Our first job today was to go into Aberystwyth and pick up the equipment we needed from the School of Art. They had nearly everything we needed, so we took it down to my studio and Lee explained each piece. He preset the marantz so when we go somewhere to record it is already to go. After a tour around the art school, a stroll on along the beach we went to the Old College. The conditions being perfect (no wind, sun shining, seagulls not yet nesting), we were able to go up to the top of the tower led by Steve one of the porters. Seven flights of stairs, round and round we come to a shabby wooden door and through that out into the bright sunshine, with an amazing blue sky and 360 degree views of Aberystwyth and the Wales coastline.
Our next stop was Borth, about 9 miles from Aberystwyth and on the coastline. Leaving the car I draped the equipment over me. There was loads of wires and I tried looping them around my waist. We did some recording on the beach. The sound of the waves was too much for me, but in the rocks I heard a trickle of water and tried to record that. There was a lot of noise from the waves and the wind (even with a cover on the mic), but Lee talked about ways to combat that and taught me how to do the levels etc. I tried to get the mic down between the rocks to get closer to the trickle but with the unfamiliar equipment and the wires I was worried about balance and dropping something in the ocean. The recording I made has moments of the trickle with lots of static and sounds of the waves in between. Even though I didn’t get anything useful it was a good learning experience and tomorrow is another day…..
