I haven't been recording a whole lot since I got back from South Africa last year. Studio work has been taking up a lot of my time, split between working on video games and editing the Southern African Ambience library together with Daan Hendriks. I'm also planning a couple of month-long field recording trips (which I very much look forward to) but there are lots of details I need to figure out so more on this later.

Until then I want to share a recording I did earlier this year early on a Sunday morning. Me and my girlfriend drove to the nearby town of Southend-on-Sea and walked the ~2km of the Southend Pier. The pier is serviced by two quaint little Diesel-powered passenger trains which I wanted to record for a long time. Every time I was there there were loads of people around though so I hadn't managed to get a decent recording.

This time however it was overcast and quite early in the morning so we were the only ones around. Instead of walking back I decided to take the train and record the short trip with my D100 (which I always have in my backpack). From the outside the train didn't sound particularly interesting or loud, so I wasn't expecting the recording to be anything spectacular.

However, as soon as I positioned my recorder on the floor and the train started moving I was amazed at the concert of rattles, creaks and groans. I also noticed I hadn't been conservative enough while setting the levels as the red Clip LEDs were lighting up (I know!). I quickly stopped the recording, lowered input level to about 2/10 and started recording again.

I spent the entire 7 or so minutes of the trip with my mouth agape, surprised at how good the train sounded. Breathing through the mouth also helps avoid recording myself, so whenever I can't move from the mics I employ this trick, but this time there was no need. The train was so loud that it positively drowned out any breathing sound I would have made. Download the file form Soundcloud and have a listen for yourself: