Some time ago I was invited to become consultant of Museum of Municipal Engineering in Krakow for international project Work with Sounds.
The aim of the project is to record and share (!) sounds of professions and industrial soundscapes passing away. It unites six museums of technology from EU.
What a fantastic idea. I am so happy that people start considering sound as a heritage.
And what is even more exciting for us sound designers, is that all sounds recorded during this project will be shared for free, under Creative Commons license.
Take a look at the project site, there are tons of unique, vintage sounds waiting to listen and download.
Recently we went to Łódź, city in central Poland, which was famous for its textile industry evolved in 19th century. In a beautiful former factory made of brick Museum of Textile is located, where weaving workshop is recreated and where you can see (and record…) old textile machinery in motion.
I took almost all my gear with me, since I knew there will be lots of interesting spots to put mics in.
My setup was: Neumann KMR 81 & KM 120 MS kit recording on Sound Devices 702, DPA 4060’s pair recording on Sony PCM D50 with Sound Devices MixPre as a front end, plus Sennheiser MKH 815, Barcus Berry contact mic and a pair of JrF C-series contact mics recording on Zoom H6.
Below are some sounds which I recorded there, full mixes as well individual mics.
Crochet machine. Idle and working.
[Mics order: FullMix, DPA’s, Neumann MS, 815, Barcus Berry, JrF’s]
Mechanical Looms. Narrow and half-wide.
[Mics order: FullMix, DPA’s, Neumann MS, 815, Barcus Berry, JrF’s]
Winder machines.
[Mics order: FullMix, DPA’s, Neumann MS, 815, Barcus Berry, JrF’s]
Directionality of MKH 815 is great for recording this kind of sound sources and gives large variety of textures.
I can’t imagine how insanely loud it was at those times, when there was hundreds of looms working at the same time in a factory. Those machines during their work look like living organisms with all its parts moving very fast (like 16m/s). The floor was vibrating so I placed contact mics on it.
Weaving workshop machines.
[Mics order: FullMix, DPA’s, Neumann MS, H6 XY, Barcus Berry, JrF’s]
At the end of the session I recorded this amazing small machine. It could be great source for small steam punk something.
[Mics order: FullMix, Neumann MS, 815]
