Dulcimer in the Mountains of West Virginia

Last weekend I visited my relatives in who live in the mountains of forest in West Virginia. I decided to go out on a walk and try and record some critters and wilderness considering that is all that can be heard there. While I was walking back from my walk, I could hear in the distance, my Uncle was playing the Dulcimer. I crouched down in the woods and recorded the noise of the forest with my Uncle's instrument in the background. This is my favorite sound during my recordings. Check it our for yourself here.

Power Tools?

After I came back from my Drift walk...I was hearing some sort of power tool noise coming right below my window. I could not see what it was, and I was trying my hardest to make out what it could be. My only guess is there was some sort of maintenance going on where they were fixing something. I decided to record it, and I thought it sounded pretty cool so check it out. Click

PVC Pipe in Traffic

For my third recording, I was walking down a street and saw a big PVC pipe sticking out the back of a trailer truck facing the streets. It almost looked like a it was there for me to place my mic in. So, I placed a mic inside the pipe and held the other one out. When traffic passed I noticed this created a cool left right differential in sound. The left mic would have a low rumble or rattle to it while the right mic would just record the normal sounds of traffic. See the difference for yourself here.

Spooky Police Sirens

For this recording, I was walking down the path by the Milwaukee River when I saw a sewage outlet as shown in the picture. I decided to crawl down there and see if I could pick up any cool sounds while putting my mics in there. I placed one inside and held the other out. While doing this, there were police sirens getting gradually louder. It sounded like they were right down the street at one point. The sounds of crickets and birds chirping can also be heard in the background. With my left mic in the tunnel, it created a sort of spooky wind noise to accompany the sirens. Check it out here

Nature and A Dump Truck

For this first sound recording, I walked down to the Milwaukee River and crouched down by the edge. I held one mic up towards the streets and the other towards the river. I was hearing crickets and other critters, but the wind would sometimes overwhelm these sounds. In the distance there is some sort of banging like a machine going at work. In between two of these bangs is a car horn that seems to follow in unison. Towards the end of the sound I can hear a dump truck dumping glass bottles into the back of the truck. I thought this recording had many different elements to it that made it come together well. Check it out here

Drift 1 Strategy

I did not have a very elaborate drift strategy. Basically, I would spin a pointed stick in the air and wherever it pointed when it landed I would walk. Sometimes this did not work because I couldn't technically walk where it landed. I basically walked the closest path to where the stick landed. I enjoyed this technique, and it helped my walk stay completely random.

Drift 1 Map

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