Toaster
03-11-2001, 10:30 PM
Hi folks,
I thought i`d share an experience with you folks. Its somewhat comical and the end result was still to my favor.
I do live digital recording of varying things.
I had a need for updated source media for 2 home AV systems and 3 car audio systems. All the above are high end and I needed fresh new "very taxing" digital recordings for testing purposes. I grabed my DAT recorder and off I went seeking this new media.
Fist stop, a local train yard (freight). With permission, I was allowed to set up and record provided that I not endanger myself in any way nor record "people" in conversation without consent. I was even granted a written pass to do so. I also have an experimental "transducer" of sorts that picks up only low frequencies. This transducer is actually a "matt" of sorts about 2 feet square. This, with 2 microphones, I set out to record an incoming freight train of about 20 cars. I layed the "Matt" between the tracks and tacked it down with 4 nails. The 2 microphones are fairly directional and were placed on stands about 4 foot high and 5 feet on either side of the track. I started a few trail recordings to reaquaint myself with the recorder and the "mics" to get levels and the like. The yard keeper informed me that the incoming train was about 10 minutes out and I was to set my levels and stay clear of the track by at least 25 feet. I set the levels as best I could estimate and done as the yardsman wished. In about 10 minutes, in comes the frieght train at about 30 MPH. The yardsman said the train was going through to Canada and would not stop at the yard.
I allowed the recording to continue about 5 minutes after the train had passed so that all ambient noise would return to its nominal values as when the recording started.
I then was asked to leave the yard politely and was even offered help with stowing my gear.
Next stop, the closest "international" airport.
This is the Bangor International Airport (folks call them jet ports here) and I proceeded to the security area to ask permission for access to the apron. Security could not grant access and neither could the airport manager so my recordings would have to be made in normal civilian areas.
As luck would have it, the wind was coming from the west southwest and the departing aircraft was directed over a large field. I gained permission from the land owner and set up right close to the perimeter fencing of the airport.
Here, I recorded several 7x7 class aircraft on departure, 2 "civilian" aircraft and one rather wonderfully loud military helecoptor. Odd as it was, the helecoptor returned several times overflying my posistion. After about an hour of recording, I assembled my gear and set home for audition and editing. After about 5 minutes on my drive home, I was stopped by local police who later was joined by military personell and airport security. A search of my person and my vehicle ensued which resulted in a half filled soda and my recording gear. I was arrested for trespassing on airport grounds when no legal access was granted. My charge was called "non-malicious trespassing". I informed the authorities that permission was granted by the land owner and was written. I provided this written permission of which I followed to the letter. It stated simply that this was temporary access for "non-hunting" and "non-intrusive" and "non-destructive" which could be revoked by the owners wish.
I heeded the permission to the letter, left no trash and I did not contact the fencing in any way but I was quite close. (2 feet)
Then, I spent 3 days in jail. The "jailer" was very very interested in my recordings and I permitted his auditioning them. In return, he placed the batteries of the units on a charger and made some suggestions as to other material.
On the third day, the land owner appeared and asked of my release as I held to the contract. Within hours, I was released and all charges dropped. Now, I have some great material, a new friend with the same interests and a land owner I also call friend. I also recieved from the airport manager an apology for the instance and that I call for access which would next time be granted to airport grounds.
The recordings:
These are awesome! All of which exceeded the capabilities of my recorder but the sound quality is first rate and damaging to playback equipment.
First, I dubbed via optical outputs to a mini-disk recorder so that I could playback via a portable player.
First stop, my best friends home where I assisted in an AV set-up. His set-up is quite high end and is THX certified.
This thing sounded absolutely first rate. The tranducer I made has a few bugs yet but performed well and allowed the microphones to work within thier respective specs without overloading. I however set the crossover points to high but still the recordings were fantastic. The deep bass from the frieght train was gut wrentching and even burred ones vision at high volume. My friend had the most strange grin all through the audition. In the train sequence, as the train is passing, the squeeks and squawks of the steel wheels and tracks was painfully loud but clean. During this portion of playback, the amp shut down due to overcurrent limits. The total system power of this system is 1KW RMS and had about 3db of headroom for an effective 2KW of power for limited duration. After allowing his equipment to cool and our ears time to heal (hey...someone get the phone!), it was time to try the recordings at the airport.
First subject was a large passenger liner (747 I think) taking off. This was one loud mutha humpah!
My friends video tape collection spilled onto the floor and you could hear things all over the house rattling and banging. (his wife fled for outdoor safety) Again, the amps overcurrent limiters tripped and we both dashed for the volume knob to thwart another physical beating from his speakers. After all was said and done, a speaker fuse blew and the amp was too hot to touch for nearly an hour.
His speakers are the legendary Infinity referance standard array made about 15 years ago. They boast to left and right towers housing "emit" tweeters in one tower and 6 6.5 inch polypropylene low frequency drivers plus the sub woofer enclosure we built and attached to the buildings floor joists. (2 12 inch IDQ12`s in a 1.4 foot enclosure, sealed)
The subs are powered by another legend in my eyes, a "Threshold" A500 boasting 500 watts output total and an incredible 6db of headroom. We broke 1 window, damaged a glass table top and caused a minor plumbing leak in his kitchen! Awesome, truely awesome!
After helping with damages and calming his nervous wreck wife, I set out to an car audio system I done about a year ago. At my other fiends home, he trys to reproduce these recordings on his home system. Not a bad system as a whole but it was totaly unprepaired for this type of beating.
The system clipped redily and shut down on numerous occaision. (we are now confronting the local stereo shop for upgrades BTW :) )
Next victim, the car audio system! I warned my friend that these recordings were *very* dynamic and could pose a hazzard to gear of any make. He urged I continue to the point of begging. The car audio system:
4 Furi HC-50`s (amplifiers, high current, capable of handling 1 ohn loads. Rated at 50WPC into 4 ohms)
4 Image dynamics IDQ10`s in 1.2 foot enclosures attached to the sub frame of the vehicle. (`2000 chevy suburban)
2 Image dynamics HLCDs (horn loaded compression drivers)
2 Image dynamics IDQ6.5 midbass drivers in custom "kicks".
2 IDQ32 active equilizers (mono, one per chan)
One Phoenix gold line driver.
One Phoenix gold 3 way crossover.
This system rocks bigtime!
I designed the system from the ground up for compitition use with which he nabbed 2nd place in the IASCA regionals.
The recordings posed a great hazzard however. First try at a moderate volume, the mains fuse blew (100 amp) With a 150 amp fuse the system performed very well but overtaxed the charging system of the vehicle in short order. (10 minutes @ 120 amps) Until the host battery faultered, the system was ultra clean and EXTREMELY powerful to the point of cracking the windshield and knoking the rear view mirror from its mount on the windshield. The ash tray emptied, the glove compartment lid popped open to spill its contents upon the floor and damaging his speedometer! Loud folks, plain and simple and sounding great. All the time I was poking my friend advizing caution and descretion with the volume control. Damn the torpedos he yelled, the insurance will cover it! Within about 10 minutes, the sagging output of the host vehicle alternator halted our fun and gave his suburban a reprieve for further abuse.
In the plans now are an additional battery and alternator.
All the audio equipment survived unscathed. Again, the amps were too hoot to touch for about an hour and the sub cones emmited the smell of heated voice coils.
Still, after a few checks and a jump start all was well and back to nominals. His insurance did in fact replace the windshield due to "underlying manufacturing faults" which GM is said to reimburse to company.
With a satisfying grin, I shook the hands of my impressed friends and parted for home.....this folks was fun....!
Soon, my new friend (the jailer I call jailer Jim) an I are going to the ship yards and a few other places of interest.
I hope you folks enjoyed this......
I thought i`d share an experience with you folks. Its somewhat comical and the end result was still to my favor.
I do live digital recording of varying things.
I had a need for updated source media for 2 home AV systems and 3 car audio systems. All the above are high end and I needed fresh new "very taxing" digital recordings for testing purposes. I grabed my DAT recorder and off I went seeking this new media.
Fist stop, a local train yard (freight). With permission, I was allowed to set up and record provided that I not endanger myself in any way nor record "people" in conversation without consent. I was even granted a written pass to do so. I also have an experimental "transducer" of sorts that picks up only low frequencies. This transducer is actually a "matt" of sorts about 2 feet square. This, with 2 microphones, I set out to record an incoming freight train of about 20 cars. I layed the "Matt" between the tracks and tacked it down with 4 nails. The 2 microphones are fairly directional and were placed on stands about 4 foot high and 5 feet on either side of the track. I started a few trail recordings to reaquaint myself with the recorder and the "mics" to get levels and the like. The yard keeper informed me that the incoming train was about 10 minutes out and I was to set my levels and stay clear of the track by at least 25 feet. I set the levels as best I could estimate and done as the yardsman wished. In about 10 minutes, in comes the frieght train at about 30 MPH. The yardsman said the train was going through to Canada and would not stop at the yard.
I allowed the recording to continue about 5 minutes after the train had passed so that all ambient noise would return to its nominal values as when the recording started.
I then was asked to leave the yard politely and was even offered help with stowing my gear.
Next stop, the closest "international" airport.
This is the Bangor International Airport (folks call them jet ports here) and I proceeded to the security area to ask permission for access to the apron. Security could not grant access and neither could the airport manager so my recordings would have to be made in normal civilian areas.
As luck would have it, the wind was coming from the west southwest and the departing aircraft was directed over a large field. I gained permission from the land owner and set up right close to the perimeter fencing of the airport.
Here, I recorded several 7x7 class aircraft on departure, 2 "civilian" aircraft and one rather wonderfully loud military helecoptor. Odd as it was, the helecoptor returned several times overflying my posistion. After about an hour of recording, I assembled my gear and set home for audition and editing. After about 5 minutes on my drive home, I was stopped by local police who later was joined by military personell and airport security. A search of my person and my vehicle ensued which resulted in a half filled soda and my recording gear. I was arrested for trespassing on airport grounds when no legal access was granted. My charge was called "non-malicious trespassing". I informed the authorities that permission was granted by the land owner and was written. I provided this written permission of which I followed to the letter. It stated simply that this was temporary access for "non-hunting" and "non-intrusive" and "non-destructive" which could be revoked by the owners wish.
I heeded the permission to the letter, left no trash and I did not contact the fencing in any way but I was quite close. (2 feet)
Then, I spent 3 days in jail. The "jailer" was very very interested in my recordings and I permitted his auditioning them. In return, he placed the batteries of the units on a charger and made some suggestions as to other material.
On the third day, the land owner appeared and asked of my release as I held to the contract. Within hours, I was released and all charges dropped. Now, I have some great material, a new friend with the same interests and a land owner I also call friend. I also recieved from the airport manager an apology for the instance and that I call for access which would next time be granted to airport grounds.
The recordings:
These are awesome! All of which exceeded the capabilities of my recorder but the sound quality is first rate and damaging to playback equipment.
First, I dubbed via optical outputs to a mini-disk recorder so that I could playback via a portable player.
First stop, my best friends home where I assisted in an AV set-up. His set-up is quite high end and is THX certified.
This thing sounded absolutely first rate. The tranducer I made has a few bugs yet but performed well and allowed the microphones to work within thier respective specs without overloading. I however set the crossover points to high but still the recordings were fantastic. The deep bass from the frieght train was gut wrentching and even burred ones vision at high volume. My friend had the most strange grin all through the audition. In the train sequence, as the train is passing, the squeeks and squawks of the steel wheels and tracks was painfully loud but clean. During this portion of playback, the amp shut down due to overcurrent limits. The total system power of this system is 1KW RMS and had about 3db of headroom for an effective 2KW of power for limited duration. After allowing his equipment to cool and our ears time to heal (hey...someone get the phone!), it was time to try the recordings at the airport.
First subject was a large passenger liner (747 I think) taking off. This was one loud mutha humpah!
My friends video tape collection spilled onto the floor and you could hear things all over the house rattling and banging. (his wife fled for outdoor safety) Again, the amps overcurrent limiters tripped and we both dashed for the volume knob to thwart another physical beating from his speakers. After all was said and done, a speaker fuse blew and the amp was too hot to touch for nearly an hour.
His speakers are the legendary Infinity referance standard array made about 15 years ago. They boast to left and right towers housing "emit" tweeters in one tower and 6 6.5 inch polypropylene low frequency drivers plus the sub woofer enclosure we built and attached to the buildings floor joists. (2 12 inch IDQ12`s in a 1.4 foot enclosure, sealed)
The subs are powered by another legend in my eyes, a "Threshold" A500 boasting 500 watts output total and an incredible 6db of headroom. We broke 1 window, damaged a glass table top and caused a minor plumbing leak in his kitchen! Awesome, truely awesome!
After helping with damages and calming his nervous wreck wife, I set out to an car audio system I done about a year ago. At my other fiends home, he trys to reproduce these recordings on his home system. Not a bad system as a whole but it was totaly unprepaired for this type of beating.
The system clipped redily and shut down on numerous occaision. (we are now confronting the local stereo shop for upgrades BTW :) )
Next victim, the car audio system! I warned my friend that these recordings were *very* dynamic and could pose a hazzard to gear of any make. He urged I continue to the point of begging. The car audio system:
4 Furi HC-50`s (amplifiers, high current, capable of handling 1 ohn loads. Rated at 50WPC into 4 ohms)
4 Image dynamics IDQ10`s in 1.2 foot enclosures attached to the sub frame of the vehicle. (`2000 chevy suburban)
2 Image dynamics HLCDs (horn loaded compression drivers)
2 Image dynamics IDQ6.5 midbass drivers in custom "kicks".
2 IDQ32 active equilizers (mono, one per chan)
One Phoenix gold line driver.
One Phoenix gold 3 way crossover.
This system rocks bigtime!
I designed the system from the ground up for compitition use with which he nabbed 2nd place in the IASCA regionals.
The recordings posed a great hazzard however. First try at a moderate volume, the mains fuse blew (100 amp) With a 150 amp fuse the system performed very well but overtaxed the charging system of the vehicle in short order. (10 minutes @ 120 amps) Until the host battery faultered, the system was ultra clean and EXTREMELY powerful to the point of cracking the windshield and knoking the rear view mirror from its mount on the windshield. The ash tray emptied, the glove compartment lid popped open to spill its contents upon the floor and damaging his speedometer! Loud folks, plain and simple and sounding great. All the time I was poking my friend advizing caution and descretion with the volume control. Damn the torpedos he yelled, the insurance will cover it! Within about 10 minutes, the sagging output of the host vehicle alternator halted our fun and gave his suburban a reprieve for further abuse.
In the plans now are an additional battery and alternator.
All the audio equipment survived unscathed. Again, the amps were too hoot to touch for about an hour and the sub cones emmited the smell of heated voice coils.
Still, after a few checks and a jump start all was well and back to nominals. His insurance did in fact replace the windshield due to "underlying manufacturing faults" which GM is said to reimburse to company.
With a satisfying grin, I shook the hands of my impressed friends and parted for home.....this folks was fun....!
Soon, my new friend (the jailer I call jailer Jim) an I are going to the ship yards and a few other places of interest.
I hope you folks enjoyed this......