Recording of the Week is a series of posts dedicated to feature a sound recording published in the community during each week, in order to promote different kinds of recordists over the web.
How many recordists like the idea of submerging two H2a hydrophones into a wet mud full of thousands of squirming maggots?
Well, Richard Devine did it. Listen to the result.
Creepy, huh? When it comes to experimentation and crazy sounds, there’s no other like Richard. The texture generated by those maggots is pretty incredible, even delicate. It proves that we can get really unique and weird sounds, but sometimes we’ll have to do crazy things to get them.
Richard used two Aquarian Audio H2a-XLR hydrophones directly into the mud, and also placed two DPA-4060 Lavaliers on the top surface. Then he just left the maggots do their job. All the material was captured at 96kHz/24-Bit into a Sound Devices recorder.
So… What are those crazy things you’ve done in order to get exotic sounds?
9 comments
Jean-Edouard Miclot says:
Sep 11, 2010
Yummy, that reminds me my mother’s cheese fondue
“So… What are those crazy things you’ve done in order to get exotic sounds?”
Well as you ask us, I’ve recently recorded myself having a pretty bad diarrhea… I don’t know if that’s exotic but that was an interesting sound texture for sure.
miguel says:
Sep 12, 2010
Oh, that’s crazy!! I would have to try it sometime.. Should be really weird to search for a mic and recorder in that moment, isn’t it?
cain says:
Sep 11, 2010
This is great. Immediately buying a pair of those aquarian audio mics. Devines recordings are always top notch, you should hear his velvet ant recording.
RichardDevine says:
Sep 11, 2010
@Cain, I also used the DPA SMK4060 Stereo Matched 4060-BM Miniature Omnidirectional Microphones on this recording. I laid them on the top of the mud, and let the maggots crawl on top of them.
Michel Marchant says:
Sep 14, 2010
Hi Richard
Nice recording
I just ordered my Hydrophone and I talked with Robb from Aquarian and he is very interested to hear your recordings…
Cheeers,
M
Andrew Spitz says:
Sep 20, 2010
It’s alike an organic granular synthesizer
awesome recording!
Erica Basnicki says:
Sep 20, 2010
Ewwwwww…..
And yet….
COOL!
Great recording although I hate the thought of those maggots crawling all over the mics…bleh!
It’s not terribly crazy, but I did once purposely eat a very spicy meal in order to catch the gurgling afterwards with my H2a, using the contact mic adaptor. Some interesting blurps and glurbs as my digestive system tried to deal!
What’s with us recording our digestive system, anyway…
peter mangalore says:
Sep 23, 2010
I wonder if it is possible to swallow a contact mic and record the sound all the way through…
Field Experiments, An Interview with Richard Devine « Sonic Terrain says:
Aug 10, 2011
[...] capturing sounds in the field? Could you tell us more stories like that one when you recorded maggots with [...]