Recording the sound of electricity
Recording the sound of electricity
(OP)
Hi All,
I feel like a tourist in this forum as I am a sound engineer and sound effects recordist. A mechanical engineer friend of mine turned me onto these forums in hopes to help with a project. I am looking to record the sound of electrical arcing. I understand this is a somewhat silly pursuit as the source of the sound I would like to capture is dangerous and unpredictable. That said, I'm still looking. :) Any and all help would appreciated, even if its a finger pointing the in the right direction. (middle finger or otherwise) Thanks!
Best,
Jake
I feel like a tourist in this forum as I am a sound engineer and sound effects recordist. A mechanical engineer friend of mine turned me onto these forums in hopes to help with a project. I am looking to record the sound of electrical arcing. I understand this is a somewhat silly pursuit as the source of the sound I would like to capture is dangerous and unpredictable. That said, I'm still looking. :) Any and all help would appreciated, even if its a finger pointing the in the right direction. (middle finger or otherwise) Thanks!
Best,
Jake






RE: Recording the sound of electricity
electric fence
arc welder
Jacobs ladder
If you have a foundry/smelter near by, arc furnaces are pretty exciting.
There are also lots of high voltage laboratories that test power system equipment. Most labs have an impulse generator that simulates lightning strikes. A few of the labs also do short circuit testing or arc flash testing. Where are you located?
RE: Recording the sound of electricity
I've recorded jacob's ladders and a few "small tesla coils". They sound good but a little more buzzy than what I'm looking for. I'm a total novice but I'd assume events like the one in the video link below are happenstance and or can't be replicated easily or safely enough to record?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIkNY5xjy5k
That kind of sound would be amazing to capture.
I'm in California. I've seen some EAF videos on youtube as well, they look pretty intense. I'm sure arc flash testing is too. Have you been involved with any of this kind of stuff?
RE: Recording the sound of electricity
So while I don't think acoustic detection is going to revolutionise arc fault detection (it would be too slow - by the time the pressure wave hits the sensor, the damage is done), creating arcs and recording them is not so unusual. As bacon4life suggests, high voltage test bays are the place to do it under controlled circumstances. Transformer manufacturers, power engineering companies and others often either have one or access to one.
Now replicating the fault in the video might be asking a bit much, but you'd only need to reduce either the duration or the voltage (and therefore arc length) by enough to get it within test bay limits.
You'll probably find test bays tend to limit their high power tests to well under a second (they typically have a charge-pulse system, rather than continuously feeding energy), so another avenue that just occurred to me is special effects studios? They'd be more interested in the visually/audibly impressive results and might have some methods that are more suitable.
RE: Recording the sound of electricity
RE: Recording the sound of electricity
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http://www.pge.com/mybusiness/customerservice/othe...
RE: Recording the sound of electricity
RE: Recording the sound of electricity
That said, thanks for all the suggestions! I'll try to explore some of these avenues but I think my biggest hurdle will be getting someone to allow me to come by and record this type of equipments/events. Who would the point person be @ a electrical company be to ask? Would universities with electrical engineering programs be a good place to start too?
RE: Recording the sound of electricity
might be able to help.
RE: Recording the sound of electricity
If it would be of interest I'll have a play later on and see what I can do.
RE: Recording the sound of electricity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detai...
And another favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detai...
Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com