You did WHAT on a recording??????

[Qburn]

Lo budget place. Ampex 2track. Engineer had replaced the 2 position speed select switch with a 3 position switch. Left was 7.5ips, right was 15, middle was OFF.

In off position, transport would slow to eventual grinding stop while record amps were still engaged. It produced some very nice 'slow down to stop' and 'from stop to full speed' fx.

[Fred Cannons]

I recently went to alarming lengths to record a complete Bong "hit" starting with the striking of a match. The production that went into this was monumental. A pair of Shure KSM 44s set up in front of the "performer". The slightest movement of the "performer's" hand as he held the match to light the Bong was reproduced perfectly. I think the funniest sound was the "performer" holding a huge "hit" - you could here the water in the bong sizzling. Of course we had phones on!!! Must have spent 2 hours!!

[dave-G]

SM-57 in a condom, stirring oatmeal for an on-screen disemboweling.

There have been other sounds I've made for some tracks using an SM-57 in a condom, but I won't go into too much detail. This is a family-establishment!

... so what do I win?

-dg

[PDupre]

Back in the late 70's I was talent on a session that had a rigid budget (ie. x$ for each song) we were doing a power pop tune that needed a massive hand clap sound to go through almost the entire track. We wanted to do 8 tracks of hand claps and then bounce them to a single track. Problem - we had 2 people in the studio and 20 minutes of time left. The engineer had a brilliant idea. If each of us slapped something else, which each hand, that would sound like 4 people clapping instead of 2 and that we would only need to track it 4 times. 4 minute song - 4 times - 20 minutes left. we pulled down our pants. Sat on the floor and slapped our relaxed thighs. We did 4 takes each to a separate track and then in mix bounced them to a single hand clap track (boy were we sore). What a massive hand clap sound. Been using that technique ever since.

Peter

[Zownd]

It's all about recording!! doesn't anyone do crazy stuff in a mix???
I once mixed down a track and the guys weren't too pleased. So I decided to record the whole mix on to a cheap cassette deck and then record it back on to DAT,...the client was thrilled and this version made the album. Or just placing LO-FI on all your drums and punchy sounds to give it that retro-sampling sound, this one works really well for hiphop(oriented) tracks.

anyone???

kind regards Mark@zownd

[Conscious Structure]

I have a friend who recorded a track into reel to reel tape that he had crumpled up, so when it played in the machine, it had lots of weird glitches in it. He played it back and recorded it into his DAW.

------------------
Dave Belazis
Conscious Productions
Conscious Studios

[Digital Sound Lab]

Frank Zappa did the condom thing. I recorded the Blue Angels, they fly right over my studio in Seattle. I had the mics on a kit while they were practicing. They fly right over head and the studio gave this nice low rumble with the sounds of the jet doppler effect.

[Black Frog]

Our band was practicing one summer and while we were taking a break I kept hearing this wierd buzzing coming from the PA. I could NOT figure out where it came from for the longest time since it was so intermittent.

Then I happened to notice a fly that would land on the head of the vocal mic and then fly away! The sound of the fly landing and taking off was coming through the speakers. It was the coolest thing!

Now I can capture a fly and have a mic mounted in a small box. Turn up the gain and let the tape (disk) roll a while to get some cool effects.

[LargeYam]

After coming home late last Halloween night, maybe in some John Cage spirit, I recorded 6 - 10 minute tracks of short wave radio including japanese voice and music, mexican radio, random shifting & squeals, religious, and a CB frequency of some happygolucky trucker that sounded exactly like King of the Hill's Boomhauer(sp?).

The last track was a scanner freqency of a coordinated effort between local police, fire department, ambulance and ems, and the police helicopter and boat (ohio river) rescue squad. They were responding to a man about to jump off of the 4th-Street bridge. Though it felt like a tense situation, in the communications between them they all sounded relaxed and almost annoyed, like they thought he might be bluffing.

The mix, on top of everything else, meshed in a way that during almost every break in police & rescue communications, the trucker would blurt out some completely unintelligable string of words, always followed by "Hyu-Hyu!Dagg-gone!"


and the man did not jump.






[This message has been edited by LargeYam (edited March 08, 2001).]

[proximityeffect]

I flew to Miami to record the exhaust tones of exotic (Ferrari) and super-exotic (McLauren F1) cars. Very interesting when your 'talent' is a machine. (ok, let's do that one again, this time with more emotion?!)