Hello all you passionate and friendly folk!
My name is Dwight Muller and I am living in South Africa in a rural area
formerly known as the Transkei. Here are the co-ordinates so you can 'fly in'
on Google Earth if you want to see the place we are transforming: 32deg 18'
52.38" S 28deg 17' 46.45" E. I have returned to where I grew up after many
years spent pursueing a carreer in computer systems analysis and database
administration that dragged me from Cape Town to Amsterdam and all round Europe
and the (not so) United Kingdom. My grandfather set up a trading store (i.e. a
general dealer shop in the middle of nowhere) on this site in 1901. Its about
20 min drive from Butterworth in the Eastern Cape and our family built up and
maintained a thriving business there until 1976 when my dad decided due to
inter-racial tensions to sell up and relocated the family to East London which
is a small city on the east coast of SA. This was the period in our history
when the anti-apartheid, african freedom movement was beginning
to get more militant and people in our situation were under threat of their
lives. I never wanted to leave where I grew up and so last year when my friend
and I were looking for a piece of land on which to set up a forest garden, the
old trading store was the first of a list of possibilities that we
investigated. As the area is a tribal area it was essential to get the
permission of the local people. We approached the local tribal council and
since all of them know our family and myself from when I lived here as a boy
the decision was unanimous that we should return. They had really never wanted
us to leave in the first place! I was born here and so was my father and that
fact alone was enough to close the discussion! As the buildings have been
allowed to fall into ruins after the last occupants were murdered here (they
were dealing in cannabis and reconditioning stolen cars on the site and must
have got into a disagreement over money with their 'partners' who arrived in a
mob one day and gunned the whole family down!) the government officials that
rent these old trading stations out to businessmen decided they could not
charge us anything for the use of the place! So we are living on 4.5 hectares
of beautiful land that we have the use of as long as we are in residence for
absolutely free and creating a paradise forest that in time will deliver all
our food needs with enough to share with the local peope too! We are surrounded
by the most amazing nature and it is teeming with birds and creatures of all
shapes and sizes.
I have had an interest in nature and the sounds of nature since I was a small
boy growing up here. I remember making recordings down at the river near our
home with a clunky cassette deck that was leading edge in its day - that was
back in the early '70s when I was just entering my teens.
I came across a book and cd by Bernie Krause about five years ago and was so
taken by it that I started to make recordings whenever I came home from Europe
for the Xmas break with the family. That cd has the jaguar giving us a lecture
on it - what a fantastic sound, the creature's use of harmonic singing is
amazing! Anyone who claims that there is no meaning in that is deaf and blind -
Bernie we are forever indebted to you for allowing us to share that
extraordinary recording! Thank you!
Now that I am living in a relatively unspoilt natural environment again I am
keen to make and share quality recordings via the net. The local tribal people
have also still a measure of their cultural heritage intact as far as the
singing and language are concerned. I am hoping to get a lot of that on media
too. My friend and I have recently embarked on a training to become traditional
healers/shamans or what they call Sangomas here and the ceremonies we attend as
part of our training are rich in song and dance - magical and powerful sounds
that have hardly been heard outside the confines of the tribal areas.
I have the most rudimentary of equipment at the moment and would like to get
as much info on how to make the most of it and I suspect I am in the right
place for that! :) In time I would like to invest in higher quality equipment
and hope to find the right combo in consultation with you all. What I have at
the moment is as follows:
Sony Minidisc recorder MZ-R30 (out of the digital ark!)
Sony Stereo microphone ECM-MS957
Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio version 8.0b (build 77)
I run the software on an Acer Aspire 3620 notebook with the following setup:
Operating System
Platform: Windows XP
Version: 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)
Language: English
System locale: English
User locale: English
Processor
Class: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.60GHz
Identifier: GenuineIntel
Number of processors: 1
MMX available: Yes
SSE available: Yes
SSE2 available: Yes
SSE3 available: No
Display
Primary: 1280x800x32
Memory
Physical memory: 514.4 MB
Paging memory available: 1,254.8 MB
Virtual memory possible: 2,097.0 MB
The recordings I have made to date are not bad but suffer from a constant low
level noise signal and a definite DC offset. The offset I have been able to
remedy easily enough but the noise I am at a loss as to how to eradicate
without eliminating valuable content at the same time. Any suggestions would be
appreciated. I am still a relative newbie in the use of the sound software and
am looking forward to a lot of learning about sound 'doctoring'.
Regards
Dwight Muller
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