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]

I was amazed by their collection of gramophones, old radios, vintage tv sets, tape recorders etc., visiting the museum recently. They were so kind, that they lately let me record, before tourists arrive.

I picked for it Neumann KMR 81, because of its low noise level (some of the sounds were very quiet) and Barcus Berry Plenar Wave 4000 contact mic – rooms in the museum are quite reverbant, so I knew it will come handy.

There isn’t much gear working and playing any sounds, but I was curious about diversity and complexity of vintage switches, buttons and knobs. I didn’t suppose how many great recordings I will get.

However, some gramophones survived and are working, so here they are (mix of shotgun and contact mics):

And switches & buttons of old radios and gramophones:

Exhibition is ordered chronologically, which gives great image of progress.

Here are WW2 military gear switches:

And a typewriter. Once again I felt in love in contact mics:

Buttons & switches from the ’50s & ’60s radios:

And radio tuning knobs:

.

Tape recorders from the ’70s:

Radios and gramophones once again (’70s & ’80s):

TV sets from the ’60s & ’70s:

… and retro phones (did I say that I love contact mics?):

The most freaky piece of gear was a Poliphone. I’m not sure if it’s working wright, but for me it was even better:

And a pitched down version:

I must say, that I prefer oldest switches which have much more character than the present plastic stuff.

So I ended up with a decent library of sounds, recorded @ 192k. Having tracks from both mics, gives great perspective and possibilities for future layering and processing sounds.