Tools

The last theme for this season has been chosen by Jennifer Lewis, from Vancouver, who joined the club recently.  When Jenn joined, she suggested starting a page within The Knowledge where members can make suggestions for future themes.  She immediately added a few of her own ideas to this page, so I was more than happy to let her pick one of them this month.  Over to Jenn, to introduce herself and her theme:   “Greetings all, I’ve been working with sound for 30+ years.  My experiences range from linear to non-linear; sound design, dialog and music, production thru post.  The last 18 years have been focussed on audio for games and I’ve been fortunate to be involved with some amazing projects and people.  I recently bought a bunch of field gear and am re-broadening my explorations with recording adventuring.  A ‘back to roots’ of sorts.Theme blurb:Tools – an Unexpected Journey.My dad was a carpenter. As a kid, I’d hang out in the shed and would play with vices, hammers, jars of nails, screwdrivers and chunks of wood, etc.  Fascination, for all the senses.  I don’t know about you but I have always wanted to schmooze my (and my recording gear’s) way into a big hardware store, while it’s closed. While the club’s theme descriptions tend to be quite specific, I invite you to explore the most unusual sounds that can be found in your tool drawer.  For me, it’ll be about the curious use of a given tool, as well as a unique space and recording perspective.  “Play” with the object and hone in on the unexpected.  Perhaps: use a vice clamp under water in your sink.  Or, roll a screw around in a bottle.  You could, turn a screw into a turnip with contact mics on it!  Why not? Who knows what you’ll end up with!”  So, rather than simply collecting literal sounds, we need to use tools as a starting point for interesting sound creation.  A wide variety of outcomes are possible, though I’d imagine an element of friction or impact will be common to most of them.  Rhythmic?  Mechanical?  Organic?  See what you can come up with – it’ll be interesting to see how many tools are actually recognisable in the sounds.  Do mention the name of the tool that you use and include a picture whenever possible; that might be particularly handy for this theme.   Just to be clear – no signal processing should take place.  This is about imaginative use of props, locations, mics and recording techniques to get interesting new sounds.  This is a bit more of an open-ended brief this month, so do shout out below or e-mail me if you aren’t sure of anything or have any questions.