Machines

A while back, I recorded the sounds of some heavy duty printing machines.  I love the clunking sound of the mechanism and the fact that the sounds are so repetitive but not always in an even rhythmical pattern.  I've been experimenting with chopping up the files and processing them. This is where I got to:



My friend, Colin Hill, came to Valve HQ a couple of weeks ago, armed with an impressive array of cordless drills. I'm not sure how his 'practising' went on the building site, but he had worked out what sounded interesting and how to control the pitch of the Makitas.

Today I am merging all these files to create the finished track which will appear on V A L V E's Silent Reflux album.

I've recently become obsessed with the sounds of various mechanisms and who made them and for what purpose.  Another field recording that's getting edited for Silent Reflux is one I made of a piano being tuned.  The piano tuner was very obligingly clumsy and kept dropping tools which, although he was actually trying to be quiet, just added to the recording!  I wanted the natural sounds that occur when he was doing his normal work.  Piano gizzards and tuning tools and man as instrument; man and situation as performer.  It's a shame that a building site in Brightlingsea isn't very practical for recording.