

Slackmaster 2000
 
The farthest I've gone astray is recording in a bathroom--There's a reason why people sing in the shower. It took a lot of cords patched together but worked fine. Simon and Garfunkel, to get that huge drum sound (before the days of Lexicons, SPX 90s, etc.) in "The Boxer" placed a bass drum at the bottom of an elevator shaft and mic'd it from way up. You know, "lie la lie, lie la lie lie la lie lie (BOOM), lie la lie...etc."
 
Actually, come to think of it, it's "Lie la lie (BOOM), lie lie lie la lie lie lie, lie la lie (BOOM)" etc. (OK, I'll get a life.)
 
When I took my tour of Sun Studios in Memphis, TN, I saw a guitar there like the one Johnny Cash used in "Ring of Fire" - apparently, to get that percussive "chicka chicka" sound on the song, Johnny weaved a one dollar bill between all the strings on the end of the neck on his guitar - then he just strummed on the strings which gave off that peculiar sound when muted with the dollar bill.
That's got to be one of the coolest things I ever saw, even thought I didn't do it. Remember this was the 1950's -rb

[This message has been edited by ruebarb (edited 04-14-2000).]
 
Hey Slakmaster2k!
How did your gtr thing come out? Did you end up using it? It sounds like it was pretty cool. As for that track, it isn't mixed yet. It's part of an album that is in progress,but as soon as it is done I will let you know where you can hear it if you'd like.

Keep the stories comming,this is very interesting to me. there isn't alot of people I can talk to about this stuff.

Here is another one. Simple but effective.
Pencils and paper clips on piano strings.They vibrate and rattle on the strings when the sustain pedal is held down and make for some interesting harmonics.

Bleach
 
Here's the set up

Wooden kitchen table chair
Thinline tele lying on top of the chair
my watch face sitting on the strings above the neck pickup.

I recorded the ticking at four different speeds which mix together nicely. Also I would bang on the chair which would cause a percussive sound and also would make the watch face rattle on the strings. (bang! ding ding ding ding dinnn thhhh ing)

also I once put my acoustic backwards on the stand and put one mic in the sound hole and one on the back and beat on it with these styrofoam tubes that i med hollow but pushing a hot metal rod through them. I then taped the styrofoam up with masking tape. (still got em) hit the neck on the back a nice short percussive tone, also hitting the string them selves is cool too, and the sides and the back give completly different tones- way cool! Those tubes are the perfect thing to beat on a guitar with- people have heard the recording and ask me- "is that a tabla?"

-jhe
 
That's very cool, Mr Bleach. We did a similar thing at my house recently. I was playing drums, we had one mic right in front of them, and then my friend walked around with another one while I played. We sent both mics to one track and damn if we didn't get the coolest phasing I've ever heard. I like your trick better though.
 
I've not done much experimenting, but a few weeks ago I taped a wrapping paper tube to my microphone(SM-57), to give the mic this 3 foot barrel. It gave it a really mid-rangey, boomy, whooshy sound. I haven't used it in a mix yet, but it could produce some interesting result. Also, I was talking to my design professor(I'm an Architecture Major), and he does alot of sound recording. One thing he did was get a GIANT cardboard cylinder, like, 6 feet in diameter and 6 or 7 feet tall. I've got no idea where he got it, but he'd take a mic, put it down inside of it, then hit the side of the tube with something. It gave these explosion like sounds that reeked of bass...kinda cool...good thread, really interesting, catch ya'll later...
 
I've been wanting a portable DAT or MD recorder for some time now. When I get one, I want to do the typical nature sound sampling, but I was thinking of some cool percussion sounds as well... first thing that came to mind was heading down to the batting cages and micing the backstop in the 90 mph cage.
 
I have been known to mic things using some walkie-talkies from Toys-r-Us.
Put one in a chair with a mic on it and use the other one to send or create whatever noise your little heart desires.
Bleach
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top