A personal journey through sound.

Drones in Questionable Places

Posted: October 13th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: field recording, sound design

Yes, I recorded audio in a bathroom. Draw what conclusions you like, you twisted little Intarweb Monkeys!

Sometimes, you need to record in embarrassing places to get the good stuff. A recent example for me was in a bathroom of a local supermarket.

Longtime readers and listeners to Noise Jockey know my obsession with cool drones. This one was an ancient, badly-needing-to-be-cleaned ventilation fan. It was really not that large, but it made this intense, deep thrumming sound that just had to be recorded. Luckily, no one came in while my recorder was rolling, presenting at best a challenging set of questions I’d have to answer…

[Note: This will be the last post you’ll see on Noise Jockey using my battered and worn Zoom H2 Handy Recorder. It’s been replaced with the Sony PCM-D50, which you’ll be hearing more of this fall and winter! When the card and battery tray doors break off, and you’ve dented the mic grilles, and you’ve dropped it two dozen times, and its recording settings won’t stick between sessions, it’s time to just let go and upgrade…]

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/5760771″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ee0000″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]
[Zoom H2 field recorder]

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5 Comments on “Drones in Questionable Places”

  1. 1 Ryan said at 10:07 pm on October 13th, 2010:

    Sounds awesome. What’s it sound like pitched down or up?

    I cringe at the thought of that Zoom falling over into the water, though!

  2. 2 Tim Walston said at 1:28 pm on October 14th, 2010:

    You won’t be disappointed. I love my D50, and it’s solid construction means you’ll be able to drop it many times! ;)

  3. 3 Miguel said at 2:44 pm on October 14th, 2010:

    Love it! What a cool recording, dude! Sad to hear about the H2… That SD card tray door is so weak!! Good luck with the D50 anyway..

    That reminds me about a very cool drone I recorded in a bathroom some days ago. I’ll do some search in my library and maybe publish it tomorrow ;-)

    Room tones and “found drones” are so addictive and awesome!

  4. 4 Nathan said at 9:50 pm on October 14th, 2010:

    @Ryan, @Miguel: Meh, the H2 is my stunt recorder. It’s used to sketchy environments. It’s seen a lot of Purell applied to it! (Maybe that’s part of its ills..?) :-)

  5. 5 Cody Nix said at 11:08 am on November 9th, 2010:

    Quite the ominous bathroom. Throw in a flickering light and that would be a pretty scary place.

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