A multi-disciplinary journey in music, sound, and field recording.

Sliding Door Stutter in Maine

Posted: January 30th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: field recording, found sound objects

My father was recently in the hospital, so I visited him in Maine. While in Brunswick, my mother and I stopped at Barnes and Noble to pick him up a crossword puzzle book to occupy his mind until he was released. The sliding doors of the store opened with a strange stuttering, sputtering, and nearly-pneumatic flanging, and I stopped in my tracks. “Whoa, did you hear that?” My mother looked at me quizzically. “That door, wow…that was a great sound!” She picked up her pace to look like I wasn’t shopping with her, surely thinking I was hearing things.

The dynamic range of the H2’s mics isn’t as good as my other recorders, but to paraphrase Saint Chase, the best audio recorder is the one you have with you. Better to have this odd and very distinctive mechanical sound than miss that chance…only to, I’m sure, return someday and hear that B&N fixed the doors.

SlidingDoorStutter by noisejockey
[Zoom H2 recorder]

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6 Comments on “Sliding Door Stutter in Maine”

  1. 1 Miguel said at 4:09 pm on January 30th, 2010:

    Funny story, Nathan. People often look at you weird when you get excited with a sound somewhere.

    By the way, what a great sound. What would we do without a h2 in our pocket? :-)

    Cheers.

  2. 2 Nathan said at 4:16 pm on January 30th, 2010:

    @Miguel: “What would we do without a h2 in our pocket?” We’d man up and buy a much better pocket recorder, that’s what! :-) I do have plans for an H4n or a PCMD-50. It’s tough to fit that SD 702 in a pocket!

  3. 3 Rob said at 7:59 am on January 31st, 2010:

    AWESOME sound. Great job isolating it too.. I don’t hear any crowd or street noise.. This is fabulous. I love my H4n. :)

  4. 4 Michael Maroussas said at 7:30 am on February 1st, 2010:

    hello nathan, funny post – good to know i’m not the only one who records sounds at inappropriate moments! hope your dad’s on the mend now.

  5. 5 Nathan said at 7:39 am on February 1st, 2010:

    Just spoke with the old man yesterday and he’s deemed 100% recovered. Thanks for the comment and the warm wishes, Michael!

  6. 6 Miguel said at 9:09 am on February 1st, 2010:

    @Nathan: I have an H2 with me all the time and saved my life many times :) I’m still using it a lot, even if I’m recording with better equipment.


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