found sound-metal turnstile

While out exploring and looking for a rubber track to record some footsteps this week I came across a little elementary school in suburban Mesquite, TX that has the potential to really be a sonic gold mine.

It's several miles from any highway and surrounded by a sleepy neighborhood with decent building cover, so the traffic noise is pretty minimal as settled areas go. It also has a wealth of surfaces - thick wood, grass, dirt, a tennis court with basketball rims at either end, and of course my coveted rubber track.

I found this school the day after Christmas so it was pretty deserted at the time. (side note, Christmas day is an ideal recording day. Downtown Dallas looked like some post-apocalyptic movie with all of the empty stillness. I will be rolling next year...) The track was surrounded by a chainlink fence that had a metal turnstile entryway to it. As I walked through the turnstile towards the track I knew that I wouldn't be able to walk back out without recording it.

I'll let the video do most of the explaining, but the bottom line here was that it was pretty loose at the top joint and made this crazy rattly ringy jackhammer sound when I spun it. In this vid my voice is recorded with the iphone mic and the turnstile is recorded with the Sony PCM D50.

Metal turnstile from rene coronado on Vimeo.

pretty crazy. Here's what it sounded like at 20%:

Revolving metal gate-20percent by Rcoronado

Even though I now know exactly where this metal gate is, I had to record it right then and there because I've learned through experience that if you let a recording pass you by you may never get a second shot. I do plan to return here though, if only to do exterior foly. I need to find out who the groundskeeper is. :)