Sound Post #5: Hobo Serenades

Date of recording: 3/6/09
Time of recording: 4:25

If you have ever wondered what nature relaxation tapes for homeless folks sound like, now's your chance. (I know, you're positively tingly with anticipation.)

Homeless drifter not shown.

Running water sounds quite unusual under a bridge, so I decided to take a recording underneath. However, as you can see from the picture above, there was no way to go under the bridge without getting wet. So, I went on top of the tracks and stuck each microphone between the wooden ties. Since I wanted to record it between the metal I-beams as well, I took my time in lowering them. I let them hang for about two minutes before bringing them back up. You can hear the water and the wind, all meshing together in a weird echo. Somewhere in the middle, an airplane showed up. Some of you might think that is cool, but I was five minutes away from the airport. It is very annoying to have your recordings interrupted by an airplane engine every fifteen minutes. But, I suppose we do get to hear what an airplane sounds like under a bridge.

Sound Post #4: Plank Cacophony

Date of recording: 3/6/09
Time of recording: 4:15

After reaching the tracks, I headed south and eventually came to a bridge. Railroad bridges are great sound-rich environments, and I was approaching Forrest Hill Road where I wouldn't be able to record much except traffic, so I decided to take several recordings here.

While recording, I noticed that some of the planks on the right of the tracks were loose, so I set down the mics near a loose plank, started recording, and
walked along the planks to make them "rattle."

Sound Post #3: Giant Cows

Date of recording: 3/6/09
Time of recording: 3:30

After following a hunting trail to a dead end near a farm, I had the good fortune to catch a passing train about 300 feet away while my mic was recording, so I decided to record the whole thing. It's a bit long, about five minutes. (What can I say? It was a really long train.) Maybe you can tell how close it is or how fast it's going or whatever by listening to it, but honestly, it just sounds like a train to me. I can hear noises that sound like "chugging" to me, which I presume are the wheels, but I'm not too sure.

I've always liked railroad tracks. Trains are one of the few things that I can hear without my cochlear implant, provided I'm close enough. Unlike most mechanical noises, the horn doesn't bother me because it's so low-pitched; I'd describe it as a long, mellow "mmwwwwoooooooouuuuuummmmmmm." Somehow it makes me think of a giant cow.

Pictured: a giant cow.

I do get nervous every time I hear a loud, continuous noise while I'm walking along the tracks, though. Doesn't matter if it's an airplane, or a river, or an actual train: I still check up and down the tracks to make sure certain death is not hurtling toward me at 100 mph.

Sound Post #2: Invisible Ninja Kitties

Date of recording: 3/6/09
Time of recording: 2:30

I started again on March 6th, at the same spot I ended, around 2:30 PM, and continued until 5:30. This time, the weather was considerably warmer.

While in the clearing, I was surprised to hear a cat meowing, almost yowling, and it sounded close. I immediately started recording and got another couple of meows, this time quite distant. I like cats, so I admit I got a little worried when I heard the cat. It sounded like it was in trouble. I never did see it, though I did hear a dog. Maybe that's the reason it was yowling before?

My family has always owned cats since before I was born, so I'm very familiar with the variety of sounds they can make. The first cat we had was a tortoiseshell named Sunset. I don't remember if she ever meowed but she did give me a lot of scratches. After that, we got two tabbys. The older one, Tigger, would move her mouth, but she never made a sound. The other one, Lucy, on the other hand, was a world-class meower.

Now, we have one black-and-white cat, Stitch. He knows I can't always hear him, so he will follow me around the house and sit on whatever I'm reading until I feed him. We also have a little black cat with a white-tipped tail, named Toots. She is quite bad-tempered, but contrary to the picture below, her meow is worse than her bite. It's actually more like a puppy's whining: high pitched and extremely annoying.

I kill you!

Sound Post #1: Squishy, Squashy

On Saturday, February 28, I decided I'd procrastinated on my Drift 1 walk long enough, so I gathered up my recording things and had my brother drop me off at Drexel around 11:00 AM. In 20 degree weather.

And I forgot my notebook and pen too. So I figured that I'd take pictures where I did sound recordings, and do it from memory later on. I know, not a great plan. But that didn't matter anyway because it was freezing. I didn't even have enough feeling in my fingers to press the right buttons on my Sony Hi-MD recorder or my digital camera. I had to give up after 45 minutes.

I did, however, get some nice sounds. At the time, most of the ice on the river had melted, but there were still sheets of ice hanging over the edges, like so:

♥ Pretty! ♥

Also, ice had formed over the mud on the trail by the woods. It made weird squishy and crackly noises when I stepped on it. Fun.

(I'd estimate the time of this recording at around 11:20)

Drift 1 Area Map

All of my sound posts took place between two streets, with no easily discernible landmarks nearby. So, in order to give the viewer a more accurate picture of my sound posts locations, I've embedded a Google map of my walk, with the location of my sound posts:


View Drift 1 in a larger map

#$@%^& Google HTML!

As you can see, most of my recordings took place along the creek and tracks. Those were really the most sound-rich environments, as the only things I could record on Forest Hill was traffic; and for some reason I could not get anything from the bike path off the Hi-MD recorder... but no big loss; I didn't get much there except airplanes and a perpetual colony of angry red-winged blackbirds.