EM Coil Sounds and Concepts

In this video I give some examples and details about EM coils (aka EMF coils, aka pick-up coils - these can be found online for under $10). It's a specific type of field recording that can be useful and fun for finding some different/personal sounds for your ambient mix or sample library. I talk some about signal level safety and also a little bit about theory. I give a bunch of hands-on examples of various setups and sound sources. Not trying for much in the way of music in this video, but the last shot includes an underlayer of a little chiptune loop that I made in the Pulp mini-DAW. If you like chiptunes you might want to check out Pulp. It's a web-based development tool for the Playdate handheld console (see link below). It's free to use (with an account that saves your work) and you can skip over all the graphics parts and go straight to the audio tool. I just recorded the loop straight into OBS Studio.
Thanks for watching!
TIMELINE
00:00 STARTER
stuff in my kitchen
00:45 INTRO
a discussion of essential concepts (and safety)
05:18 COIL SETUP BASICS
i show various methods for getting the sounds, also an example.
17:41 A LITTLE THEORY
very little. it's easy to sort of think that a lower derivative is all you need to get sound. BUT, that's thinking of it as a localized thing. Say a cubic curve for the field that gives a signal here like a parabola. A parabolic 'bump' would indeed make a sound, but the discontinuity is required (a bump on a flat line). So, higher order functions, zero-crossings, etc. seems you could certainly make audio with basic functions... but it's just easier to think in terms of a fourier transform: waves, noise, complexity - these are all things within our everyday EM environment that can yield interesting sounds.
23:35 SOME EXAMPLES
not the best. i'm confident that you can find better examples! the magnetic sand timer was a challenge to do on camera (again, careful working with subtle signals - because a cable crackle can be unexpected). i think it does make a sort of weird / alien noise. will investigate and post on IG at some point. then, the solar powered rotation stage. i had been listening to it in sunlight. it was LOW, but actually hearable. for this shot it was down with the elephants or such, maybe 10 Hz? i sped it up 4x to hear. caveat: i did speed changes throughout this video, but the only synced shot is at the end (see below). i am a big LittleBits fan, and this sort of coil tech is a great add-on. for example, instead of getting another Speaker Bit to have another oscillator output in parallel - i can run the oscillator into a motor Bit and use the coil to get the sound (probably with significant distortion).
32:41 OUTRO
34:16 ENDER
well, i did the recording into the tape at full speed, but there is an art to having the half-speed performance come out well-adjusted and full. this sort of 'sound sampling' setup really benefits from having another layer of sound. i decided to use an unrelated loop from the Pulp mini-daw (see above for more details). the video here is at half-speed (done in editing on PC), but the audio is at 'half-speed' from a Lanier dictaphone of unknown age (which is awesome, btw) just by changing the tape speed setting, and then the sound was routed through the Korg NTS-1 for reverb (and a bit of delay) and into a (digital) field recorder. the two VERY different half-speed sources seem to start to spread a little by the end of the shot, but i still feel like it turned out okay!
LINKS
play.date/dev/

[@cold3lectric]

cool! I've got an "inductive amplifier" (GreenLee 200EP-G) for testing phone or data lines, which does the same thing, but I'd not known about this simpler way to do it - thanks.

[@undulations]

Thanks a lot for checking out the video🙏🏼! I need to get those out again and look for some new sounds🧐!

[@PhilanderingBastard]

Lol. Your kitchen looks a lot like my Brooklyn one back in the day. Great and informative video, as always.

[@undulations]

Thanks very much for the feedback🙏🏼! Yes, sort of a "classic" apartment kitchen; I do like having the bar surface available quite a bit - and i mount the top-down camera to it too!

[@CmdrMic]

Fun stuff! Thank you again. FYI, I also do a bit of this type of thing -- but I have been using the "Soma Ether" to accomplish it, perhaps you're familiar? It's a bit like a de-tuned AM radio of sorts, but it seems to have a really great sound circuit, when it locks onto something interesting - wow. It also has variable gain and two antenna nodes, which can be used to produce interesting results, as well as the easy ability to embed Morse code messages - which I find rather fun. Battery operated clock circuits are my favorite, while 4' florescent lights give off mind blowing harmonic drones. These Russian manufactured Soma instruments are a bit expensive, but often worth it IMHO. I recently got in their RoAT (Rumble of Ancient Times) a complex little drone like device, which I'm very impressed with! Your videos are always a pleasure to watch and re-watch - not only are they highly informative, but they're also rather relaxing, due to your excellent easy delivery and outstanding pacing of technical content... I'm working through all of them again (having a lot of the same equipment as you do). My only problem is finding the time to properly explore all these little gadgets I collect. I bet you can also relate... 😉 Cheers & Kindest Regards.

[@zannfilm9645]

Great video. If you have a portable CD player laying around try using the coil with that. Burn a cd with lots of short audio track and play them back at random for some interesting results.

[@undulations]

Thanks for watching, and thanks a lot for the CD idea! Must try that😀!

[@dillipphunbar7924]

I always enjoy your videos and so clicked on this immediately. The little bits with the led lights was an interesting mix. Loved the jam at the end also.

[@undulations]

Hey, thanks very much for the feedback🙏🏼!

[@hellf.o]

I'll go grabbing two of these next week and I can't wait! Thanks for sharing this!

[@undulations]

Awesome! Thanks a lot for checking it out🙏🏼!

[@adamcrafts3645]

Great video, really interesting. What you created at the the end is awesome. Just ordered an EMF Coil off eBay to explore this idea myself. Thank you!

[@undulations]

Excellent! Do lmk how it goes! Thanks much for the feedback🙏🏼

[@adamcrafts3645]

@@undulations it's been great fun. Recorded loads of mad sounds, never would have thought of doing this, thanks so much. Looking forward to the next video, whatever that may be.

[@undulations]

@@adamcrafts3645 Always great to hear something like this😀! ps Summer has been kind of chaotic, but have been gradually getting things together for upcoming videos👍🏻.

[@adamcrafts3645]

glad to hear that. Looking forward to them, have a great summer!

[@mpstrgc112]

So glad to see this. I just recently got a couple of these. I love it.

[@undulations]

Thanks a lot for checking it out🙏🏼!

[@cold3lectric]

great 'aphex twin' kinda sound. i started out doing electronic music and now do 'Nikola Tesla' experiments (with my old tunes backing my recent videos), glad to see another music guy getting scientific with it. BTW i cant believe Korg makes an oscilloscope, I'm watching that vid now 😸

[@undulations]

Experiments😀!!!!! It's a lot of cool stuff! I hope the Korg scope video is of interest👍🏻.

[@PhilanderingBastard]

Thanks for the many ideas.

[@undulations]

You're very welcome! (apologies for the next video taking so long, but summer family stuff tends to make it tougher to find the time. working on one about the Koala Sampler app, btw.)

[@PhilanderingBastard]

@@undulations no rush but obviously looking forward to it.

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

Brilliant work. Electronics & music revisited.

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

Beats an EMF detector with a blinking LED any day. To be able to 'hear' it and then using it for samples is truly inspirational.

[@undulations]

Thanks! It was a lot of fun making this video!

[@ubustudio]

Doesn’t get more basic than that. Very fine exploration. I be curious to see more about using these sounds as samples in an ambient way. Sort of expanding on how you wrapped up this video. Many thanks.

[@undulations]

You're welcome! Thanks very much for checking out the video. I've been thinking about including some of these sounds in a longer ambient piece. Will post more about that at some point. Meanwhile, I think one or two of the videos in my "Delta Waves" playlist on here uses some coil sounds; those are ambient exploration that are 5-10 minutes long.

[@undulations]

Also, marc.wav_ has a great Instagram post (july 9, 2020), some intense EM sounds in an Octatrack jam. those EM samples are also available (for free) there.

[@Zen_Mox]

Inspirational as always! Thanks for this, I'm just trying to find one on ebay.. 🤣

[@undulations]

Hah, I imagine somebody on ebay wanting to sell a bag of 100 coils for $50 or maybe a first generation Southern Bell lineman's coil, still in the original packaging😂. Thanks much for the feedback, Mox🙏🏼!

[@FRMTHREE]

We have the same oven!

[@undulations]

Hah, cool😀!

[@yannickbrugiere5746]

Bonjour , pouvez-vous me dire où l'on peut acheter la même bobine de détection que vous ? Merci. Bravo pour votre travail c'est hyper motivant .

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

Pusskin has no EMF? No. Bless that kitty. 🐈‍⬛

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

Here's me talking about the adorable kitty, whilst the Doc is dealing with real audio science! I 'do' electronics, and this is a supreme project for gathering new sounds. Thank you for sharing Doc.

[@undulations]

Hah, the cats are always the most special guest stars. Uploading a video in a bit. Each cat makes a subtle (unexpected) appearance!

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

@@undulations Kitties guaranteed to add good vibes and increase KZbin likes! 🐈‍⬛

[@dassenpooper]

I've been curious about the Soma Ether for a while but have always thought that it was sort of too simple to justify a purchase. They say on their website that it's not quite the same as this but seems to me like you can get the same effect. Do you ever take EMF coils out into the field, if so how do they perform?

[@undulations]

They work fine out in the field - mainly just a matter of picking a spot that has cool sources (and where the activity itself doesn't cause any issues). I am bringing on a trip soon, also want to try at a friend's laboratory. Someone once commented on another post that a photocopy machine has amazing sounds😀. As for vs. other gear, the pricepoint on these is so low, particularly if you have a recorder, it's worth trying anyway. Thanks a lot for watching!

[@laehnoj]

@@undulations I had a Soma Ether for a while. I did not have luck with it. 60Hz hum overwhelmed almost everything in our house. Plus, the build quality of the Ether was, in my opinion, lacking given its cost. And (I think) it induced a battery leak that gummed it up. But I'm all for spending the eight bucks to try again with the phone pickup. 😊I may insert one of those passive attenuators in the path for when I go wandering near the power company substation. 😊

[@undulations]

@@laehnoj Well, I don't know a ton about the Ether but I think it picks up actual electromagnetic waves vs. the coil picking up magnetic field fluctuations (which fall off fairly quickly as you move away). So, I guess something like the 60 Hz becomes harder to overcome. Or maybe the Ether picks up all of it, idk. I guess there is a down side to having something super sensitive in this case. I've never had it happen, but I assume the phone coil might be able to pick up a radio station if stray capacitance in the setup was just right to tune in. I have a Landscape FM Stereo Fields, basically a synth, (which looks beautiful but has proven pretty difficult to enjoy) and I got a radio station coming out of that at one point🤔. Anyway, best of luck with the phone coil and thanks a lot for checking out the video🙏🏼!

[@undulations]

@@laehnoj I think you'll enjoy it! The Soma is sort of a different beast, picking up the waves.