Thrift Store Sounds: Shoe Stretcher
Posted: August 12th, 2009 | Author: Nathan | Filed under: found sound objects, sound design
Shoe stretchers are vocal little artifacts.
I’m always looking for weird things that make noise. Some artists dig in crates for rare vinyl, but I dig for fresh sounds at the thrift store.
If I have one primary skill in life, it’s not being afraid to look or act like an idiot in public. This pays off big time as I go into a thrift store, start handling the merchandise, putting it up to my ear, and then handling an item like I intend to break it. Rinse, repeat. I must be a bundle of fun to watch.
Today’s Thrift Store Sound – the first in an occasional series! – come from the humble shoe stretcher. At the local Thrift Town in San Francisco’s Mission District, there’s a whole box full of them. As soon as I handled one, I looked at its components and realized the possibilities: Multiple springs under tension, a metal joint/ratchet, and several wooden parts, all put together loosely. This curio had a whole language it could speak, if only someone would record it…
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/5764080″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ee0000″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]
[OktavaMod MK012 mic with cardioid capsule into Sound Devices 702 recorder]
like the spring at the end! stuff like this always comes in handy one day. some bits sound clearer than other bits which sound more muffled – was that just you nearer or further away from the mic?
@Michael: Thanks! The wooden parts really absorbed a lot of sound, so the position of the object to the mic axis had a lot to do with the variation you hear. That had more impact than distance (which was pretty consistent). That final spring at the end, though, was that teensy of a sound! I’d definitely want to go back and re-record specific portions for use in another project to keep ’em cleaner.
To bad the audio is offline. I love thrift stores too, great resource for the odd props and (toy)instruments.