sampling / field recording stories

[mbc113]

Any good stories about trying to obtain good field recordings for samples?

I don't have anything too crazy, but i have been stopped by cops and security guards when using a pistol grip shotgun mic with a windscreen on in public places. I've made pointless recordings in blizzards. And, I've snuck into industrial spaces late at night. That's about all that's noteworthy though. I'm sure someone on here has got to have better stories than that...

[Chaorta]

I have hours and hours of archived material. I think my best story is getting stopped by the cops for sitting on the median of a major road in the middle of the pouring rain. Someone had called the police on me for "Lewd behaviour" because in order to keep my mic dry, i put a condom over it.

[Nubus]

a couple of years ago I recorded with my laptop and an mbox outside out practice space on the fourth of july. after getting a bunch of fireworks and rain sounds we walked inside and went upstairs to our room where a band was playing, and when i got in there i accidentally shut the ibook while i was recording. the system went to sleep and froze, so I restarted. when it came back on there was my session, but at the point where i closed the computer it pulled wave files from all over the hard drive and edited them in there on it's own... A.I. Mix!!!
it came out really cool in some parts too cause I had all this recorded stuff from an African theater gig i was working - there were like backwards drums in there and half-speed stuff, and a couple of times these crazy little clips and zipping motor sounds that the computer generated itself.
anyway i backed that shit up so one day i'm gonna make millions off it.

[johnS]

Originally Posted by Chaorta

Someone had called the police on me for "Lewd behaviour" because in order to keep my mic dry, i put a condom over it.

In other words you were using a pro-audio-phylactic? Sorry . . .

[Chaorta]

Originally Posted by johnS

In other words you were using a pro-audio-phylactic? Sorry . . .

[clineaudio]

Originally Posted by Nubus

a couple of years ago I recorded with my laptop and an mbox outside out practice space on the fourth of july. after getting a bunch of fireworks and rain sounds we walked inside and went upstairs to our room where a band was playing, and when i got in there i accidentally shut the ibook while i was recording. the system went to sleep and froze, so I restarted. when it came back on there was my session, but at the point where i closed the computer it pulled wave files from all over the hard drive and edited them in there on it's own... A.I. Mix!!!
it came out really cool in some parts too cause I had all this recorded stuff from an African theater gig i was working - there were like backwards drums in there and half-speed stuff, and a couple of times these crazy little clips and zipping motor sounds that the computer generated itself.
anyway i backed that shit up so one day i'm gonna make millions off it.

I'd be interested to see what the heck that sounded like.

[Drengur Grar]

I've spent a lot of time walking around with a friend's Nagra IV and picked up some really weird stuff. I love using a microcassette recorder best though. Those low-fi, borderline distorting signals make for a real interesting foundation of sampling. When I record it back into SoundSoap, I like to hit the rewind and cue switch and get really squeaked out sounds, then get down to the sample and cut up pieces here and there and sequence it in percussive or loop point them for strange "synth" sounds. My favorite instrument is wind. You can cut it and give it loop points and have a real "air synth". bad joke..hi oh.