Regional Arts Fellowship - Field Report 5 [USA/NSW]

[SynthWizard]

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Regional Arts Fellowship - Field Report 5 [USA/NSW]

Included in this post is a look at some creative outcomes for my 2017/18 fellowship activities in USA and Regional NSW => Mentorship with Doug Quin and residency at Syracuse University, residency at Important Records HQ including a visit to local studio to see an ultra-rare Emu Modular, and giving workshops and working in the field/studio in regional NSW. I've included a number of soundcloud links giving excerpts of some the material I was able to record.

This is the fifth and final post on my Create NSW Regional Arts Fellowship, you can check out the first post on a week spent with Chris Watson here, the second post on my Moog Sound Lab UK Residency here, the third post on my EMS Stockholm Residency here and fourth post with host of activities including working with Chris Watson, Jez riley French, Aphex Twin and a bunch of other stuff here.. During the fellowship I kept folks updated with pictures/tweets live through my twitter account, so you can also have a look back through those tweets too  


Artist Residency at Syracuse University, New York State, USA including a Mentorship with renowned field recordist / Assoc Prof Doug Quin => 

During this visit I conducted a workshop, gave a lecture, and went out on field trips with Doug for environmental sound recording. In case you were wondering, yes this is the same Syracuse University that Lou Reed went to, and was later an Alumni. I was hoping they'd have Metal Machine Music playing on loop throughout the uni but no.. !


The first place Doug took me to was Stoney Pond State Forest, Madison County, New York, not too far from Syracuse. Doug took along his Ambient ASF-1 mkII hydrophone and Sound Devices 722 recorder, and we had a look around to spot some good locations for a longer session later. We returned twice, for the evening and morning frog chorus. You can hear the morning frog chorus further down this page. Pictures by Doug and myself.

Take note of the trousers in the socks, vital to keep the nasty biting bugs out, of which there were many!!

Before we got started Doug was very quick to point out the Poison Ivy!! =>

There was a lot of bird activity, so Doug showed me this great little bird ID app called Song Sleuth made by Wildlife Acoustics =>

A short hike later and we were at Stoney Pond to scout for some good locations =>

I also gave a lecture and sound design workshop at Syracuse University to Doug's students =>

I love recording rain and thunderstorms so I kept my eye on the weather forecast. I got lucky, so I quickly made a little setup to record a rainstorm through the flyscreen window in my room at Doug & Peggy's with my FEL clippy EM172 mics =>

I was keen to get some environmental sounds of the city, so Doug came up with a really interesting spot, the interchange of I-81 & I-690. This interchange is rumoured to be scheduled for demolition after being operational for 60 years, but now in a severe state of deterioration.. You can read an interesting piece about this structure by photographer Shane Lavalette and poet Arthur R. Flowers, Jr. 

We set up the Zoom F8 with Doug's Sennheiser MKH 30 & MKH 40 as a Mid-Side system and my 2x JrF C-Series pro contact mics via HOSA MIT-129 xformers for a 4 track recording.

I spotted this little parking meter underneath the interchange, so it was also a good opportunity to try out the electromagnetic induction coil pick-ups I recently got from Jez. According to Jez's site these are useful "for picking up electronic signals / sounds ie. the internal sounds of a laptop, lightbulbs, recorders, household gadgets etc etc."  Jez also states : "whilst most other coils on the open market have certain limitations placed upon them, these adapted coils can detect a wider range of sounds". I managed to get some ear-piercing harsh digital noise from this little meter =>

Back at home-base I got a couple of Doug's recommendations for low cost microphones. The Rode i-XY for iPhone and the Soundman OKM II binaural mics =>

Later in the week we went to record the Stoney Pond dawn and evening chorus. We took out my Zoom F8 and I used Doug's Schoeps Colette series CMC microphones (cardioid coincident pair) on a tripod, with my FEL Communications Clippy XLR EM172 Omni Microphone, Matched Stereo Pair also attached to make a 4 track recording. Doug took his Soundfield mic & Sound Devices 722 recorder =>

Back in Doug's office I spotted these interesting items: Variations I score & the book Silence by John Cage both signed with a personal note, and CD cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles signed by George Martin ! =>

I asked Doug if there were any train lines nearby and he took me out on a little field trip a short drive east of Syracuse, to the village of Minoa. We took my Zoom F8 and Doug's Sennheiser MKH 30 & MKH 40 setup as a Mid-Side system, and Doug recorded on his little hand held Nagra LINO and we managed to record a very long freight train =>

Doug showed me this great old vintage Prophet 2000 sampler that he used to play live to process and manipulate field recordings =>

We also took a field trip to Stone Quarry Hill Art Park to record the frogs. We were accompanied on this trip by Doug's colleage Edward Ruchalski. I took the Zoom F8 and Jez's hydrophones. We fished around a few places with our hydrophones, and a great lesson I learned is that its sometimes best to keep the hydrophone close to the bank in order to pickup more wildlife =>

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