coffeeflavouredtea

During the Thames Festival a few weeks back, two opera singers set up with a small PA in the brick arch under one of the bridges.

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Fireworks to close the Thames Festival 2009, from the South Bank.

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The Women’s 5K Challenge took place in Hyde Park last weekend. Here’s some atmos, in mono from camera audio.

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Notting Hill Carnival, last weekend. I’d love to know how to convey in a recording the LOUDNESS. It’s as much about that as anything else – I haven’t chopped it for interesting content, it’s linear.

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‘Sup? I did a wee bit of recording at Carnival yesterday, and hope to post some this week. In the meantime, just to let you know I’ve also been making the odd Audioboo – when even getting out the LS-10 is too embarrassingly geeky for me, just take out the iPhone, and record and upload from the same app. Mine be here.

There is a lovely atmospheric sound in my kitchen. It’s hard to trace – it took me nearly a month. I’m not telling what it is though, you can guess…

I’ve done something rare: normalised it. The first part to -3 dB, the second all the way to 0.

MS recording with the Sennies and Fostex.

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Atlantic Road in Brixton, from the High Street to Cold Harbour Lane. I live nearby so hopefully this is the first of many such recordings.

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A simple recording from a sunny summer day. I dropped a stereo pair of lavs down among the rocks at the shorline in Dun Laoghire, Co Dublin. An aircraft from Dublin airport, far across the bay to the north, takes off in the first half.

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I stumbled across a family Gamelan workshop at the Southbank Centre in London yesterday. Here’s a snippit.

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Is a small road, surrounded by dense wet scrub – willow, elder, iris, reeds, rushes, and songbirds. Robins, blackbirds, great tits, chaffinches, bullfinches…

Hidden from view, but not from earshot, is a ring road. Boo.

Further up and off the road is an old graveyard.

All recorded on a Sunday morning, at about 0800.

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A recording from a week ago in a saltwater stream near Wexford. Beyer M 58 in one channel, Dolphin ear pro in the the other, of a Fostex FR-2LE.

Aaaaand the original version of this had the wrong sub-mix attached! I’ve changed it now, but I don’t think people subscribed when the post went up will get it re-sent.D’oh! Ah well. I really really should have auditioned before uploading…!

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Just noticed a rather more established recordist than I trying out the same type of hydrophone as I have. And d’oh! I remembered I had never out up my funkiest hydrophone recording. It’s from a briny polluted stream under a railway bridge in Porirua, New Zealand. I asked the country’s leading frog expert, Dr Phil Bishop, what he thought it might be, and he said this:

Hi Connor Thanks for the email and the mp3. Very strange and yes it does sound a bit like a frog - but it also sounds a bit like some bubbles being forced through a tight opening under water - very interesting. My best guess would be that a frog was being ‘molested’ by something under water and it was producing a release call. But it certainly warrants further investigation. I’d be keen to hear if you find any further information about this mystery.

So there.

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When in London…

Update 11 June 2009: A fab Audioboo from Stephen Fry

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In May 2005 I acted as translator at a wedding in Spain. I say acted because I can’t speak Spanish. Anyway it was lovely. All recorded on a Beyer M 58 going into (I reckon) a Panasonic MiniDisc recorder. In case you’re listening on headphones, there are some loud parts for about a minute, from about 2 minutes in.

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