ADAD1001 Shenanigans

Touch Noise: Final Artwork & Concept Statement

In Pia van Gelder’s Noble Wave, a team of artists record the sounds of Mount Feathertop in Victoria, Australia. The organic sounds are accompanied by vision of the artists themselves, sitting peacefully with their instruments. Inspired by this, I looked into sonic art, starting out with a simple microphone plugged into a computer, recording the sounds of plastic, aluminium and rubber. Continuing on from my chosen weekly theme (experimentation), eventually I read ‘Handmade Electronic Music’ by Nicolas Collins, an accomplished sound artist himself.

Using the book as a guide, I set out to create my very own, homemade contact microphone. I used a singular piezo element, along with an old XLR audio cable and a 6.5mm jack plug to make the mic. I purchased soldering equipment, electrical tape and industrial-grade rubberised plastic and followed the series of experiments. I learnt so much about cable anatomy, soldering technique, the circuitry of microphones and electrical safety (breathing solder fumes is actually bad for you…).

The result was a fully functional piezo microphone: I couldn't believe I succeeded in creating it myself. It was also waterproof, thanks to the rubberised coating. What I learnt about these mics is that they are not a regular microphone – they only pick up sounds through contact and vibrations, not acoustically. Armed with this amazing tool to see the world in a whole new way, I set out to capture the unheard frequencies in our world.

Assessment 3 Experimentation

Here are some of the materials I experimented with, using the piezo microphone to pick up and amplify the small sounds.

Inspired by Pia van Gelder’s Noble Wave, I decided to pick up the mic and head outside to record the sounds of nature. Using the mic, I moved it against the plant, producing an unpleasant, rough sound. I also moved it around in dirt and soil, picking up the noises of leaves, twigs and branches as it moved past them.

I also immersed the microphone in water, taking advantage of its waterproof abilities. I picked up the swooshing sounds of the mic moving around in the water, almost nothing like the sounds of a regular acoustic microphone in water. Using an eye dropper, I dropped water directly onto the microphone. While this was plugged into the amplifier, I applied delays and reverb to create a trippy effect.

While plugged into the amplifier, I created a feedback loop by placing the microphone directly on the body of the amplifier. It created interesting high-pitched squeals and deep, low, bassy notes as I moved it around the speaker grill. The sounds I got were different each time. It was interesting to see that a feedback loop still occurs with a contact microphone, and isn’t just limited to regular mics.

Assessment 3 Experimentation

Editing the audio in Audacity (w00h00 for Audition expiring). The final audio piece consists of 10 individual tracks and from various experimentation with the piezo mic on various materials.

Things that I experimented with were trees, leaves, dirt, soil, guitar strings, water (since it’s covered in Plasti Dip, it’s waterproof), plastic rulers, and the mechanical ticking sound of clocks and wrist watches.

Since the tracks were recorded in mono, for many of the tracks, I created faux stereo. I did this by duplicating the mono track, placing it underneath the original, and then shifting it slightly to the left or right. Then I panned one track to the extreme left, and the other to the extreme right. This creates the Haas Effect, providing a filled stereo field.

I also normalised the overall sound profile of the piece, as clipping was present on many of the tracks. Since I’m using a piezo mic directly soldered onto a 6.5mm cable going straight into the amplifier, there is no pre-amplification or pre-processing of the input signal. By normalising the max peaks to 0 decibels, it makes it slightly easier to listen to.

I experimented with the various settings available, including reverb to allow for the transitions. In the reverb settings, I applied maximum reverberance, room size and dampened the sound, creating a soft fade-out.

Assessment 3 Experimentation

Assessment 3 Experimentation

The next step in making the piezo contact microphone was to add a coating of rubberized paint over it. This would allow the microphone to be waterproof, and allow for underwater recordings, essentially doubling it as a hydrophone too.

Assessment 3 Experimentation

With the materials I had mentioned in my previous posts, I set out to build my homemade contact microphone. For this, I found an old XLR audio cable that I didn’t need anymore, and cut the end off. I then stripped away the outer cable, pulled away the insulation, and then stripped the inner core.

It was interesting to see the anatomy of the cable. There was like... cotton wrapped around the outer copper layer (1st pic). I then tinned the ends of the wires with solder (I realised I hadn’t soldered since year 8) and it took me several tries to get it saturated properly. But I got the hang of it eventually.

Then, I used a wire stripper and peeled back some of the piezo disc’s insulation. I soldered the respective ends of the mic to the cable. I repeated this process on the other end of the cable, soldering the two wires onto a 6.5mm (1/4″ jack) plug that goes into a standard guitar amplifier.

Lastly, I held everything together with some black electrical tape and put some over the piezo element itself to protect the delicate solder joints. It did muffle the audio’s high end a bit, but it was needed to keep the connections stable.

Assessment 3 Research

Nicolas Collins also has made a very comprehensive text that provides several tutorials on DIY and hacking devices to produce electronic music, as pointed out to me by my tutor. I’ve decided to follow the homemade contact microphone experiment, which utilises a Piezo disk as a pickup for sounds through mechanical vibrations. You can get some awesome sounds from this.

Assessment 3 Research

Nicolas Collins - Tobabo Fonio (1986)

Week 12: Chance

Assessment 3 Research

Week 11 (Repetition) Class Exercise

Assessment 3 Experimentation

Assessment 3 Experimentation

Using an electric guitar amplifier, I connected a microphone in and got some everyday household items lying around (rubber bands, aluminium foil, plastic ruler and plastic bag), as well as a maraca (lol). I wanted to capture the 'sounds' of these items, by handling them, rubbing things against each other, etc.

I applied distortion, heavy reverb and delay to the output sound. I recorded each material separately. The aluminium foil sounded thundery and the rubber band sounded like farts.

Assessment 3 Research

Artist for Asessment 3: Pia van Gelder.

As we look around our world today, we see that society is becoming increasingly dependent on the material. Much of our society’s progress relies on the extraction, refining and manufacturing of the world’s natural resources into something that is harvestable. Pia van Gelder’s Bio Synth Workshop, a “hands-on instrument building experiment” aims to marry the organic and natural with the man-made and technological, fusing two worlds which are radically apart.

Our initial experimentation with the project saw us directly harness the raw electrical energy latent in lemons and potatoes. We connected these fruits and vegetables in series using zinc and copper plates, and measured the total voltage and current output using multimeters. These foods were eventually used to power single LEDs. In addition to this, we extracted the juices from raspberries, blueberries and spinach leaves to create paint. This experimentation had a sense of primality to it; a raw process that people must have gone through throughout history to create different pigments. Fashion items, such as jewellery, were created from grapes sewn together. Reminiscent of the 19th century, the jewellery was naturalistic, using flowers and fruits.

Our response to Pia’s Bio Synth Workshop was to combine the organic with the technological, and go above and beyond what the original artwork had set out to do, which was to provide a platform for experimentation using plants and circuits.

To do this, we set out to create a small-scale fictional town that is powered by only fruits and vegetables, and has a basis in all things biological. We used a variety of different paints and materials such as paper, cardboard, Styrofoam, dirt, boxes, plants and soil.