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Extraordinary quintet of wind chimes — Gregorian, Pluto, Polaris, Mercury, Mars

Overall rating (4 ratings)
Philip_Goddard

June 21st, 2023

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Instrument samples > Percussion
Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom
Wind Chimes In the Wild

A 'Wow!' wind chimes ensemble hung up from trees high up in the Teign Gorge — but how come it's so emotionally ambivalent? — See further below for some degree of explanation. Chimes used this time are:

1. Woodstock Gregorian Chimes (Tenor) (relatively low-pitched, a Gregorian chant scale)

2. Woodstock Chimes of Pluto (moderately high-pitched, pentatonic)

3. Woodstock Chimes of Polaris (higher-pitched, pentatonic)

4. Woodstock Chimes of Mercury (very high-pitched pentatonic)

5. Woodstock Chimes of Mars (very high-pitched and penetrating; not sure what scale!)

I recorded this on 19 March 2014, on the rough slope just below Hunting Gate, which latter marks the highest point of the Hunter's Path, high up on the north side of the Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK.

The ensemble for this recording gives us an uneasy inner conflict between the pretentious and, to me, rather smug sound of the Gregorian chimes, and the greater sense of genuine purity in the three pentatonic and the Mars chimes, the latter of which inject a few 'major'-sounding notes at the top end, which adds not just brilliance at the top end but an impassioned sense of narrative.

The overall emotional effect of the apparent 'major'-scale injection is to give an impassioned quality to the overall sound, especially where the chimes are most active. However, with the Gregorian chimes as the 'foundation', that 'impassioned' quality seems to me quite a bit twisted, even at times verging into an unhealthy sentimentality.

Actually, with regard to this recording session overall, things weren't straightforward for me. For one thing, the wind wasn't really as strong as had been forecast or indeed as what I was aiming for, and indeed there really wasn't enough wind at all for what I wanted till towards midday. For this reason certain of the recordings are really 'birds with gentle wind chimes sounds (on and off)'.

Also, I didn't get the chimes balance fully as I was after — though, generally speaking, the balance was still acceptable, there being no precise right or wrong about this. And then, as part of that issue, really the small chimes were a bit closer to the recorder than would have been ideal, and this led to the non-musical tapping sound of the strikers, particularly of the Mercury and Mars chimes, being intrusively loud on occasions, and in places the diminutive Mars chimes came out really uncomfortably loud.

Another issue for me was that the sound of these combinations, although exquisitely beautiful, was musically not what I'd been expecting, and indeed in some cases (primarily involving the Gregorian chimes) was something that I wasn't keen on (as already noted, actually sounding sentimental in a weird twisted way!) — though mitigated by the overall soundscape, with so many birds pronouncing their springtime territories.

For more details about the different chimes used, please go to https://www.philipgoddard.com/shop/store-windchimes.htm.

Four Woodstock chimes being recorded during the same session
Recording four Woodstock chimes in this session. The recorder (light grey furry windshield) is perched on a small branch rather than on a tripod.

Techie stuff

The recorder was Sony PCM-M10, with Røde DeadKitten furry windshield. As already noted, it was perched on a tree branch, by means of a GorillaPod.

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshield — and then more recently stereo widening / sharpening-up using the VST plugin A1 Stereo Control (160% widening).

Please remember to give this recording a rating — Thank you! 

This recording can be used free of charge, provided that it's not part of a materially profit-making project, and it is properly and clearly attributed. The attribution must give my name (Philip Goddard) and link to https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/691834/

Sound illegal or offensive? Flag it!
birds
birdsong
chimes
Devon
England
field-recording
Hunters-Path
Hunting-Gate
March
natural-soundscape
nature
River-Teign
spring
Teign-Gorge
Teign-valley
UK
wind
wind-chimes
windchimes
Woodstock

Type

Flac (.flac)

Duration

38:55.010

File size

168.3 MB

Sample rate

44100.0 Hz

Bit depth

16 bit

Channels

Stereo

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