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Part one - Piezoelectric contact transducer secured to a stranded cable guy wire supporting a radio tower. The guy wire is probably 100-150 feet long, tower is about 250 feet high. You will hear sounds traveling through the long steel elements of the wire and also the tower as well. There a strobe light on the very top of this tower. When it flashes, it makes small, mechanical noise that travels through the entire tower and all the guy wires. You can hear this as a 'pinging' sound. I also plucked the guy wire like a guitar string. This is how they made the famous sound effect in Star Wars. Since Steel is a dispersive medium, the sounds start high in frequency and then fall to low frequency. Piezo element directly connected to line input (Not mic input) of a Marantz PMD660
Type
Wave (.wav)
Duration
6:42.742
File size
33.9 MB
Sample rate
44100.0 Hz
Bit depth
16 bit
Channels
Mono
16 years, 4 months ago
Super recording! I work for a group of radio stations, and this sound has long been one of my favorites. Another is when a strong wind blows through a bunch of guy wires- sounds like a bad horror film storm soundtrack...
16 years, 6 months ago
I love these sounds. You can get a similar effect with a steel slinky toy, which is just like a long steel cable, but conveniently coiled up! I find the best effect is achieved by hooking one end over a stiff piece of card, stretching it out, then plucking the other end. I'm sure some great recordings could be made of this.
16 years, 7 months ago
Piezeos can be very high output, so yeah, this was directly into the line input. Eevn then, the gain knob was pretty low.
bpenman - I later found out that the electronics for the strobe were located in the building at the base of the tower. So the sound is generated by the pulse of electricity going through the wires. The wires go through some mechanical motion; it soulds like they slap against the inside of the conduit leading up the tower.
When I first heard this sound, I didn't have any recorder with me; and that's all I could think about for a loong time until I could get back there are record it.
16 years, 7 months ago
This is really amazing! I am amazed that the strobe is causing that much sound proliferation down the "guy-wire" from 250 feet up!
16 years, 9 months ago
This is so cool. And you recorded it directly to a line input? Amazing.