I was doing some experiments this afternoon with an aluminium lid, probably from a wok or some other large pan.
I’d noticed it made some quite nice noises when I found it the other day and I was wondering if it might be any use as a reverb plate. I’d always figured aluminium would be too soft for reverb but it rang out nicely when struck so I gave it a go.
Turns out I was right – it was a terrible reverb plate. But now that I had it on a stand in the studio with a piezo attached I figured I may as well do something with it, and seeing as I couldn’t eat it, I hit it with a stick.
I was reading the other day about my friend Sean’s new pots-and-pans drum kit – which also uses piezos to pick up the sound. I also happened to have another one of these lids lying around, slightly bigger, so I wired that up too.
Sean’s using his for the sound of the pan itself and also as a switch which triggers an oscillator when struck. I think I’ll keep these ones just as amplified acoustic instruments as part of the percussion rack I’m putting together.
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(using soft rubber mallets to play the 2nd movement of György Ligeti’s “Musica ricercata”)
I haven’t done any audio processing, the recording is straight from the piezos to the desk to the pc. I think I’m going to have some fun with these.
4 Comments
What do you call them?, fun? I remember a competition you won with something except the woks were bigger and steel…tits for taps?
I didn’t put the piezo’s on the actual aluminium but attached the aluminium to wood blocks then put the piezos on them. Only the real sound worked first off but maybe I’ll try the piezo’s as triggers straight on the aluminium… bound to be a greater voltage output.
Well done Felix, roll on the womans auxillary cleaning and baking implement orchestra!
Jeffrey says they remind him of gamelans, so maybe “gamelids”.
Yeah with the piezo on the ali it’s a pretty good signal. They’re just taped on for now and I’ve been finding with the piezos that once I glue them the signal gets even stronger.
I also might have to put a high pass on them, there’s quite a lot of low mids. Maybe one that I can roll in and out.
“womans auxillary cleaning and baking implement orchestra” Ha ha yes!
Whoa! I don’t know what you should call them, but they sure do sound nice. Ummm…call them nice sounding pot lids…? Wokaphone?
Wokaphone! There it is – thanks Al.