Direct mp4 download or play:  Angry Counting Weatherman

Alternate version – less audio processing

Direct mp4 download or play:  Angry Counting Weatherman – less audio processing

Just thought I’d get in your face.

I seem to step on gum quite often and this works wonders.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Mother’s Day 1985 # 1

This is from a recording of side 2 of a C-90 cassette tape I did at my grandmother’s house in Santa Rosa, California on Mothers Day, 1985. You will hear the voices of my mother, my grandmother, and myself. I used my Sony TC-D5M cassette recorder and a Sony ECM-939LT electret condenser microphone.
I recorded it into my PC with an inexpensive Soundblaster Audigy SE soundcard and applied amplification with hard limiting and light hiss reduction from Adobe Audition.

Sony TC-D5M cassette tape recorder

Sony ECM-939LT microphone

Direct mp3 download or play

My Original scratchy 78 RPM record.

Direct mp3 download or play

A somewhat better version from Internet Archive.

This was my favorite record when I was a kid in Berkeley, California in the early 1960s. I played it many times on my father’s Victrola (Victor Talking Machine model VV-405). It seemed to have better fidelity than other 78 rpm records I was playing at the time. It wasn’t until quite recently that I figured out why this record sounded better. If you look closely at the record label you will notice the letters “VE.” That designates this record to be a Victor Electric recording which means it was recorded with microphones and vacuum tube amplifiers. According to the internet, this record came out in 1928. The other records that have a more tinny sound were recorded acoustically. That means the musicians would gather closely around a large horn and play loud while a record was cut. The horn picked up the sound and it was connected to a diaphragm and fed into a cutting head to make a master copy. The quality of the sound depended on how loud the music was played.
I played the record on my Newcomb phonograph and recorded it into my PC computer. I believe it was the same setup that I used in the post “Dreamo Sleeping Pills.” It is extremely scratchy and I didn’t want to use much noise reduction. I wanted to preserve as much of the analog (non digital) quality as possible.

mp3 download or play

mp3 download or play reverb

Microphone used to record stomach sounds.

Applying microphone to my stomach.

Direct mp4 download or play:  Bottle Test

Here is a silly thing I did with a RadioShack condenser microphone and a wine bottle.

Here is what the sky looked like outside my living room window on the evening of August 14th, 2008. What is strange about these clouds is that they appear to be higher than the already high darker red clouds near the horizon. Sunlight is being reflected more intensely off the lighter clouds for a longer period of time after sunset. Also the National Weather Service has issued an air stagnation advisory for the Puget Sound area.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Very Bad Reception

Here is a little thing I made using a cordless phone and a radio. I discovered that my cordless phone appears to transmit on several different frequencies. In addition I’m using a wireless phone extender, the same type cable TV companies used to use for digital cable boxes to automatically call in billing data for pay-per-view movies. I have several of these units and they work fine for regular telephone use. The phone extender has a main frequency of 3.5 MHz and weaker signals at 7 MHz and 14 MHz and transmits in wide band FM. The cordless phone handset transmits on 46.6 MHz to 47 MHz and its base unit is on 49.6 MHz to 50 MHz. The handset can change frequencies in its range depending on reception. The phone itself transmits on narrow band FM.

I connected an inexpensive RadioShack multiband radio (model SW-100) to my small Yamaha mixer (model MG10/2). I then connected one of my DBX 161 compressors to send and return on the mixer. The mixer line out connected to my PC computer with a Soundblaster SE soundcard. The output from the computer soundcard feeds into an Alesis Nanocompressor and from there into my H.H. Scott A426 integrated amplifier. The Speakers are older Pioneer model CS-63 with the woofers replaced with Electro-Voice DL-15 speakers. I have added to each speaker a JBL 075 tweeter and a JBL 2402 tweeter. Model 2402 is a newer version of the 075 and looks identical from the front. There are four additional tweeters in all.
Now for the recording. I set the the threshold on the Nanocompressor quite low (-20db) so there could be a lot of feedback without the need to have the speakers very loud and to prevent damage to the amplifier or speakers. The radio was tuned up and down the dial on shortwave and then to about 7 MHz where the wireless phone extender transmits even when the phone is hung up. Then I switched on the cordless phone, waited until the dial tone stopped, listened on the radio and sure enough there was a signal. It was very loud and distorted, but very controlled with audio compression on the mixer and on the output of the soundcard as well. Then I realized the radio was receiving on AM and the wireless phone extender transmits on FM. When you try to receive a broadcast in the wrong mode it will come through very distorted. Once this was established, I just started recording the feedback from my cordless phone. I did not process the recording in any way except since the recording is monaural I’m presenting it here at 80KB mp3 mono.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Happy Danube (shortwave effect # 1)

Well I guess I’m coming out of the closet on this one. Sooner or later you are going to find out that I like organ music. And I like it a lot. It’s safe to say that most of you have heard or heard of “The Dance of The Blue Danube”. Hopefully you have not heard a rendition quite like this one. The performer is a German organist by the name of Klaus Wunderlich. In addition I processed (butchered) the audio to make it sound like fading shortwave radio. I can imagine listening to this on a vintage high end German shortwave radio. The effect is in stereo, however and I advise you to play it loud. I have more versions of “The Dance of The Blue Danube”, including a very scratchy 78 rpm by Jesse Crawford from the 1920’s. So beware!

Direct mp3 download or play:  Happy Danube (shortwave effect # 2)

Imagine driving on the Autobahn in your new Porsche late at night and this begins to play on the radio. This may be a cleaner, more realistic version of the phenomenon of  “skip” when listening to shortwave radio. Of course, if you are actually listening to a radio, the sound would not be in stereo.  In addition, I have become a fan of the sound of Wersi electronic organs. Occasionally, I may make other versions of this effect. There are some really great free VST effects available on the internet to create these sounds and many others.

Be aware what I’m doing here is just for fun and is not really comparable to listening to the music in CD quality or better without all of the “butchering” of the audio.  My sources for these two tracks were at best 128 kbps mp3. I think the first one was a YouTube video as well.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Purple Plastic Purse

This was received on October 18th, 2006 from inside my living room on my AOR AR-3000 communications receiver at 927.600 MHZ and recorded on my PC computer using line in on a Creative Audigy 4 soundcard. In addition I used a directional beam antenna capable of receiving 902 MHZ to 928 MHZ with up to 13 db gain. The transmitter appeared to be west of my location and I’m guessing up to a mile away, but most likely as close as a few blocks. Sometimes while monitoring this transmitter a barking dog could be heard and then an echo of the same sound outside my house less than a second later.
This baby room monitor has considerably better fidelity than the other at 49.845 MHZ (previous post in Baby Room Monitors) mainly because it seemed to be transmitting in wide band FM instead of narrow band FM like police and fire departments. In other words it tuned in just like an FM broadcast station and setting the receiver to narrow FM would produce loud distorted sound. In fact, I think the receiver was almost at “full quieting,” meaning the signal was as strong as possible with the least amount of noise. In spite of that, there was still a substantial amount of white noise and possibly some digital noise from cell phones. I did a lot of processing with Adobe Audition. I eliminated 10 megabytes of the original wav file where there was no talking, and then applied noise reduction to the entire file. After that, I used amplification and hard limiting to bring up low level audio. Also, I normalized the whole file to just under 0db. Lastly, the file was converted to standard stereo 128 kb per second MP3, although the sound is actually monaural. It still isn’t that great but it is a fun little story.

900 Megahertz Directional Beam Antenna

This unusual treat was mailed to us over 13 years ago by a fan of our group. This is how it looks today. If anyone knows anything more about the story of Creme Filled Boopers, let me know. Are they still being made?