Back in early December, New York City was hit with a number of windy days and there was a whole lotta shaking going on everywhere. The windows were rattling, creaking, and making all sorts of sounds I never heard before. After a few days of shaking, I decided to hit the stairwell of my apartment building because that is where all of the action was. I set up the rig on the stairs and returned about 40 minutes later.
That’s the top of the stairwell, and the doorway to the roof never seems securely closed, but hey, it does come with an alarm that beeps.
When the wind and the hail kicked up, the real star of the show ended up being the skylight above the door:
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/9272049″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]
The scary thing is if I close my eyes I can’t tell if it is heavy wind and hail or if it some crazy kid crashing a bunch of shopping carts together in a parking lot.
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.
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Raphael. Michael Raphael said: New Fieldsepulchra blog post, Windy Stairwell: http://t.co/ig0v5Fa #fieldrecording #sounddesign #sfx […]
Is it the windows and the wind alone that makes all the sounds or are there any trees or such involved?
I’ll try to capture my stairwell on a windy day for comparison, it emits this whining noise that’s kind of eerie. My stairwell ain’t as dramatic as your stairwell though.
No trees. It is just a rickety old building.
Wow. What cacophony! Like nothing I’ve actually ever heard before. Superb capture, Michael!
Thanks Nathan. I’m still creeped out by it.
mmm very soothing. I can imagine you sleep very well when the wind picks up. The clip could work well as a type of percussive backdrop though.