Mic Challenge [Found Sound-Field Recording]

[MarcoGrouch]

Well I asked if people were hyped on this idea or not, and while I didn't get too much feedback, all of it was positive so I guess this is a go.

Foley-Field Recording-Mic Challenge

the simple explanation is:
no music samples
no synths
no subsonic
no noise generator or vinyl sim crackle
ONLY found sounds with the SP mic
NO DAWS! DAWs are entirely too powerful [and too easy to use] for audio manipulation
make one track per week, can be whatever you want as long as it is 100% manipulated field recordings

There is no battle, no poll at the end of the week due to the fact that there will never be any sample picking. This thread will continue on indefinitely as long as people enjoy this challenge. Every week you make whatever you want out of found sounds. People'll give you props if what you did is sick. People could comment on their favorites or give every track from that week a critique like the current battle format. Every Monday-Sunday is a new track. What will be encouraged is to ask about sounds you like that other people made. Hopefully we will all discover new weird techniques of our own, and then share all of them with each other and then combine techniques. Even if no one asks, share if you figured out something cool during the course of making the track. Don't worry about not making bangers, no one is expecting you to. This is a drastically different approach to the way most people use SPs. I haven't even owned an SP that long. This is about experimenting. Just having an ambient texture at the end of the week is totally acceptable. I don't want anyone to be intimidated by this challenge as if it's elitist or something. The rules are kind of strict [only so we can get better at this specific area] but I want this to be PURELY fun and I don't want anyone worrying about not having an LBJ tape at the end of the first week. I'm actually not expecting to see much hip hop at all [but I may be surprised] I really hope the majority of you guys are interested in this and the idea takes off.

stipulations: I realize I have to make some leeway on the different SPs. While I do want this to kind of be an SP only stay-in-the-box to learn it fully type of deal, that kind of excludes every SP except the 404 & 555 [202 can definitely do some weird stuff with foley but it's still lacking] If you use a 202 then resampling onto another medium is allowed but using any type of signal manipulation on said medium is a no-go. If you use a 303 [and a 404] you could just record the sample onto the 404 [WITHOUT FX] and dump it into the 303. If your only SP is a 303 you can use a mic [cheaper shittier mics would be better to be more in line with the 404 integrated mic] and I'm kind of confused because I can't figure out if the 505 has a mic port or not. For guys with multiple SPs, every new track you start on a fresh week could be a different SP. This is already way too long and hopefully I can edit this down at a later time once everyone is comfortable with the format. Make some weird shit and have fun!

[DM/AstroPrince]

So just to clarify, it's cool if I record with my 202 mic and resample back into my 505 for manipulation/sequencing?

[janglesoul]

Sounds like a good reason for bringing the SP with me while commuting to work. The season around here is so rainy and wet that it might be risky taking it out ... oh wait... Burial!
I'm up for it!

[TheDingo]

Is it cool if I use my iPhone's mic or does it need to be the sp's mic?

[MarcoGrouch]

astro: yeah as long as you do it on hifi... so I just found a back view of the 505 and it has a mic port for those who don't have 202s

jangle: rain gonna be gooooooooooooood

dingo: well the challenge is supposed to simulate if you have a battery powered SP with nothing else and a totally empty sample bank [in theory] but I guess that's kind of best-case scenario. realistically I can understand if you don't wanna risk taking the 404 outside or something like that, I'm trying to figure out myself if I really want to risk bringing the SX outside damn idk, I wanna say try to use the mic and see what kind of weird shit you can do with it but I guess you can use the phone if trying out the sp mic is absolutely giving you an aneurysm

[DM/AstroPrince]

This sounds dope, I'm keen as beans

[janglesoul]

Let's just clarify the word found.
If I walk around and happen to see a charming garbage can, looking lonely and extremely silent.

Can I kick it?

[MarcoGrouch]

yeah def, you can kick it, throw a brick at it, set it on fire... whatever you want. Just to give people some ideas: smash a bag of chips, sharpen a kitchen knife, break some sticks, if you're using a phone drag the mic through some grass I'd say smash some glass but only if it's abandoned don't impose on anyone's shit. Another thing I'd say to NOT do, is use coil/contact/hydrophones cause not everyone can get those easily, although I'd love to get some myself to use with the SP once we all trade field recording secrets.

[MarcoGrouch]

https://soundcloud.com/marco-grouch/mic1

didn't really turn out how I thought it was going to, hope I can do better next week

also hope I'm not the only one who made something this week, only one day left for 'week one' tracks

but don't sweat it this is a chill zone, you can drop in and out per week whenever you feel like it

[jetson]

Well done Marco...but you need to "splain yo'self" Like, if you post something, can you tell us a little about the samples?

[MarcoGrouch]

I made this challenge, you can't tell me what to do! [hhahah just kidding]

the crinkling is just me flipping through a notebook, the kick drum is me pounding the table that the sp was resting on, the snare is just the kick drum with the lows cut and the mid boosted, and the sub is just the transient of the kick drum looped. I wanted to do so much more like run around my kitchen but... next week! I'll be sure to get way more sources for sure

oh yeah the 'riser' buildup is just me blowing air out of my mouth and getting slowly closer to the mic, and I think the hi hat is just the resampled snare, cut both lows and mids, then cut off the transient so it was 'soft', the re-comp'd it so it had a bit of a transient again.... not sure if you just wanted the samples or the processing explanation too... I hope you'll participate in next week's [or do a quick microwave for this week's, still got today to do so]

[jetson]

awesome, thanks!

i think it's cool to hear how the original sound was created...even without the processing. i did make an attempt yesterday, but it was so bad i deleted the banks! ha ha

i was doing a lot with my mouth and a mic...with intent to get certain sounds. maybe it would be better to gather random sounds and see what can be made with them after some chopping.

will give it another shot today - i've got two 12 year old boys running around the house today, so who knows what sounds they will make during their adventures.

[medearis]

Diggin' this.

Field sample manipulation is for real men.

[janglesoul]

Wow!
I'm really impressed. I thought it sounded great. Wonder how much the samples got treated. I have dedicated a special SD-card for my field recordings and have been collecting sounds all week. Thunder, hailstorms, busrides, trams and streetsounds, eavesdropping. Although, I will be cheating: using a Zoom H2 recorder). So, I will definitely turn something in, but it's been a busy week.

Some day!

[medearis]

I dig using my H2 as a mic for the SP. I just turn "mono mix" on and run the H2's line-out to the mic input on my 404. I also have a shitty RadioShack mic that is on a 1/4" cable for insta-sampling (which is most gangster when paired with my drum set ).

F'real though.... the Zoom's "mono mix" feature + a sampler is fuckin' wonderful!