My Podcast: The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music
My blog for the Bob Moog Foundation.
It’s time for my annual US Open tennis sound experiment. But this time around, rather than make a mix of tennis-themed vinyl records, I’m going for the more abstract, a soundscape if you will, entirely based on sounds I recorded at this year’s event. Most of the sounds are processed in some hopefully imaginative ways, and I’ve detailed those in the playlist. Unlike past episodes, where it seemed appropriate to name the tennis players whom you might be hearing, this year’s blended approach more less makes that unnecessary. Instead, I aspired to present an overall structure of ever-evolving sound textures. All the sounds of the US Open grounds were made by me and include crowds, the inside ambience of each of the major venues at the Open—those being Arthur Ashe Stadium (the largest tennis venue in the world), Louis Armstrong Stadium, the Grandstand, plus some of the outside courts that are more open-air, not baffled from surrounding sounds. Then, there are jet airplane flyovers from LaGuardia Airport, chair umpires delivering scores, a lot of crowd chatter in various languages, and many tennis players hitting, playing, and practicing.
You can look over the playlist for this episode to see how I processed these sounds. I used several techniques, different microphones for sound capture, and a host of post-sound production plug-ins to provide the blend that you will hear. This sound experiment is on the lengthy side, about two hours fifteen minutes, which I view as ample opportunity for one to get lost in the ambience and perspectives of a huge sporting event.
Episode 132
The 2024 US Open Sound Experiment
Playlist
Note: The starting times indicate at which time during the podcast a sound begins. The tracks often overlap based on the given length of each track.
Time | Track Time | Start |
Introduction –Thom Holmes | 03:36 | 00:00 |
1. Chair Umpires | 01:19 | 05:24 |
2. USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center—outer courts. Sample Alchemy, Granular effect, Classic. | 03:46 | 05:40 |
3. USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center—outer courts. Quick Sampler, Bent Guitar. | 06:16 | 07:20 |
4. USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center—outer courts. Sample Alchemy, Spectral effect, Blur | 01:50 | 09:08 |
5. USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center—outer courts. Sample Alchemy, Spectral effect, Low/High Cut. | 02:58 | 10:56 |
6. Arthur Ashe Stadium, Meta-Synth, Inertia setting | 25:16 | 11:26 |
7. Grandstand Stadium, Meta-Synth, Inertia setting, | 08:36 | 12:16 |
8. Grandstand Stadium, Auto-Filter, Constant Rise Four Bars. | 08:33 | 29:48 |
9. Grandstand Stadium, Arturia MiniFilter V, Beatchopper. | 08:33 | 31:02 |
10. Arthur Ashe Stadium, Delay Designer, Buzz Pattern. | 26:05 | 34:40 |
11. Louis Armstrong Stadium, Delay Designer, Pulse Groove. | 24:42 | 54:36 |
12. Grandstand Stadium, AutoFilter, Volume Gate Filter. | 22:31 | 01:16:38 |
13. Arthur Ashe Stadium, Pedlboard, Blue Echo, Squash Compressor. | 30:28 | 01:36:28 |
14. East Village Neighborhood, AutoFilter, Resonant High Pass; Delay Designer, Ring and Roll. | 27:28 | 01:37:56 |
15. USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center—outer courts. Sample Alchemy, Granular effect, Classic. | 07:56 | 02:02:48 |
16. USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center—outer courts. Quick Sampler, Bent Guitar. | 08:02 | 02:03:56 |
17. USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center—outer courts. Sample Alchemy, Spectral effect, Blur | 03:46 | 02:06:59 |
18. USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center—outer courts. Sample Alchemy, Spectral effect, Low/High Cut. | 02:54 | 02:09:44 |
Recording equipment used: Zoom Hn4 Pro digital recorder; Shure CVB-B/O Boundary Condenser Microphone; Boya Omnidirectional Cardioid XLR Lavalier Microphone.
Opening background music: Opening background music: A mix of tennis recordings set to a track called “Make It Good” by DJ Tennis (2012 Life and Death). The tennis recordings include excerpts from Arthur Ashe, Learn Tennis (For Beginners & Advanced Players) (1974 Manhattan Recording Company), John Newcombe, Tennis With John Newcombe (1974 K-Tel), and Evonne Goolagong, Tennis Tips By Evonne Goolagong (1975 Fleetwood Records), narrated with questions by Bud Collins.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
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