• Home
  • Taiwan Hiking Map
  • Taiwan Off-Roading
  • About
    • About Me
    • Liability Disclaimer
  • Contact
  • Language: English
    • English English
    • 中文 (台灣) 中文 (台灣)
OutRecording
Menu
  • Home
  • Taiwan Hiking Map
  • Taiwan Off-Roading
  • About
    • About Me
    • Liability Disclaimer
  • Contact
  • Language: English
    • English English
    • 中文 (台灣) 中文 (台灣)
Home  /  Field Recording  /  Turning a Jackhammer into a “Ghost Train” Sound Effect
04 November 2015

Turning a Jackhammer into a “Ghost Train” Sound Effect

Written by Glenn
Field Recording Ghost Train, Jackhammer, Lino, MKH416, Nagra, Naiant, Sound Design, Tinybox 1 Comment

A lot of noise has been coming from my neighbors the past couple days. They’re removing the tiles from their outside walls and floor to put in new ones. Since they’re attached to concrete/bricks, the only way to remove them is by using some type of electric jackhammer. So I decided to gather some sounds from their work. [Un]fortunately, everything didn’t go as planned.

My DR680 has a broken screen, so I’ve been using my stealth kit when the need arises. I used a Naiant Tinybox that supplied phantom power and gain to my 416, which was all fed to a Nagra Lino. I don’t normally use this setup for anything other than ambience recordings, so using it on a source this loud caused my first problem. I should have started at low gain, but opted for mid gain first. (Mind you, this all happened rather quickly. The workers were mostly done for the day and were cleaning up. I asked them if they could use their tools a bit for a recording. They graciously said OK)

A quick glance at the Lino’s meters showed I was OK…or so I thought. After some time I looked down and noticed it kept hitting -6db and never went higher. I realized the Tinybox was clipping! I took it down to low gain and all was well. But I missed a lot of good material.

2015-11-04-16.14

After using the big Hitachi (pic at top) he switched to the smaller one. It didn’t sound nearly as nice.

2015-11-04-16.06.55They left a nice little mess. I got a couple nice wheel-barrel dumping tiles into the pile sounds

After it was all said and done, I went back into the studio to have a listen. As expected, a lot was clipped, though it didn’t sound that bad surprisingly. I ran some of it through RX’s declipper and it helped a lot. Overall it sounded a lot better, but lost a lot of the low-end grunt. Before and after picture here:

Original+Declip

Here’s a sample from the clipped version

[zoomsounds_player source=”http://outrecording.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Original.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” playerid=”” waveformbg=”http://outrecording.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/scrubbg_Originalmp3.png” waveformprog=”http://outrecording.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/scrubprog_Originalmp3.png” thumb=”” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off” enable_rates=”off” playfrom=””]

 

 

Ghost Train

 

[zoomsounds_player source=”http://outrecording.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Ghost-Train.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” playerid=”” waveformbg=”http://outrecording.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/scrubbg_Ghost-Trainmp3.png” waveformprog=”http://outrecording.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/scrubprog_Ghost-Trainmp3.png” thumb=”” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off” enable_rates=”off” playfrom=””]

 

I’ve always like playing around with sample rates. Slowing things down is so damn fun. I took the two above versions of the jackhammer and changed the sample rate by 1000%. Immediately I heard a train. I adjusted the volume and played around with the EQ a bit. The clipped version provided most of the low-end and the de-clipped version most of the high-end. Though slowing it down this much left very little “high end”.

I chopped it up and tried to make a beginning, middle and end. It was still missing something, so I added some stereo reverb to give it a little more space. Lastly I used a preset in PSP Nitro called “Watch out!” which added a little movement to the train – kind of a “pumping” feeling. Without it the train sounded somewhat dry and lifeless. At times the pumping got out of control, so I used automation to keep it in check.

That’s about it. Just me playing around with a recording. Thought I’d post it up and maybe it’d be useful to someone.

 

Creative Commons License

Liability Disclaimer

Please read the Liability Disclaimer before using any information within this post, page or any part of this website.

Share On
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Pinterest
Share on Reddit
 Previous Article Super Typhoon Dujuan – Four Hour, Forty Minute Audio Recording
Next Article   Shaxi Lindau Trail – After Guard Station

Related Posts

  • Super Typhoon Dujuan – Four Hour, Forty Minute Audio Recording

    November 1, 2015
  • Gas Powered Pipe Cutter on the Street

    November 1, 2015

1 Comment

  1. Civic Reply
    Friday January 29th, 2016 at 03:52 PM

    This was amazing! Even though you encountered problems but you still managed to get that spooky train running. This is one way of making use of the noise a jackhammer makes. Good job!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Hiking in Taiwan & Offroad Motorcycling

  • Popular Posts
  • Recent Posts
  • Tascam DR-680 Noise Test January 16, 2014 10
  • Great Hike to BaCengBaMoShan 巴層巴墨山 in Shizi, Taiwan March 3, 2019 8
  • WaiMaLiBaShan 外麻里巴山 - view of mountains and river below
    Hike to WaiMaLiBaShan 外麻里巴山 in Shizi, Taiwan March 18, 2019 6
  • Panoramic shots of mountains see on the JiuBaoShan 久保山 trail
    Ride and Hike to JiuBaoShan 久保山 April 15, 2018 5
  • Mountains and blue sky in the distance - trees in foreground
    Hike to PengJiShan, North JiuJiShan, and JiuJiShan – 棚集山, 北久集山, 久集山 via Alternate Back Trail February 28, 2021 0
  • 鱈葉根山 - XueYeGenShan featured image - two signs attached to tree
    Hiking to XueYeGenShan 鱈葉根山 in Majia, Taiwan February 9, 2021 0
  • Mountains and blue skies in distance with clouds - dead tree in foreground
    Hike to BaiBinShan and ZhenLiShan Northeast Peak in Majia – 白賓山, 真笠山東北峰 January 31, 2021 0
  • MeiLunShan 美輪山 trail sign
    Hiking to MeiLunShan – 美輪山, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan December 17, 2020 0

 

OutRecording @OutRecording
2
Here's another tree question. Do trees just up and say, "You know what? I don't want my bark anymore!" and go and shed it? I don't think so, but I found this and it didn't appear to have been scraped off by an animal. #taiwan #OutHiking #hiking #tree https://t.co/lwdjzDX7Ov

- 42 minutes ago

Follow @outrecording

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube & Instagram

  • Connect on Twitter
  • Connect on Instagram
  • Connect on YouTube
MY HIKING GEAR SPONSOR

Six Moon Designs Logo

Recent Comments

  • Glenn on WeiLiaoShan Hike – 尾寮山
  • TEO K H on WeiLiaoShan Hike – 尾寮山
  • Glenn on Great Hike to BaCengBaMoShan 巴層巴墨山 in Shizi, Taiwan
  • Joestar chuang on Great Hike to BaCengBaMoShan 巴層巴墨山 in Shizi, Taiwan
  • Glenn on Ride and Hike to JiuBaoShan 久保山
TAIWAN RELATED OUTDOORS BLOGS & SIMILAR TOPICS

Categories

  • 6

Random Posts

  • Taiwan Related Audio Website – Sound and Taiwan January 18, 2014
PRIVACY POLICY

Copyright © 2020 by outrecording.com. All Rights Reserved. Please read this Disclaimer / Privacy Policy before using any information on this site.

 [Valid RSS]