Transformed wind chimes: Nature-Symphony 32

Nature-Symphony 32 (Splendour of the Perpetual Transmuter at work and play) — A real tough and challenging one, this! The 'Perpetual Transmuter' is not a reference to any belief-based being such as 'God', but is simply my off-the-top-of-my-head particular figurative personification of the core of 'What Is', whatever that is! Whatever it is, it is in some way responsible for all the changes that constitute our life experience and indeed the Universe and any supposed 'Higher Order' (for which latter we have no genuine evidence anyway). I explain 'What Is', as far as it could ever be explained, in https://www.clarity-of-being.org/glossary.htm#What_Is .

Unsurprisingly, therefore, I thought of this when I put together the metal chimes tracks for this work, and was awed at the seething mass of somehow meaningful dissonances out of which were continually arising more obviously beautiful sonorities, intervals and harmonies — indeed harmonic sequences. Hey, here I was, on some Cosmic pedestal, observing the inner workings of the Universe! — Wow! :-)

When I first put the layers together the density of sound events in the opening continued largely throughout, so I made gaps in each of the metal chimes tracks, to make variety by shifting of focus to different combinations and pitch levels, and by doing it in such a way that we are assaulted by really crazy-dense sound only in the opening and ending (the latter a reprise of the opening). The bamboo layer is deep bass, and has no gaps, so it, with all its deep bonks and bangs, reflects the ongoing galactic ructions and explosions. Some of the quieter reflective sections have a really touching delicacy in contrast with the challenges of the whole.

I made the original metal chimes recording on 15 April 2014 on steep rough ground just below Hunting Gate, highest point on the Hunter's Path, on the north side of the Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK. You can hear it at https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/689806/ . I made the bamboo chime recording on 21 November 2023 just a little further west, in the top of some open copse on Piddledown, just above the Hunter's Path.

Chimes used (Layers 1–3):

1. Woodstock Chimes of Olympos (relatively low-pitched Ancient Greek scale)

2. Woodstock Chimes of Polaris (high-pitched pentatonic)

3. Woodstock Chimes of Mars (high-pitched, not sure what scale, but different from all the others)

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

5. Music of the Spheres Gypsy Soprano (Eastern European Gypsy scale)

6. Music of the Spheres Gypsy Mezzo (ditto, but lower, and different mode on that scale)

Bamboo chime (Layer 4):

Indonesian ornamented bamboo chime (large side of medium — 42cm longest tube), transposed down to deep bass level.

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

The geolocation map shows position of the metal chimes recording; the bamboo chime recording was made a little further west (left), just above the Hunter's Path, well within that map section.

Advisory

To get the best out of this, listen with high-grade headphones.

The original metal chimes recording taking place — from left to right: Olympos, Gypsy Mezzo (black tubes), Mars, Polaris (difficult to see), Mercury, Gypsy Soprano (black tubes). The Gypsy chimes are further away because of their strong and penetrating tone.

Recording the bamboo chime for Layer 4. The recorder is close to the ground, facing steeply upwards to this chime, off the bottom of this view, slightly right of centre.

Techie stuff:

The recorder for the metal chimes was a Sony PCM-M10 with Røde DeadKitten furry windshield (the original, more effective, light grey version), perched on a tree branch by means of a GorillaPod.

Basic post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshield, and, much more recently, stereo widening (160%) using the A1 Stereo Control VST plugin. Then I applied my custom extreme wind-cut preset in TDR Nova GE to drastically reduce the bass aspect of the wind noise.

Layer processing and deployment:

Layer 1: half-speed, giving pitch an octave below original.

Layer 2: speed reduction to give pitch an octave plus minor seventh below original.

Layer 3: speed reduction to give pitch two octaves plus minor seventh below original.

Layers 1-3 given back-of-cathedral acoustic in OrilRiver VST plugin.

Recorder for the bamboo chime was Sony PCM-D100, with two nested Windcut furry windshields, and mics set at narrow angle (90°), on an Aoka carbon fibre Mini tripod (keeping close to ground in order to minimize mic wind noise).

Basic post-recording processing (in Audacity) was to apply an EQ preset to correct for muffling by the windshields, and, in A1 Stereo Control, widening of the stereo image by 135%.

Then I applied my custom extreme wind-cut preset in TDR Nova GE to drastically reduce the bass aspect of the wind noise. I further used Audacity's noise reduction function to reduce consistent basic background sound (mostly River Teign far below) by two steps of 6dB, and (in WavePad) used CurveEQ to tailor a severe high-pass filter (two 12dB increments) to virtually eliminate frequencies significantly below the chime's lowest pitch.

Layer 4 processing: speed reduction to give pitch 3 octaves plus a minor third below original; given moderately back-of-cathedral acoustic.

I had to use the Voxengo CurveEQ plugin after that, to apply a custom notch filter to that layer to tame a strong bass resonance at around 50Hz.

As already remarked, to avoid listening fatigue I made gaps in Layers 1–3 to open up the texture and give variety, so the listener can more easily focus on various aspects and details of the overall picture.

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