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This recording is my first day testing the DIY hydrophones from the amazing Instructable by Jules Ryckebush. It is actually recorded at my second location for the day as the first location just had too many crackles and pops from mussels living under the dock. You can still hear them in the recording from this location, as you can cars passing over the concrete bridge; what is really interesting is what sounds like a clucking and croaking at different distances. At first, I thought this was dolphins but after recording some recently and doing more research on underwater sound have concluded they are most likely Croakers. An abundant fish in the Seal Beach area that gets its name from the croaking sound it makes. 

Recorded at the mouth of the San Gabriel River on the bridge that connects Long Beach to Seal Beach.

I will be doing some more research on those sounds. I would love to record from this location at night but the homeless camp nearby tells that may not be safe. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this recording.

Hydrophones under the bridge to Seal Beach

Variations on a theme. One pattern from an Alesis HR16 processed using the drum destruction glitching patchbay.
There is no swing programmed on this pattern. Its just the circuit bent effects doing weird things to the sounds and making it groove.

Circuit bent Alesis HR16 groove loop

Not sure this will be enjoyable to many people but:

These are the sounds of aquatic organisms recorded with a hydrophone via a Hologram Microcosm Granular/Looper/Delay/Pitch shifting pedal.  The Microcosm manipulated the sounds of aquatic organisms to create some mad soundscapes.

Recorded with: 

Sound Devices MixPre3 mk2
Aquarian Audio H2D Hydrophone
Hologram Microcosm
at Cliffe Pools, Kent, 15/2/2024

Hydrophone to MixPre3, the output of the MixPre went to the Microcosm and the output of that back into the MixPre3.

Pond Songs 2

**Sound is compresses and quite because of soundcloud,SoundCloud recommends exporting at 48kHz when they know it ruins the audio that people work tirelessly on*
Caradon Hill Cornwall UK
Wind and pylons: interference and resonance
Sounds in the wires

Sound Devices 302 D mixer
Zoom F3
X6 contact mics

I harbour a profound appreciation for pylons and wires. It seems to me that pylons are a great example of multifaceted noise.
The Sonic noise above my head out of reach fizzing and crackle in the ether as high voltages zip and zap along the cables. It’s a noisy sound. crispy crackly textures, at once constant and moving, static and dynamic. 

The wind and rain at Caradon hill as every visit are intense and unrelenting, fog obscures the towers, sheep and landscape, closing down my visual field and opening up my auditory perception. I attach my contact mics directly to the wire as the wind whistles off the wires and send vibrational drones that I record and listen to over hours attuning to the rhythms, harmonies and dissonance vibrations.

The natural frequencies of the wire are determined by the integer harmonics of the fundamental. In very long wires such as the wires here reach at their pinnacle 780ft which are also very thick the fundamental is well below one Hertz. As I listen to wind, and tension of the wires as the wind contorts them creating higher harmonic frequencies which fall into the auditory range of humans (I am interested how the sheep and birds perceive these sounds). The very high harmonics become so crowded they cease to have discrete frequencies but rather tend to beat together, creating second-order frequencies of lower pitch. the length of the wire a family of interacting segments, each with its own fundamental within the auditory range sing in the wind. There is a vocal-like quality of the wires vibrating in the wind containing the sound of numerous ‘voices’, each competing for harmonic dominance.

The method of fixing the contact mics is an art in itself with  no single best method. Rather, attunment and knowledge of wing and weather patterns in which different conditions require different methods, which are established by rre-visits and experimentation.

Caradon Hill Transmission Mast Cornwall UK

Composed on an acid trip when I was 17. Performed by my high school orchestra at every concert my senior year.

Andante For String Orchestra

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POTAR is the noisy alter-ego of Michael Winchester; sound designer, instrument builder, and field recordist.

Hydrophones under the bridge to Seal Beach

Winchester Sound (POTAR)

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