Bells

(please excuse the headlamp glare, but we had all the lights out in the foundry)

Lately, I have been a bit bell crazy. I have been running around trying to find interesting bells for a new Rabbit Ears Audio SFX library. I love recording when I’m building libraries, but I also truly love the research. My bell recording has taken me to a percussionist, an historic barge with old nautical bells, and a working bell foundry in Maine.

At every location each proprietor was passionate and extremely accommodating. In the case of the barge, the owner was thrilled that someone expressed an interest in his passion: old historical shipping on New York waterways. In Maine, they are trying to keep an old art alive in the US (there are only a few foundries left). And part of a percussionist’s job is to have the right tools to make unique sounds when scores call for it.

This bell is a 16″ bronze nautical bell recorded at the bell foundry

This is a bell plate, which is a rectangular steel slab suspended from a rope.

Recording Geek Note:  Rig consists of Schoeps CMC5’s setup for MS, with the MK4 as the mid. It was all tracked to a Sound Devices 744T at 24/96.