Various experiments in the lab at Hideaway Studio to listen in and explore a secret world of reflected and modulated light in the audio-frequency domain from various sources in everyday life.

Literally listening to shadows, no microphones were used to make any of these recordings - they were entirely made using light sources and analog high-gain photo-sensors.  I've dubbed this new technique The Optical Microphone...

Concept & Recordings Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022-2025.

The Optical Microphone... (Optically Generated Audio Experiments)

Another experiment with sound from light that has left me really quite suprised....

During my experimentation with the oscilloscope based Oramics waveform generator concept I got curious and placed the light sensor in front of an old EM84 Magic Eye tube which I built into a tube VCA I built many years ago for the Blue Zone sample library project...  I was expecting nothing but a distorted massively muffled horror but what came out the other end was quite a surprise!  Needless to say, the position of the sensor over the window of the magic eye is fairly critical and can wildly alter the degree of distortion.  Its hardly hi-fi but the effect is definitely interesting - its added all sorts of weird darkness and mangled dynamics all over my little piano patch I made on the Alesis Micron in the workshop!  :)

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Sound of Modulated Light From Old "Magic Eye" Tube... (Optical Sound Experiment)

Optically reflected sound from the grooves of an 70 year old classical music 78rpm shellac record... 

Recorded over at least 10 grooves at a time using an analog optical sensor resulting in a bizarre ghostly droning effect.  The optical sensor was fixed to a surface some distance from the record to capture the modulated reflections.  It took a great deal of concentration to position the light source by hand at the correct angle to catch the inside of the groove and reflect it towards the light sensor whilst moving it slowly across the surface of the record!  To be honest, I was truly amazed it worked this well.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Sound of Reflected Light From An Old 78 Record... (Optical Sound Experiment)

Optically reflected sound from  the surface of a chrome pan lid and a biscuit tin lid...

The pan lid was lit using a torch light and the resulting reflections picked up by the optical sensor in 4 positions and then mixed together as partials in stereo.  The result was quite a surprise as the nodes of vibration were clearly different from one position to another resulting not only in a nice stereo effect but producing some interesting partials.

NB: This demo was made using samples made with the blended partials taken from these recordings.

The biscuit tin was an earlier experiment using a single recording.  It was surprisingly effective for a humble tin lid!

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Sound of Reflected Light from Pan Lid & Biscuit Tin (Optical Sound Experiment)

The sound created by shining a flashlight through the neck of a miniature kitchen sand timer and picking up the modulated light on the other side of the glass with a photo sensor.  At the end of the recording you can hear the individual grains of sand landing as the timer empties resulting in something that sounds 100 times its size.  If you put this thing to your ear you cannot hear anything at all!

NB: It gets louder and more "grainy" towards the end as the sand level gets higher and closer to the point the light was aimed at.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Sound of Light Through A Tiny Sand Timer (Optical Sound Experiment)

Made by splashing water creating ripples in a pan whilst shining a bright light onto it and directly receiving the resulting audio frequency domain modulated reflected light some distance away with a photo sensor as sound.  The resulting raw audio was overdubbed 4 times at different points into the recording and various pan positions to create a pseudo-stereo effect. More sound from light recordings here: 

https://soundcloud.com/hideaway-studio/sets/sound-from-light-optically

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Sound of Light Reflected From Water Ripples (Optical Sound Experiment)

This is what happens if you place a Picardie tumbler upside down on a turntable, shine a light at it, and pickup the resulting reflected light with a photo sensor :)

I found by carefully moving the position of the light and the sensor it was possible to "perform" the chopper fly-by effect with all manner of interesting sonic artefacts coming out in the process thanks to the imperfections in the glass.

Concept, Sound Design & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Sound of Light Reflected From Rotating Picardie Glass (Optical Sound Experiment)

This recording was made by shining a light through a small model sail ship measuring less than 6 inches tall and positioned in front of a fan.. as the wind flapped the tiny sails, and made the ropes sing in sympathy the resulting modulated light was captured with eight positions of the photo-sensor carefully placed to pickup the edges of the moving surfaces.  The resulting audio from the sensor was then equalised, mixed and panned in stereo.  All of the sounds in this recording were made with this optical setup.  No microphones were used to make this recording and no reverb was used. 

Concept, Sound Design & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2022.

Sound of Light Through A Model Sail Ship In The Wind (Optical Sound Experiment)

Ever wonder what happens if you shine a flashlight through a glass full of water, olive oil and marbles, give it a spin and then record the resulting modulated shadows of light on the other side of the glass with an optical sensor?

All sounds from the optical sensor bar the rain which was courtesy of our back garden one soaking wet afternoon.

Incidentally, the long reverb tails on the thunder claps were the result of the contents of the glass slowly coming to a halt - only a very short reverb was added to increase the effect of outside ambience.

Concept, Sound Design & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Sound of Light Through Oil, Water & Marbles (Optical Sound Experiment)

This was not recorded with a microphone but made by shining a light through a glass beaker full of water whilst dropping an effervescent Vitamin-C tablet into it and recording the modulated light on the far side of the beaker with a photo sensor whilst it dissolved.  Multiple takes were recorded and layered together at various pan positions to create a pseudo stereo effect.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2023.

Sound of Light Thru Effervescent Vit-C Tablet... (Optical Sound)

Made by shining torch light through the glass envelope of a 1960s electron tube focused onto the halo getter wire at the top inside and then placing the Optical Mic on the edge of its shadow on the wall a couple of feet away. Whilst repeatedly tapping the tube I was eventually able to capture the tiny vibration of the halo wire resonating like a tuning fork by picking up the audio modulated light cast on the wall using the optical microphone. The resulting recording was noise reduced in iZotopeRX and then looped and transposed.  Like a lot of the experimental optical recordings I've made, the alignment is critical and I doubt a normal microphone would have picked up much of this through the glass envelope. Similarly, if a conventional contact microphone had been employed, the tiny vibrations from the halo wire would have been completely swamped by me thwacking the glass envelope of the tube with the rubber mallet.

A tube getter commonly consists of a metal wire structure (in this case, shaped like a halo but some have a rectangular profile) flashed with a deposit of reactive material (commonly barium) that is placed inside the tube to complete and help maintain the vacuum over time. When gas molecules strike the getter material, they combine with it chemically or by absorption to remove small amounts of gas from the evacuated glass envelope. The shiny metallic deposit often seen at the top of the inside of the glass outer is where the getter material condenses at high temperature onto the glass during manufacture.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2024.

The Optical Microphone: Tube Halo Knocker...

A segue of recordings played back at normal, twice and half speed of the sound of laser light being modulated by plumes of dust kicked up by dropping nuts and bolts into dry icing sugar in a large glass jar. The optical mic was positioned on the far side of the jar and sometimes you can just make out the glass walls pinging as the bolts land on the bottom of the jar.

The slowly building up vortex was made by swirling the icing sugar and then playing back the resulting return to still  air in reverse.

Rather like the oil in water and electrolysis experiments, since it all takes time to disperse, you get a kind of natural decay tail effect.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2025.

Sound of Light Through Icing Sugar Dust: Nut Drop Field Segue...

D.A.Wilson is an Electronic Engineer, Sound Designer & Vintage Synth Specialist with a particular interest in combining vintage tube, classic analog and modern digital technologies working as a synth engineer looking after a very considerable amount of vintage studio equipment for Will Gregory (Goldfrapp / Moog Ensemble) and a number of other internationally celebrated electronic musicians and producers.  Having undertaken several major restorations and produced custom electronic designs for a number of major artists including Jean-Michel Jarre, Dani is also known for fully restoring two out of the world's four remaining 1979 Crumar GDS and partially restoring 1938 Novachord 346 (the only known operational Novachord in the UK) to playable order along with developing and producing the new Elfin family of 8-bit polysynths and the popular MIDI Front Panel Animator (FPA), Filter Defeat Module (FDM) and XD-280 Drive Emulator upgrades for the AKAI S612 sampler.

Demos of the S612 Upgrades in Action: 

https://soundcloud.com/hideaway-studio/sets/hideaway-studios-s612-front


Hideaway Studio Kontakt Sound libraries may be purchased directly from: 
https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/hideaway-studios
 

..and a nice introduction by Cory Pelizzari to the Hideaway Studio Kontakt Libraries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-C7a3ChC9U&feature=emb_title


For more on releases from Hideaway Studio for Kontakt please visit the blog at:  www.hideawaystudio.net