Direct mp3 download or play:  National Prevention Month

Here is another item from some old commercials I found at a radio station in the 1970s. The original box for the tape was lost and for some time I thought the tape was gone as well. Recently I located what I think is the original tape spliced onto a large reel of other material. More information about KABL can be found here and here. I always liked this one, thinking it was whimsical and sort of snooty.

Direct mp3 download or play: Easter 1984

At the last moment, I noticed there was a recording mislabeled “Mothers Day 1984,” which actually turned out to be  Easter of 1984. So for your enjoyment, here is my family celebrating Easter at my home in Martinez, California on April 22nd, 1984.

I apparently created this sometime when I was a young child, most likely sometime between 1958 and 1965. The only problem is that I have no memory of actually constructing this item.

These glasses may be as old as the early 1960s.

Here is my fifth grade class picture from Thousand Oaks School in Berkeley, California in 1965. The glasses may be the ones in the first picture, but these appear to be slightly more rectangular.

My old glasses, probably from the 1970s.

My old glasses from 2012 after I became extremely angry. I was angry because one of the very thick and heavy lenses fell out onto the stone flooring around the front door of my house and shattered.

Images from an early 1970s sales brochure.

Direct mp4 download or play:  setsoundokay

Suppose you’re moving along, singing a song, watching tv, doing what “certain men” want you to do, when all of a sudden, THIS happens! What do you think will happen next???

Here is something I thought of probably in the 1990s and I just had to write it down, misspellings and all. If you don’t believe this be sure to check out “At Home With The Weatherman.” Go here  to open or download a smaller quicktime (.mov) if you prefer.

 LA’s Totally Awesome Kitchen Cleaning Solutions

Direct mp3 download or play:  New Year’s 2013
I made this recording using the same setup as in “4th of July Ambience 2012,” but used Audacity (free sound recording software) instead of VSTHost. The recording starts at around 11:55 PM, December 31st, 2012 and ends at about 12:15 AM, January 1st, 2013. I think the sound is louder and has more bass compared to last year. There is more “hiss” or white noise this time, probably due to microphone gain being somewhat too high. Then I put the recorded file into Adobe Audition, slightly amplified the audio, and put five second fades at the beginning and end. The mp3 here is 320 kilobits per second and 48 kilohertz, the highest possible quality. This is the first audio file I’ve done this way. Let me know if you have trouble playing this one.
It does seem that New Year’s is a lot like the 4th of July as far as the kind of sounds I hear. I didn’t notice any yelling of “Happy New Year” or banging pots and pans (well, maybe very faintly in the distance) as I have in the past. This post likely has typos, but I wanted to get this up and running right away. In the coming days, I’ll be attempting to correct mistakes. I know that sounds dumb, but that’s what I’m all about. Happy Fiscal Cliff… I mean New Year.

This object (near the ‘e’ on the word ‘the’) was in a package of powdered soup. I t appears to be a small rock or stone fragment. Imagine what would have happened if I had bit down on that object!
The soft focus of the image is due to the inexpensive digital camera I used. It has no manual focus and it remained slightly out of focus. Also the natural light I was using was quite low due to it being an especially dark rainy day in Seattle. I think it looks rather arty!  I could imagine it being a title of an off beat TV show on  the United Kingdom’s Channel 4. But maybe not.

Direct mp3 download or play: Thanksgiving 1982 – Part 1

Part 1

Direct mp3 download or play: Thanksgiving 1982 – Part 2

Part 2

This was recorded on Thanksgiving Day at my Grandmother’s house in Santa Rosa, California. I don’t remember how I recorded this session, but I think I used my Technics cassette recorder with two separate microphones. I can’t even remember what type of microphones were used! I’m usually pretty good at remembering or  having notes in with the cassette tape. One mic was likely stationary and another was handheld. Occasionally, I moved the stationary mic to other locations.

 I played the tape on my Sony TC-D5M cassette recorder (with Dolby B switched on) and captured the audio on my new Mackie USB recording interface. I understand capturing and recording sound this way, and in theory, should have better quality. Members of Negativland and Leo Laporte (The Tech Guy) have suggested the use of an external recording interface for years. In the computer I set up, the free recording software is called VSTHost. The noise level reading with the levels set for recording were nearly -90 db according to the indicator on VSTHost. When I pressed play on the TC-D5M, and before any sound played on the tape, the noise level rose to about -55 db.  The free LoudMax limiter was set to -.4 db on both threshold and output. I had to bring up the input on VSTHost  +6db  in order to match the output of the Mackie when its red overload (OL) indicator was just barely beginning to flicker. I used white noise to set the level, and the recording quality was set to DVD audio (16 bit, 48 kilohertz). I know 24 bit is an option, but I do not believe the difference in quality would have been noticeable. I know some of you may disagree. The MP3 audio  here on the site was made using the latest LAME  (and Razorlame frontend open source encoding) encoder at 192 kilobits per second, stereo (not joint stereo and not variable bit rate). One item that may be a problem, is that when the MP3 was made, (and probably most of my other posts with MP3 audio) the sampling frequency was left at 48 kilohertz, rather than changing it to 44.1 kilohertz. I’ve never had any problems playing these files. Let me know if any of you have trouble playing my MP3 audio. I hope you enjoy this, and as always, be sure to check out “The Willsaphone Stupid Show” and “Weatherman Shows: Over The Edge Radio.”

Technics M245x Cassette Recorder

Mackie USB Recording Interface

VSTHost Setup in Computer

NEW PICTURES ADDED BELOW 11-08-2012!

Direct mp4 download or play:  The Spark Machine (Halloween 2012)

This is a device I put together in the 1980s to use in Negativland performances. It doesn’t make lightning effects, but it looks more like an arc welder. It produces loud snapping sparks. It creates about 600 volts direct current and has parts from an old TV set and military surplus. I can’t remember what I did on stage, but I think this is pretty close. It was definitely dumb! Check this YouTube video at approximately 11:25 on the counter for more. These are the remains of a hazelnut that was zapped repeatedly inside a carved Halloween pumpkin. I honestly can’t remember if this was from the public access TV show about Halloween safety where I played E.T. or one of the Negativland performances. I am quite sure the hazelnut is authentic and from the 1980s. One thing I do remember is that I nearly always referred to the nut as a macadamia nut. Somehow that seemed funnier.

I hope to be adding items to this post and correcting mistakes in the coming weeks. There are more Thanksgiving family tapes and I hope to have one up by the middle of November. I hope to be doing more here in general as long as my “2012 madness” doesn’t get the better of me. By the way, Happy Halloween!

SPARK MACHINE PARTS

Transformer – Reactor – U. S. Navy

General Electric Pyranol Capacitor

Ceramic Insulators on Capacitor

Makeshift Fuse in Glass Bottle and Power Transformer

5U4 Vacuum Tube

Sprague Clorinol Capacitor

General Electric No PCB’s (Polychlorinated Biphenyls) Capacitor

Direct mp3 download or play:  Frog Went A-Courtin’

Favorite Part “He got swallowed up by a water snake”

Direct mp3 download or play:  Fiddle Dee Dee

Favorite Part “Live with peace with bumblebee”

When I was a kid around 1960, I would play these two songs over and over. At one point, I played them on the Victrola, and that of course ruined them. The Victrola steel needle was too heavy and it just dug into the vinyl, ruining them. It did play quite well at first, but only once or twice before the surface noise took over. I finally found the audio on the internet, and for the first time in over fifty years, I’m able to hear these songs clearly.

Victrola Needles

On Fiddle Dee Dee the line “Did you ever hear a merrier thing?,” I thought was “Did you ever see such a vicarious thing” and I wondered if any little children actually know what “vicarious” means. To this day I don’t know what “vicarious” means!

Direct mp3 download or play:  4th of July Ambience 2012

This is similar to  “4th of July Ambience 2011,” but it is probably the longest of any of my 4th of July recordings. I know it may be boring, and I won’t be upset if you don’t listen to all of it. Below are pictures of how I made this recording.

Audio Technica AT825 Stereo Microphone

Yamaha MG 10/2 Mixer

Alesis NanoCompressor

Recording Setup in VST Host

Waveform information  from Adobe Audition after slightly changing levels. (Note peaks at -.3 DB each side and no clipping)

Waveform of entire recording after slightly changing levels. (Refers to current amplitude statistics)

Direct mp3 download or play:  4th of July Ambience 2010

Once again, I apologize for being dumb enough to not notice this post was accidentally deleted. Please leave comments. I discovered this when I started preparing “4th of July Ambience 2012.” I hope to have that up in a week or so. You may have thought “This time that Weatherman is gone for good.” I guess I may be suffering from a little “2012 Madness.” Please be patient, I may be making a comeback!  

I’ve been quite lazy the last month, but I’m still around, and now I have for you the sounds of the Fourth of July. This was recorded from about 9:45 PM to 10:45 PM on July 4th, 2010. I used my inexpensive electret condenser microphones installed on the outside of my house. They are separated by approximately 30 feet. The live sound was processed though through an audio mixer with some additional electronics and I explain in detail and show pictures here and here.
Also, for about a month or so, I’ve been learning how to use VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plugins with Adobe Audition. First of all, I didn’t realize how much of this software is free online and second, a lot of the plugins work quite well, even on my older Pentium 4, single core  computer. And third, here is the part I like best. I’ve discovered that VST plugins can be used in real time with Winamp and Media Player Classic.
Now for this recording of July 4th, I decided to process the sound with a VST plugin compatible with Adobe Audition called “Broadcast.” Basically it is a three band software compressor and it is free online. I think it worked well to tame the sharp peaks of the exploding fireworks. However something unexpected happened. Recording explosions is difficult. If the recording level is too high, distortion and clipping can happen, and if the level is too low, the soft ambience is lost. Unfortunately, this recording has some clipping and it appears to be analog, and “clip restore” in Adobe Audition won’t touch it. I suspect the clipping was coming from the “Feedback Destroyer” box set up to operate as a parametric equalizer. When I applied the “Broadcast” VST effect to the recording it not only smoothed out the sound and didn’t allow any peaks to exceed -.4 db (the level I set on the plugin), but it seemed to repair the clipped audio as well. I have pictures showing the waveform. I don’t really understand what is happening as I have a lot more to learn.

Here is very small portion of clipped audio in Adobe Audition of exploding fireworks. Notice the clipping (flat parts of the waveform, bottom left) is happening below the maximum digital level.

This shot shows the same audio after applying the “Broadcast” VST plugin.

Left side microphone

Right side microphone (with tissue paper windscreen removed)

Direct mp4 download or play:  Strange Sound From Seattle

Direct .flac (free lossless audio codec) download or play: Strange Sound From Seattle

Random Intelligent Visualization which is included with Winamp and  using a screen capture application to record the images and sound. Be sure to go to my YouTube page to see it in high definition.

Here is what I used to generate the sound. Click on the picture to see a high resolution image. I neglected to save the settings, but I can tell you that one of the eight oscillators was set at 528 hertz and the others were roughly on harmonics of 528 hertz above and below. Then with Adobe Audition in multi-track mode I imported the recording and created two additional copies, for a total of three stereo tracks. On tracks two and three, the sound was changed to double speed and half speed. All three tracks were processed with flanging effects. I set the phase shift to 180 degrees and resonance was set as high as possible (just before oscillation and distortion) and the speed as slow as possible. At this point the three tracks were mixed down and exported to a single stereo .wav file.

Direct mp4 download or play:  PBS Reverse & Forward

REGULAR

Direct mp4 download or play: PBS Reverse & Forward with Fades

WITH FADES, MORE COLOR

Direct mp4 download or play:  PBS

NORMAL, FORWARD ONLY, NO PROCESSING

I did this just because I can. I’m not sure if I’m sorry or not, but my video editor needed to be tested in reverse.

Direct mp4 download or play:  Don’t Tell Me What To Do!

Here is my favorite line from my favorite episode of “The Prisoner” (Hammer Into Anvil)  all messed up courtesy of Corel VideoStudio Pro X3, Adobe Audition and XMedia Recode. Note the picture is fuzzy due to the source file being the 360p mp4 from YouTube and then being trans-coded again in the video editor and again in XMedia Recode to a 400 by 300 pixel Flash file. In spite of all that lot, the picture is still watchable. I did this mainly just to practice with editing. I can assure you, I have a lot to learn! You might as well laugh now.

Snow On Magnolia Tree Branches

More Snow Covered Branches

My Deck And Bamboo Leaves

My Rain Gauge

Heavy Wet Snow On Bamboo

This was after about an hour between 1:30 PM and 2:30 PM.  Be sure to click on the caption or picture for a larger image.