The Sounds of Kart Racing
Join me on the trackside at a Grampian Kart Racing Club meet (14 August 2022)

Join me on the trackside at a Grampian Kart Racing Club meet (14 August 2022)
Please see my previous post and then join me as I try to record the tranquil sounds of the River Deveron, near to Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It clearly isn’t my day for field recording! Today is a public holiday and I would expect any self-respecting farmers to take a day off. Not in Banff. So please enjoy the tranquil sounds of the River Deveron passing you by and the delightful sound of a f**king tractor pull a rake around a nearby field. Using my directional parabolic mic (DM), I can hear the sounds of tractors and other industrial noises several kilometres away.
Join me as I try to record the sound of birds today. It is public holiday here today in Scotland. There is no wind. It would have been a perfect day to record bird sounds in the woods near to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duff_HouseDuff House in Banff, Aberdeenshire. Wonderful bird sounds but oh my, the noise of a f**king tractor on Banff Golf Course provided unwanted background noise to the recording of the birds who were really going for it in the woods today. Pah!
Join us on a British Airways flight and listen to the pilot briefing the passengers about the up and coming flight to Chania, Crete. I’m sure someone will tell me that the image I have chosen is not that of an Airbus A380!
Join me in a cave close to the Libyan Sea in Crete. The cave was a natural echo chamber. Listen to the waves breaking and the echo as the sound of the waves bounced around inside the cave. You will also hear me tramping about in the cave. There was no sand but plenty of gravel underfoot.
Join me in a Taverna right next to the sea in Hora Sfakion, Crete. Listen to people enjoying a fine meal and you will also hear the sounds of the waves washing up on the nearby beach. What a wonderful place to enjoy Greek food.
Join me at the Vritomartis Naturist Resort close to Hora Sfakion, Crete as I listen to the very busy bees and other insects buzzing around large plants close to our beautiful room which overlooks the Libyan Sea. You might also hear the occasional bird!
Join me here in wonderful Crete as we listen to a large herd of sheep passing close to the chalet where we are staying at the Vritomartis Naturist Resort in Crete. The sound of sheep bells (the sheep have bells around their necks for some reason) really is one of the wonderful sounds you will hear on this most delightful Greek Island. I can also highly recommend the Vritomartis Naturist Resort. A wonderful hotel in all respects.
Join me a the fairground and hear the sounds of old fashioned fairground organ banging out it’s jolly tune.
Join me at the Cornish Pastie shop at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham in the UK. The Cornish pasties were edible but not the best I have ever tasted. The NEC is generally very busy (as you’ll hear) and the food outlets do charge top dollar for their mass-produced products.
Join me as I listened for a total of over 3 hours to of ‘music on hold’ and ‘your call is important to us’ messages whilst I waited for British Airways to answer the telephone today. After a total of three hours of no reply, I gave in. British Airways, and before it BOAC and BEA, is or was something we British used to be proud of. I did get hold of one unhelpful chap from BA who dismissively gave me another number to call because I had ‘the wrong kind of Business Class ticket’ (yes, Business Class!) and the number he gave me promptly disconnected me and so I went to the back of the queue again.
Sadly… we live in changed times. Is the UK going down the tubes and taking British Airways with it? It’s certainly beginning to look like it.
British Airways – such a disappointment (and I speak as an IAG shareholder!!!!).
Join me for my rather warped idea of what it would sound like if you were sitting in the middle of an internal combustion engine. Best with headphones on….
All done on my Machine Mikro.
Join me as I try to imagine the sound swooping swallows would make as they fly around the sky over our heads. I always think that swallows are avian jet fighters and yet so graceful. I could watch them for hours…
All sounds created on my Machine Mikro (what a clever little box it is!)
Join me and listen into some clips from the golden age of BBC Radio Comedy from the 1950s. I remember listening to the radio (no TV in those days during the day) to BBC Radio Comedy programmes on a Sunday afternoon. Names like Tony Hancock, Keneth Williams, Keneth Horne and many more spring to mind.
Radio always had the best scenery…
I created the background music (if you can call it that) on my Native Instruments Maschine. I have no musical knowledge or training it (and it shows). I just plug noises into the spreadsheet arrangement (image below) which is the Maschine 2 software, push the button and see what pops out. It seems to work and, of course, it is royalty free!
You can listen to my musical efforts on their own by clicking here.
This is what happens when you put the sound of surf crashing onto rocks (see my previous post) through Adobe Audition filters (flanger, phases and echo). Quite a noise! Best with headphone on.
Join me at a bird colony on a rock which sticks out of the sea just West of Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. If you listen, you will hear the sea washing around the column of rock and the birds, who cling to and nest of the sheer rock face (see image) and make an almighty noise. You can hear the natural echo as the bird sounds bounce off the cliff faces which surround the rock column. You will hear seagulls, gannets, razorbills, cormorants and many other birds – all squawking away. You’ll hear ‘peak squawking’ at about 2 minutes.
Recorded using my parabolic mic and a Zoom H6 (my Zoom F6 still missing in transit!)
Join me on the beach at Portsoy, Scotland where the stream that flows down from the hills crossed the beach and flows into the sea.
Join me and listen to the waves crashing onto Portsoy beach. Portsoy is in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and was the setting for a Peaky Blinders episode last year. Portsoy has some wonderful walks in and around this most delightful town. The harbour is also well worth a visit. By the way, I used my panoramic microphone (1 dish, two mics) to record the sound.
Join me on a transatlantic KLM flight heading towards Europe. Listen to what the pilot has to say.
Join me whilst I listen to a talented young man playing the piano in Amsterdam Central Station’s lobby.
Join me on a KLM flight and listen to the safety briefing many of us, I suspect, don’t listen to.
Video and sounds from Amsterdam’s King’s Day celebrations – a huge street party in Amsterdam!
Join me on the vibrant streets of Amsterdam and listen to the King’s Day celebrations!
Join me and listen in to the sound of water passing through a short tunnel under a footpath in the woods.
As promised, this is an example of sound recorded using two microphones fitted to my parabolic microphone rather than just one microphone. See what you think…(also see my posting regarding the parabolic microphone here)
Join me as I try to record bird sounds in the wood only to have a light aircraft fly overhead…
Join me in Starbucks and listen out for the wifi password (but you have to guess which of many Starbucks outlet it is!!!)
Join me as we all take off in a modern helicopter (best with headphones on).
Join me on the train travelling smoothly and comfortably between Amsterdam and Brussels
Join me in the departure lounge of an airport (we’ve all been there!)
Join me an enjoy the sounds of a wedding in an old Norman Church.
Join me for a cup of tea in the cafe in Harrods department store in London.
Join me on one of our British trains. Over the years I’ve learned that the food on our British trains generally is massively overpriced and doesn’t taste so good (French trains so much better in all respects). Please note that it is the train loudspeaker system that is delivering quite badly distorted sound (along with the badly distorted sandwiches!). Brexit = terrible food!
Join me at a British train station as the train makes ready to depart, and then departs.
Join me and enjoy the sounds from our dog walk in the woods near to Duff House in Banff, Aberdeenshire, this morning. You’ll hear the sounds of woodland birds, including a fine woodpecker, streams and all the other sounds (including, if you listen very carefully, golf ball hits from the nearby Dufff House Royal Golf Club.)
All sounds recorded on my parabolic (directional) microphone using a ZoomH6 recorder (My Zoom F6 still hasn’t arrived!). The sound was mixed (using adaptive noise reduction) using Adobe Audition.
The Walk in the Woods…
Join me as I submerge in my own private submarine…
Join me along side the high-speed railway track in the Netherlands as an express train whooshes by us at tremendous speed…
Join us as we walk along a muddy track in Scotland…
The Walk Along the Muddy Track (in Scotland)