I grabbed the vacuum in from the broom closet to tidy up a little before a presentation. I noticed that this vacuum had a lot of audio character and after doing it’s job I set about seeing what sounds I could coax from this red beastie!
I have been using a Sony PCM-D50 for a while now, and have found an interesting application of perspective by using the wind sock to act as a vibration dampener, while the metalic roll cage inside acts as a piezo mic combined. This combined with the little air that the microphones record has yielded some very nice sounds from various sources.
When recording moving the mic just a few inches/cm can provide different tones and nuances of the same sounds.
Here’s some examples for you to hear.
Microphone placed about 50cm from vacuum.
By shifting the microphone off the vent hole, I was able to pick up more of the joint noise from the handle as it twisted.
With the engine sound, i got more of the motor whir than air and brush whirr..
With this perspective, I used the fluffy to act as a barrier to stop contact noise – while the metalic sound cage of the portable recorder acted as a piezo sound transmitter.
The mic is placed over the vent hole. This gave our sound a little more air while retaining the nice thick sounds of the contact and proximity effect.
In this example, I used the metal part of the handle to transfer sound from the spring to the recorder.
A typical recording of a spring this size close up would still yield a little twang, with no depth.
Recording at 96khz ant 24bit and playing back at 48khz gave me this epic twang!
USS STARSHIP – VACUUM
Taking various perspectives and using a little EQ and creative processing I made this starship engine sound as an example of how to combine source recordings to make something completely new.
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