This week the Disquiet Junto focused on the binary code aspect of the project number:
That last bit about "switch-ness" was a sticking point for me. Uusally I like to make sounds soupy so I can mangle them but the short transients of the switches pointed to a different approach.
It occurred to me that the switches would sound best if I recorded them with different microphones but time wasn't going to allow me to get too carried away. This weekend I had a couple of events, including the launch of Reimagining the Murrumbidgee. So I used my Nikon SLR with a Rode VideoMic to record the sounds with a view to editing together a video.
I cheated in using four switches across six tracks in Ableton Live. I recorded eight switches, mostly at work but a couple in my garage too. One in The Roxy theatre was mounted on metal, which gave a bigger resonance. Another was old and had a nice zing sound from a spring I think.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimceQe1nq_Y1U1CZAnyOoL_YgFxhEKtyuKgg3Skk4T5j3_qvrDjPIx5vZdtNhT2Wx3TTNERIr92600-1R2UJNSH3t6u7QG1HqjjhLk6iaoKXSZ4HLWTqS7iWorNA22PmHTqJTy/s400/Screen+shot+2013-12-10+at+10.45.18+AM.png)
Once in Live the process was to find short interesting loops, where the transient didn't peak too much. I experimented with using Beatrepeat but switched (haha) to Audio Damage's Bigseq2 gating and filtering effect. A couple of busses were used, both with tape delay-syle effects. Loops were pitched, mostly down -- the bass part about two octaves.