Cars and History

Location
Cooroy Queensland
Equipment
Zoom F4
Sennheiser MKH 60
Boom pole array
and
Roland R09

1956 FJ Holden

Wow what a day!  I met up with one of the gentlemen from the Noosa show today to record his old car, only to find out that in fact he owned several old cars. What I thought might be a good opportunity to record a few samples of a classic Australian car a 1955 FJ Holden became a two hour session where I recorded most of the sounds of the FJ as well as a 1965 HD and a …. As well.  I also learnt lots about the old machines. Mr. Kenzler is a keen collector of old cars and passed on quite a bit of info and he was also very patient and very helpful with getting the recordings done. I have created a checklist for myself for future vehicle recordings where I can document make, model and year of the vehicle, and then work through a checklist to ensure I get a consistent sample with every vehicle. Today was pretty good, but I did forget a few elements of each vehicle. For instance I didn’t get the windscreen wipers or the hand break on the FJ, but I did on the HD. It can sometimes get a little hectic with trying to weld two recording devices, and take photos to document sound sources as well as explain what I am doing to the people who may be helping me, so I am hoping having a checklist will make the process more consistent in the future.

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1957 FE Holden

I also popped down to the Noosa museum because it was only 10 km further down the road from Cooroy. I thought they might have one or two things worth recording, maybe some old machines etc. What I found was a wonderful resource of old hand operated machines, like old phones typewriters and adding machines, as well as some old mechanical engines and machines that they are prepared to start up for me. Because of the range of material there (and because my unexpected range of car sounds basically left me with flat batteries and full memory cards) I have organized to return to the museum next week and make major trip out of it. I think I am going to need to be fully prepared for this one as there is so much material to capture. I’m pretty excited about the possibilities.  I will update the journal with my trip next week.