Steam & Excursion > Steam And The Art Of Audio Mixing

I began experimenting with sound mixing sometime around early 1985.... long before I had any equipment designed for such endeavors.  Those first experiments involved nothing more than placing a microphone between two speakers that were hooked up to different sources.  The results were not hi-fi by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a start.

My introduction to the recorded sounds of trains came via a tape my father purchased me at the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, in June, 1983.  To this day, I don't believe he would have even considered the purchase if he had known it would create a monster.  But within the month, I was making my first attempts at my own field recordings with a hand-me-down recorder that had been a wedding present to my parents in the late sixties.

As for that tape, it was called "Steam Trains" and produced by the Humphrey Recording Service.  It featured sounds recorded of Chessie Steam Special 2101; former C&O 377; Toledo, Lake Erie & Western 202; and the Hesston Steam Museum.  The way it was edited, it was crap.  I wouldn't discover that until several years later upon hearing the products of Mobile Fidelity and Arkay Records.

My parents were of no help whatsoever when it came to encouraging or enabling a budding sound engineer... entreaties for aid in getting equipment to work with fell on deaf ears.  My father in particular was against assisting in any such leanings; particularly if it had anything to do with my budding interest with railroads.  I suppose that was seen as harmless until it got serious; it wasn't just a phase.

But then, in stepped my paternal grandmother.  She was all too happy to contribute to the deliquency of this minor.  All the work I did well into the 90's was as a result of Christmas presents from her: a stereo mixer, stereo recorder, studio recording deck.  I quickly became quite the geek; jury rigging things to get more with less.  I worked out well for Dad in the long run too... guess who gets the call when there's a problem with the TV or something needs replaced or hooked up.

Once I got proficient in working in the analog domain, it wasn't hard to translate the basic principals to the digital realm.  It also became possible to WAY more precise in editing digitally, and easy to experiment and make changes.

Many people use a white noise machine when sleeping, and I am no different.  But instead of using some noise maker, I have an iPod dock with speakers wired to either bedside table.  This is the sort of "white noise" I go to sleep with: this is a six minute clip of a mix that runs almost six-and-a-half hours.

For your information, the sounds heard here are as follows:

* Sounds of rain in a small town recorded from an apartment I lived in at Elkville, Illinois, in 2001.  The original recording was made with a microphone in the living room window and another in a bedroom window.  The bedroom side was next to board street, and the occasional street traffic was louded than I wanted for this edit.  To compensate, I took the sound only as recorded on the right side and played it a couple of minutes out of sync with itself on the left side.  PRESTO!  Instant stereo!

* Norfolk & Western 611 climbing Blue Ridge Grade near Webster, Virginia, in 2017 (Kurt took my gear when I was laid up with a broken ankle).  I worked with the sound levels in the edit so that the train's passage does not overpower the mix (a steady maximum level being ideal for sleeping through), while boosting the distant sounds that would otherwise have been buried in the mix.  Additionally, a digital echo effect was added to the distant sounds.

* Southern Railway 401 with an I.C. whistle recorded in September, 2017.  The distant sounds were tweaked the same way as with the 611 recording.

Enjoy!

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Mary, very good recording and effects. If your parents didn't want you chasing trains, you could tell them at least you didn't chase drugs, sex, and rock and roll.

Trainhand Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mary, very good recording and effects. If your
> parents didn't want you chasing trains, you could
> tell them at least you didn't chase drugs, sex,
> and rock and roll.

Well, the sex and drugs, anyway.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

---

Thanks for your interesting story, Mary.

Brad Miller mixed environmental sounds with steam locomotives in his 33 rpm LP "Steam Railroading Under Thundering Skies," released in 1961 under the Mobile Fidelity label.  I used to have a copy which I had purchased new.

Well done, Mary. Good story of perseverance.
My Dad was an enabler for me and my brother. He brought home LPs and reel tapes of train sounds.
He drove us to Allied Radio in Chicago so we could buy a 12V to 110v inverter for the reel to reel recorder.
The list goes on and on.
Audio is still my first love.
I was disappointed when I found out that "thundering skys" was mixed. I used to think the guy was lucky as he could be.

Rick Z
 

That is very nice, Mary. Thank you for sharing it! 

My dad helped me. When traveling, we'd always go by some interesting railroad spot, stop and watch trains.  In later years he was the one who helped me buy a motorcycle (he was acutally trying to save money on insurance since I kept crunching his car).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/20 22:21 by roustabout.

As a sound editor / mixer for the last 20+ years, I'd say you did a real nice job with this.
I too have the Brad Miller album, and while the rain effects are great, it's not too conducive to sleeping as the train pass-bys are so close miked, you'd think the train was rolling through the house!
Love the distant whistles! Well done!

Nice Gary Richrath tribute shirt. Looks like the image off of the "You get what you play for" release. Keep pushin' on!

Great job, Mary.  I know only too well about the discouraging part.  My parents did everything they could to keep me from pursuing my interest also.  The problem is, they got me hooked when I received that Lionel trinset for Christmas at the tender age of 9 months.

That was a very enjoyable recording Mary. Thanks for sharing. I really liked the subdued steam locomotive track combined with the naturl sounds. Great job!
 

Took time just now to put on the earbuds and listen.
Your post here really "struck a chord" with me!
Really appreciate the time and and effort you put into this!
The sounds mixed together is great, and really sets the scene in the listeners mind.
I always call it "Theater of the Mind"
Audio recording (and then much later mixing) was started by by parents (Mom) giving me a Christmas gift of a GE portable cassette deck in the early 1970's

I recorded myself playing piano, (very amateurish) but was fascinated by the ambient sound of the sustain pedal, (still have the tape today, of course saved to digital) and thus later the effect of echo, reverb, and audio phasing and effects, etc...which later carried over to guitar and music effects, recording on tape decks, and home recordings of us guys jamming later on.

I went from model railroad building at age 13, to playing drums and then guitar in high school, then back and fourth over subsequent years switching back and fourth to both hobbies.

I recived absolutely no support from dad at all, especially in music, even though he was a Trombone ace in the 1940's as Captain of an Air Force Band. But Vodka was his king by the time I was old enough to understand what was going on.

So I learned guitar myself, and electrified was an especially great way to rebel and say Hey Dad, how do like this!

With my years of audio recording experience, I have always known that capturing the sound of trains accurately was just as important as the video, and can make or break the flow of the video, because audio was there first, before video came along.

Great thread Mary, really hit home!

(Pic is from about about 2003 with my 1974 Slant Fret Rickenbacker, sold last year)

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

---

Beautiful job!!!!