Power Station

Boilers, turbines, recycle pumps! Desulphurisation flues, electrostatic precipitators, and solar photovoltaic arrays! We don’t entirely know what these things do – but we know for certain they sound amazing!

Last year we were granted access to one of the UK’s largest coal-fuelled power stations. With hard hats, steel toes, and a swag of mics we recorded every space and machine we could. The result is a highly comprehensive collection of industrial recordings that describe heavy 20th century industry.

We’re talking about the archetypal power station too, not something dumbed down for 2020. This place was the real deal! Great big looming cooling towers, massive halls of turbine engines, coal mills, rumbling underground passages, rooms full of electrical gadgets, pumps of all types, oh and a coal train unloading a 100 ton hopper.  It’s a hell of a library.

We recorded in a quad setup using a pair of Sanken CO-100ks, a pair of Sennheiser 8020s. We also had a Schoeps CMXY nearby getting an independent perspective. The recordings are versatile, pitch like crazy, and are useful for hundreds of applications.

These power stations won’t be around much longer – so we’re glad we got a chance to record this beast of industry while we could.

Enjoy!

“There’s a lot of great stuff in here.  A nice variety of steadies for sci-fi and industrial use.  There’s also tracks with just the right amount of activity (not TOO busy).  Authentic scale is hard to fake so this is a great pack of sounds to have for large mechanical spaces.  Great steam/air releases too, and a large servo motor startup that is a real gem.” -Dave Farmer

“It is always a handy to have a library from these guys.  Well recorded and full of interest, Power Station is a great library and full of never before heard sounds. It’s sometimes difficult to visualise a space from a recording, but definitely not with this collection. They’re huge and real. Most of the time drones and tones can feel synthetic, but they have really managed to capture a true real industrial soundscape. They are definitely colossal.” – Ben Meechan