Canopy Test & Other News
Wednesday, August 10th, 2022 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioOff the top, no worries about that pool pump last night!.. it did shut off, and even when it was still running, I didn't hear it in the recording. A ton of nervous panic on my part!
The first full test recording of crickets with the basket in the grass didn't have any nearby field crickets to be worth hearing. But I did listen through the whole hour, and noticed that the sound quality of everything else, down there low to the grass, was noticeably different.
Cars and trains had a lot more bass than I'm used to, which makes sense, because the earth transmits bass signals better than the air. And the bush crickets weren't as harsh.
This technique has promise, but I need field crickets down in the grass near the recorder before I can prove the concept.
Out of the hour long recording, I did get a good clip of a checktail checking, for Dial.
In case you were still a bit confused, this track should make it more plain what the forktail katydids sound like... AKA, the chick bugs, AKA, the checktails.
------------{=0=}------------
Okay! Now, as promised, I did get out there today and finally installed the canopy hoist!
I tested with extension poles and a six foot ladder, but could not get anywhere NEAR that limb with the crook I identified yesterday. It was just too high.
So, I DID end up just chucking the wooden weight at it from the ground, hoping to get it over. But my first five throws were way off, and it was landing in random fringe branches... but finally I did catch a break.
I managed to hook it over a stub sticking out of the next lower limb. And it was on there so good, I could not get it off, no matter what I tried. So I took it as the universe telling me to just go with it.
You'll notice this is not my wood weight made from a table lamp stand. I did use the wood weight to get it over... but later on in the process I realized it wasn't heavy enough, so it was replaced with what you see... which is a huge, 1 1/2" socket I happened to have buried in a forgotten tool box.
I haven't measured, but it's at least a good 25 feet up off the ground... a little higher than the peak of the rooftop.
The line comes down at a steep angle to, Pulley A, on the SCOP, then feeds down to, Pulley B, on the opposite side of the tower...
Pulley B, as shown here, feeds the line UP to the crank.
The crank axle, and washers were greased before assembly. And after it was installed, it's doing it's job perfectly!
I have to guide the line a bit on the uptake to keep it on the spool, but otherwise it does a great job of taking up and feeding out the slack!
the new weight uses the same eye bolt solution as the original weight... same S-hook, etc. And when fully lowered, almost touches the ground.
Also, I just love this shot of the SCOP looking all crooked like that! This whole idea is just so cartoonish and romantic, I can't stand it! But it WORKS!
--<>--
At 8PM (sunset), I started the S8 recording... put it into the basket, that was hung from the hook... and winched it all the way up into the canopy.
Then I left it record until 9PM... winched it back down, and turned it off!
The resulting track was impressive! The Cicada signal was way stronger! The hour long track could be my 2022 dusk track, if I don't get anything better! But for now, I uploaded fifteen minutes of it as a test track, and proof of concept.
Just as things sounded different from down in the grass last night, things do sound very different from way up in the mulberry tree!
The cars and dogs are still very present... but do not sound nearly as annoying from up high, because the cicadas are louder!
And when planes go over, they really fill the sky in a way they don't from closer to the ground.
------------{=0=}------------
Last night's basket test over the grass, and today's basket test up high in the canopy have both shown me that ANYTHING sounds better than just plopping the S8 at normal human standing height, on a jungle gym, like I did in 2020 and 2021.
I do think the key to creating some truly magical tracks this year will be in feathering together takes from way down low, with takes way up high, and back again.
It's gonna take a lot of recording, since I only have one S8, but if I do it right, these tracks... which people are meant to either meditate or dream to... should give the listener a very ethereal sense of floating around in the sound space.
------------{=0=}------------
As I write, the S8 is out there after dark doing a noctournal canopy test, from up in the Mulberry.
I'll upload a test of that recording and tell you about it tomorrow.
--<>--
But tomorrow is also the day I take Snoop & Prowly to the vet to get checked out. So I'll tell you about that too.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
The first full test recording of crickets with the basket in the grass didn't have any nearby field crickets to be worth hearing. But I did listen through the whole hour, and noticed that the sound quality of everything else, down there low to the grass, was noticeably different.
Cars and trains had a lot more bass than I'm used to, which makes sense, because the earth transmits bass signals better than the air. And the bush crickets weren't as harsh.
This technique has promise, but I need field crickets down in the grass near the recorder before I can prove the concept.
Out of the hour long recording, I did get a good clip of a checktail checking, for Dial.
In case you were still a bit confused, this track should make it more plain what the forktail katydids sound like... AKA, the chick bugs, AKA, the checktails.
Okay! Now, as promised, I did get out there today and finally installed the canopy hoist!
I tested with extension poles and a six foot ladder, but could not get anywhere NEAR that limb with the crook I identified yesterday. It was just too high.
So, I DID end up just chucking the wooden weight at it from the ground, hoping to get it over. But my first five throws were way off, and it was landing in random fringe branches... but finally I did catch a break.
I managed to hook it over a stub sticking out of the next lower limb. And it was on there so good, I could not get it off, no matter what I tried. So I took it as the universe telling me to just go with it.
You'll notice this is not my wood weight made from a table lamp stand. I did use the wood weight to get it over... but later on in the process I realized it wasn't heavy enough, so it was replaced with what you see... which is a huge, 1 1/2" socket I happened to have buried in a forgotten tool box.
I haven't measured, but it's at least a good 25 feet up off the ground... a little higher than the peak of the rooftop.
The line comes down at a steep angle to, Pulley A, on the SCOP, then feeds down to, Pulley B, on the opposite side of the tower...
Pulley B, as shown here, feeds the line UP to the crank.
The crank axle, and washers were greased before assembly. And after it was installed, it's doing it's job perfectly!
I have to guide the line a bit on the uptake to keep it on the spool, but otherwise it does a great job of taking up and feeding out the slack!
the new weight uses the same eye bolt solution as the original weight... same S-hook, etc. And when fully lowered, almost touches the ground.
Also, I just love this shot of the SCOP looking all crooked like that! This whole idea is just so cartoonish and romantic, I can't stand it! But it WORKS!
At 8PM (sunset), I started the S8 recording... put it into the basket, that was hung from the hook... and winched it all the way up into the canopy.
Then I left it record until 9PM... winched it back down, and turned it off!
The resulting track was impressive! The Cicada signal was way stronger! The hour long track could be my 2022 dusk track, if I don't get anything better! But for now, I uploaded fifteen minutes of it as a test track, and proof of concept.
Just as things sounded different from down in the grass last night, things do sound very different from way up in the mulberry tree!
The cars and dogs are still very present... but do not sound nearly as annoying from up high, because the cicadas are louder!
And when planes go over, they really fill the sky in a way they don't from closer to the ground.
Last night's basket test over the grass, and today's basket test up high in the canopy have both shown me that ANYTHING sounds better than just plopping the S8 at normal human standing height, on a jungle gym, like I did in 2020 and 2021.
I do think the key to creating some truly magical tracks this year will be in feathering together takes from way down low, with takes way up high, and back again.
It's gonna take a lot of recording, since I only have one S8, but if I do it right, these tracks... which people are meant to either meditate or dream to... should give the listener a very ethereal sense of floating around in the sound space.
As I write, the S8 is out there after dark doing a noctournal canopy test, from up in the Mulberry.
I'll upload a test of that recording and tell you about it tomorrow.
But tomorrow is also the day I take Snoop & Prowly to the vet to get checked out. So I'll tell you about that too.
°¦}
