snake river

Early morning recording of the Snake River outside Jackson, Wyoming. The river was very high and fast from melting snow but little wavelets would come ashore every so often to make a nice contrast to the white noise of the powerful current. Recorded July 5th, 2011 with Sony D-50 recorder.

seeing red

I used an old Edison disc as a filter for my ipod camera to get some very cool effects.

drain pipe

Today while walking at the park I noticed this pipe shooting out water which would make a puddle then get sucked back into the pipe again, then shoot out again, then get sucked up again, etc. I think it was attached to one of the wells which must have had a pump in it to pump out the flood water from the storms we had. Regardless, I was glad I had my ipod to make this recording.

effects

Most of my instruments are acoustic, but I love running them through effects to expand the sounds they make. Sometimes I use the computer for this - it's easy and you can try a lot of things before commiting to something - but I much prefer using pedals. I think they sound better, and it's a lot more fun tweaking knobs than dragging your pointer around. They are magic boxes. I don't know how they work, but I really don't need to. I just like the worlds they open up.

This is my current set-up: r to l -tc electronic chorus, hardwire delay and looper, dwarfcraft internet overdrive, boss giga delay, dr. scientist tremolessence, and tc electronic reverb. Up on the boxes is the audible disease junk-fi sampler. For this melodica loop I used the hardwire looper into the internet through a modulated delay and reverb. I love the textures they create.

melodica

I bought one of the last Hohner button style melodicas, an alto model. Not sure why they stopped making them but it seems now they will only make the piano type and those will be made in China. I have an old German-made soprano but it needs repair so I wanted to get one of these before they disappear. This is the first accidental loop I made with it. There's just something about the sound of these things that carries a lot of emotional weight and depth. At least for me.

chuck wagon

I hope to start getting up some field recordings from our trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons. This short clip is from a chuck wagon ride and dinner show we did. The kids and I thought it would be corny, but it ended up being one of the most fun things we did. I love the change in sound where the road turns from gravel to asphalt. Natural rhythms like this have long fascinated me.

rain music

technology

The first recording I ever made was on my father's reel to reel tape recorder. Then came cheap cassettes and the noisy, warbly sounds they captured. Now I use portable digital recorders or the computer to record. Recently, my wife and kids bought me an ipod touch for father's day - a miracle of technology. Today while I was on my walk beside the railroad tracks, I saw a train coming. So I turned off the music I had playing and switched on a free app I downloaded for recording sound. This is the recording I made...


Pretty amazing for something that costs $150 and fits in your back pocket!