Thunder & Firecrackers used as IR spikes?

[JoeyM]

My neighborhood has what I think are fantastic and usable acoustic reflections, but there are snags to getting an impulse of it easilly and without interference from nearby highway. Not to mention birds and stray rotary saws.

The thought occurred to me lately, since I've already involved in trying to capture some good thunder, if one of those thunder crackles (and resulting reflections bouncing off the neighborhood) could be turned into an impulse?

What makes this seem like a great idea, is that thunder is already very loud. The birds are quiet, highway less traffic.

If that isn't practical due to a dry summer, or all the thunder is accompanied by rain, another idea was to try firecrackers or M80s to generate the spike.

Lastly, another idea is to take two boards with a hinge, like a movie directors "take 1" thing, and smack those two boards together and record the impulse from afar. Unconventional, possibly. But I'd risk less trouble than shooting off guns at 8am Sunday

In the end, my recording end of the project studio was more thought through than the monitor end, so for now I don't have an amp/monitor combo that are loud and precise enough to generate the perfect spike(s) outside. Popping a balloon has been used by others but I don't believe there's enough volume generated by it.

Care to brainstorm?
(oh nelly that was a good pun, brain STORM ah haha)

[tINY]

The clapper board and the firecracker are good ideas.

A starter pistol at 5am Monday morning might be the best...



-tINY

[IsleBeatUDown]

Can't beat a shotgun for a nice fat sound. Claim there was a home invasion.

[JoeyM]

Originally Posted by tINY

The clapper board and the firecracker are good ideas.
A starter pistol at 5am Monday morning might be the best...
-tINY

It makes sense to me, to use a solid oak board a construction guy gave me, put one or two hinges on the flat ends. While we're at it, is it somewhat possible to calculate how long the boards should be, with regard to what wavelengths will be generated? I'd be shooting for 1khz right? Wavelength

Originally Posted by IsleBeatUDown

Can't beat a shotgun for a nice fat sound. Claim there was a home invasion.

That would work until the cops ask "why are there two minutes of silence before the shot was fired?"

"Officer, I had just wrestled my iLok back from the intruder and made haste to reinstate the appropriate licences, so don't tell me how to make a recording, mister"

[AZeitung]

Originally Posted by JoeyM

It makes sense to me, to use a solid oak board a construction guy gave me, put one or two hinges on the flat ends. While we're at it, is it somewhat possible to calculate how long the boards should be, with regard to what wavelengths will be generated? I'd be shooting for 1khz right? Wavelength

You want all of the frequencies to be present, up to the maximum frequency you want to work with. The shorter and tighter the burst of sound is, the more this is true. I wouldn't worry about the resonance of the wood.