Many years before the office water coolers were invented, public water pumps served as a source of free cool and clean water for everyone (not always clean though, especially during the epidemiс times). And for those with no water supply system in their homes these pumps were (and still are) the only possibility to get water for all household needs. Some houses in Russia are still not provided with running water but despite that reports of removing public water pumps emerge here and there in the media.

Recently I joined the local history group on their guided walk along Valovaya street, one of the oldest in town. This water pump was not on the agenda that day but I recorded its sound as well. So, a short recording of the water pump – hear this while it’s still here.


Recorded August 15th, 2010 (CA-14)
Published August 29th, 2010.

/ 28.08.2010

24 📨

  1. I visited a friend’s dacha in Klyazma (near Moscow) recently; they still use a pump on the street as their water supply. In fact, I have some recordings I made of that pump and see that they were made just two days after you made this… and just to add to the coincidences (although this is pretty irrelevant), I also see you posted this on my birthday 🙂

    Cheers!

  2. Happy belated birthday Peter! I recall those summer days of 2010 – heavy forest and peat fires smog, red sunlight coming through, reddish shadows, over 35°C lasting for weeks. A true horror movie. Making one’s way towards water was pretty instinctive, wasn’t it? Seriously, that’s an amazing coincidence – and Klyazma isn’t that far from Sergiyev Posad where I live, just a few train stops away. Do you take your recordings as a hobby?

  3. Thanks!

    We were so incredibly lucky in the end with the weather; from what I hear I think the smog lifted in Moscow just as our plane took off from Heathrow! Another friend was there a day earlier and said it was bad before we arrived, then much better. Still a bit hot for me, but not at all unbearable – I was really dreading it before. It was fine; we spent much of the week swimming in the river (and celebrating my friend’s engagement).

    I take some recordings as a hobby; I used to do quite a lot of computer music type things (sounds like this can be quite rich for manipulation), but I really like pure phonography and it’s always nice to find new blogs and things devoted to it. I’ve played around with homemade binaurals in the past; I did a ‘sonic arts’ course a few years ago and almost everyone on the course was making binaural recordings around London with hacked up in-ear headphones.

    In practice I’m a lot more active with photography these days (at least if the smog had been there it sounds like I’d have got some unusual shots)… but just ordered myself a Sony M10… it’s a new year’s resolution not only to record more things, but to make a bit more effort to edit and get things online etc… we’ll see. Here’s a little something of mine fwiw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FesuLFJrMb8
    On my shopping list now are hydrophones and some more proper binaurals…

  4. …also, a little slice of everyday London http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=92891

  5. It makes a very vivid picture of a place I’ve never been to, thank you Peter.

  6. Personally, I’m quite pleased with the Church Audio CA-14 omnis but SP-TFB-2 in-ears can’t be beaten for the life-like playback factor.

  7. I quite like the look of the Roland CS-10EM… quite new, I think. I haven’t found many recordings. Actually, it was while I was researching them that I found a link to your blog from soundsurvey.org.uk

    I believe the Roland recording quality should be roughly similar to the Sound Professionals ones, but they are more widely distributed, so don’t require expensive shipping and duties. They have integrated headphones for monitoring which could be a handy feature, too.

    I have a pair of SP mics that I got thinking they were the in-ear ones, but they’re clip on similar to your Church; they were handy to carry around with the minidisc for a while back in the day, but a bit redundant now other than for messing around with odd lo-fi things perhaps (quite noisy).

    I have my Sony now; happy with it so far, haven’t really done much with it yet.

    Also, you might enjoy this sound blog from someone in my home town, who I don’t know (at least, not yet… it’s a small place) http://winnallmoorssoundwalk.wordpress.com/

    Спасибо!

  8. “I have my Sony now”
    ——————-
    Are they binaural or let’s say traditional stereo?
    Thanks for the link – it deserves a closer look.

    Pozhaluysta 🙂

  9. The SP mics I have are a loose pair of omnis with clips; I think they were described as binaural. I suppose if they were mounted right, with a dummy head or maybe attached to some glasses… anyway, not traditional stereo in the sense of having a fixed stereo arrangement, but no use for in-ear mounting.

    The Rolands I’m contemplating getting at some point are in-ear binaural: you might enjoy some of their samples http://www.roland.co.uk/products/productdetails.aspx?p=1081

  10. Yes –
    Ollie of the Binaural Diaries gave them a go. He doesn’t seem to be totally satisfied with it. Bad wind proof is also reported. Alas! Mics plus headphones – It was such a nifty idea.

  11. I can’t find anything on binaural diaries about these mics. Any pointers or more specific details appreciated.

    I’d gathered they’re not ideal with wind, but would they be much different from any others (ie the SP ones)?

  12. Hi there,

    If you like I’ll upload some example CS-10EM recordings and post them on the Binaural Diaries. The wind shielding problem really is to be expected to be fair the Sound Professionals mics suffer without the optional wind shields.

    It’s hard to put my finger on it, but I found that the Rolands didn’t quite capture higher frequencies in the way I was used to. The results seemed to sound very slightly muffled. That said, they are nicely constructed, are very convenient, and being able to monitor in real time is a perk.

    I also got them for a very good price. The SPs are reasonably priced, but once you’ve paid for shipping from the US they are a little f
    dear for the amateur on a a budget.

    I’m posting this from my phone at the moment, but I can check the prices and the vendor I used when I’m home. I do start to wonder if the batch was at such a good price for a reason… without comparing against other recordings that is of course pure speculation!

    Best regards, Ollie

  13. Hello Peter,
    well, I’m not sure, since I don’t have the Edirol mics. All I know is that SP-TFB-2s are prone to wind, but this could be largely improved by wearing foam windscreens -really worth purchasing.

  14. Hello Ollie,
    it would be great if you could post those recordings.

  15. Hi,

    Many thanks for weighing in.

    I’ve read one or two comments that they sound a bit lacking high end as headphones; http://www.gearwire.com/roland-cS10em-review.html mentions that but also describes recordings as “shockingly detailed and crisp”. TBH the testing they described doesn’t exactly sound very thorough; perhaps I’m a bit spoiled by reading professional technical reviews of camera lenses and computer bits etc, but it seems to be based on just one recording session of one particular thing. Still, I’m grateful that it’s there; better than nothing and obviously very thorough reviews are expensive to make.

    I must say that the samples on the Roland site linked above don’t seem to lack treble either; indeed in the Acoustic Guitar 2 sample description they make a point of it “showing off the crisp top-end” – perhaps they revised the design at some point realising early copies were inadequate in this regard?

    One way or another, there seems to be some support for your bad batch hypothesis, although it’s hard to be sure.

    I’d certainly be interested to hear some recordings, and if you think you might have some useful knowledge of vendors that wouldn’t do any harm.

    Cheers,
    Peter

  16. I got the (normally expensive) Sony windscreen included with my M10 and it certainly makes a massive difference; much better than the foam one that comes with the H2 for instance (have been meaning to get or make my dad a better one for his H2).

    It seems like it should be possible to get windscreens that would work with the Rolands; any comments?

  17. I could possibly butcher the foam windscreens that are on my current SP mics, actually.

  18. I’m going to do some further testing I think.

    I purchased my pair for the paltry sum of £20 from Planet Gizmo having been given the heads-up by Ian Rawes:

    http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/survey/blog_comments/902/
    http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/survey/blog_comments/875/

    I’ll try and get some recordings up over the next fortnight.

  19. Great; no rush to get the recordings up.

    I’d seen those posts but didn’t notice the deal; obviously that’s not on anymore.

    Take care.

  20. Here is my Klyazma water pump recording on Freesound
    http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=112333

  21. Congratulations on a great recording Peter! I wish I had a bucket at that time too to justify a longer sound, not an occasional click-clack.
    Are there any public water pumps in the UK now? If any – do they sound the same?

  22. Thanks for your kind words.

    I’m not aware of anything like that; I suspect that most that do still exist are not very serviceable. I was by a pond in a village yesterday, where there was an old and very rusty one.

  23. Hi there.

    I used my Roland mics for the vast majority of the recordings I made in London last weekend – should hopefully have some up over the next few days!

  24. Great stuff. I hope you were happy with the mics and the recordings.

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