Bell Recordings

[Mike Chester]

I've received this - what is the best advice to give the correspondent? I've only done simple recordings of a few seconds for my website.  I am not sure what to suggest if the recording is to be played back at some volume from the tower - except to consider asking some handbell ringers to ring for them instead!

Mike


"I don't know if you can help me.

I am Tower Captain at King's Cliffe in Northamptonshire.  We have a ring of 6,  12 cwt in F.  The bells are being rehung this year and will be removed from the tower on 16th July. The problem we have is a wedding on 1st September for which the bells had been previously promised.  The bride has accepted a proposition to play a recording of bells from the tower - the problem now is how to do that. I have a neighbour who plays in a band so playing back a recording is no problem - he has any number of amplifiers and speakers. The problem is obtaining a decent recording to start with.

One option is to record our own bells while they are still there.  Do you have any tips or hints you could give us on doing that.  My neighbour has a good quality recording desk that will record wav files but the problem is what sort of microphone to use.  He fears a voice mike (which is all he has) will produce tinny results.

The other option is to use an existing good-quality recording of similar sounding bells.  Do you have any recordings of, say, 5, 10 or 15 minutes in length that you could allow us to use for a suitable fee?

I look forward to hearing from you.

David Teall"