Galata Bridge and market tunnel

Spice Bazaar

Santral Istanbul, former power station ambience

Sounds of the Istanbul Biennial

 

Some recordings in the space:

Riga power station binaural sound walk mp3 file

Riga power station internal water tank drones mp3 file

When dealing with recorded sound, technology plays an essential role in nearly every step of the process. While I focus a great deal of attention on acoustic sound, the capturing, editing, processing, compressing and sharing of those sounds, all relies on and is affected by, technology. This is a very general intro and overview to some basic recording technology that I use. The methods used here are definitely not scientific by any means. With a bit of searching you can find more in depth reviews as well as well researched technical analysis of these devices. What’s shown here is just to give an impression. All this equipment is reasonably affordable and can help beginners get a start on working with sound as well as keep artists like myself busy. The main point I feel is accessibility and ease of use.

The two digital recording devices used are an Edirol R-09 and a Sony PCM-D50. The Edirol unit I’ve had for almost 2 years and I can say its a handy little unit that works well for most occasions. One of the main reasons I bought it was to be able to use rechargeable AA batteries so I wouldn’t have to worry about running low on power if I kept extra batteries handy. Its well worth it for the quality and flexibility it offers. The main drawbacks are durability and a weak preamp for mics. The device is pretty much made of plastic. While nothing has broken so far, I’m constantly concerned about how long it will last. As for the preamp it just doesn’t ever seem to have enough power and is a bit too noisy. For this reason I bought a FEL Battery Preamp, a great device for boosting any any signal to line level, including contact mics (to bypass the mic input). I think the revised R-09HR model made by Edirol has improved some of these issues.

The Sony PCM-D50 is still new for me, but immediately I can say it feels much more sturdy than the Edirol and has better quality built-in microphones. This of course makes it slightly larger and more heavy if you’re concerned about portability. For external microphones I’ve used a selection of cheap to mid-level to compare (and also because it’s what I have around). I started with the mics built into the recording units themselves. These are good for general use but you will definitely need to have a few different kinds of mics around for recording specific types of sounds or sound environments. Here’s the breakdown:

• Audio-Technica AT822 – well made single point X/Y stereo mic, good for general use and capturing close sound sources.

• Sound Professionals SP-BMC-12 mini-binaural mics with Audio-Technica capsules (discontinued?). I’ve had these mics for over a year and have enjoyed using them. The problem you will notice is that they are not very well matched. The left mic is louder than the right one.

• Homemade binaural microphones with Panasonic WM-61A capsules. There is a lot of info on the internet regarding these capsules. In short, they are one of the best deals in audio recording, with their open sound and flat response. These binaurals cost me about 7 euros in arts and sound as good as anything you can find up to 150 euros.

The sound clips below are divided into 15 second segments and are repeated twice, once to compare recorders and once to compare microphones. Again this is not done in any scientific manner. I just placed the mics about 1 meter away from the sound source. In this case it was a fire for the oven that heats our house. The high pitched noise is a refrigerator on the other side of the room.

Recorder | mics:

Sony PCM-D50 | built-in mics, Panasonic binaurals, Sound Professionals, Audio Technica AT822 (15 seconds each): Sony PCM-D50

Edirol R-09 | built-in mics, Panasonic binaurals, Sound Professionals, Audio Technica AT822 (15 seconds each): Edirol R-09

Edirol R-09 with FEL preamp | built-in mics, Panasonic binaurals, Sound Professionals, Audio Technica AT822 (15 seconds each). note: I think the battery in the preamp was low giving weaker levels than normal: Edirol R-09 with FEL preamp

Mics | recorder:

Built-in microphones | Sony PCM-D50, Edirol R-09 (15 seconds each): Built-in microphones

Panasonic binaurals | Sony PCM-D50, Edirol R-09, Edirol R-09 with FEL Preamp (15 seconds each): Panasonic binaurals

Sound Professionals SP-BMC-12 | Sony PCM-D50, Edirol R-09, Edirol R-09 with FEL Preamp (15 seconds each): Sound Professionals SP-BMC-12

Audio-Technica AT822 | Sony PCM-D50, Edirol R-09, Edirol R-09 with FEL Preamp (15 seconds each): Audio-Technica AT822

notes: Plug-in power was used on the Sony and Edirol recorder sn all cases. It is possible to change the direction of the built-in mics on the Sony from a 90 degree X/Y pattern to a wide 120 degree L/R pattern. For this test I kept the mics in the X/Y position. All MP3 files are compressed at 160kbps. In the second part I will use recordings of more ambient/environmental sounds.

Perruel forest session 1 : with Thomas Tilly, Patrick McGinley, Maksims Shentelevs, Paulo Raposo, Johanna Lonka and myself (5:38): Perruel forest session 1

Perruel forest session 2 : with Eric Cordier, Patrick McGinley, Maksims Shentelevs, Johanna Lonka and myself (4:32): Perruel forest session 2

An urban research group in Tartu was looking at the phenomenon of urban exploration. I suggested to make a small trip somewhere in the city. Out of a few interesting possibilities we decided on the former meat factory, a site full of urban legends, as it is fairly central and easily accessible. This meat factory stopped production some time in the early 1990s but the evidence of their production is still visible everywhere. On the third floor there are literally rooms filled with piles of bones from what appeared to be sheep. The rest of the building is mostly trashed. It seems to be a popular to practice graffiti and make fires. The highlight was the view from the roof and being able to make a few sound recordings with the group.

One important idea for me is to not only explore these types of hidden or abandoned spaces, but to instigate some creative activity while visiting. While abandoned spaces may not be valuable for the society, they offer creative potential for the individual, who often forgets how much the everyday social codes, laws and regulations of the urban environment confines their mode of living. Once these boundaries or removed, even the very experience of navigating and sensing the urban space must be reconsidered, opening potentials for more creative exploration (however short or ephemeral). These two recordings give some idea on how working with sound can allow one to interact with the material objects and forms of the space. The first case was more of a simple walking action on the broken glass while the second was more of an improvisation with all the available materials throughout the space.

former meat factory – walking action (3:20) Tartu, Estonia: urban expoliration01

former meat factory – sound action (7:28) Tartu, Estonia: urban exploration02

Special thanks to Sven and the others from Linnaseminar for this trip. Also, Tanel Saimre from Tartu has a nice page of binaural recordings made around Tartu. He has a recording of the same sound action but from another angle (his head!). Tanel Siamre recording

UPDATE: Nov. 5th 2008 – the former meat factory has been demolished. Someone said they wanted to convert it into apartments or something, but I think it needs to be torn down before anything new is built there.