Transformed wind chimes: Nature-Symphony 4

Nature-Symphony 4 (Gypsies' everlasting quest for the homecoming beyond…) — Half-speed version of https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/702207/ with cathedral transformation (distant perspective) and a slightly shorter clip of it further halved in speed and mixed in, giving a deeper, more labyrinthine effect, with some dramatic dissonances.

— The original was Music of the Spheres Gypsy Soprano wind chimes in the Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK. The Eastern European Gypsy scale sounding from this chime imbues the whole piece with an intractable melancholy, but at these half- and quarter-speeds the strike notes are particularly prominent and often seem to be trying to punch through that melancholy with little flashes of heroism.

I made the basic recording on 6 February 2013, just below the Hunter's Path, high up in the Teign Gorge just a little east of where a track branches off for the descent to Fingle Bridge.

This transformation of the original doubles both as as a 'sounds' recording (appropriate for Freesound) and as the fourth of my 'Nature-Symphonies' series of 'official' music compositions, soon to be presented on my music compositions site, linking to a copy of it on YouTube.

Advisory

Yes, I do know that there's a hell of a lot of low frequencies in this, particularly reinforced by that quarter-speed component. However, that is just the wind, and no, I'm a bad boy and so I'm not filtering that out! :-) It's truly part of the other-worldly vision. This doesn't need to be very loud — it works well as a rather distant vision —, so one's playing volume can be set a bit lower if you find the half- and quarter-speed wind troublesome. Enjoy!

A slightly earlier recording taking place at the same spot, on 30 January 2013. The wind was coming over the top of the hill, i.e., from the right and a little behind in this view.

Techie stuff:

The recorder was Sony PCM-M10, with Røde DeadKitten furry windshield (original, more effective, version). It was set up on a Velbon Mini tripod.

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).

The current creative transformation was (1) to use the 'Change speed' effect in Audacity to halve the speed of the slightly longer stereo track, and quarter the speed of the slightly shorter track, then (2) to use the Orilriver VST plugin (the most 'distant' of my Cathedral 2 custom presets) for the 'interesting' reverb in them, and (3) to mix the two, such that there was a short length at beginning and towards end without the ultra-low-speed (two octaves lower) sound.

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