Wire Recording (not what you think)

[Archmart]

Hey Hey!

A buddy just asked me a question he's been wondering about since childhood. (a long time ago in his case!

Growing up as a missionary kid in Central America, he distinctly remembers a film crew making a movie and wanting to capture the sound of the dopler effect as a plane flew by. He's fairly certain that they strung a copper wire across the runway, affixed to wooden stakes on either end so it was suspended off the surface, and that that wire was somehow used as a transducer as the plane flew over it, not landing or touching down... He doesn't think there was a mic on either end.

Any ideas? What could this have been? Anyone know some crazy old technique, and why it would be better than other resources a small film crew might have at catching the sound of a plane flying (closely) by?

-Archmart

[jhharvest]

Sounds a bit unusual. Maybe the copper wire was used for some other purpose and he just thought it was for sound? After all, it can't work as a transducer unless there's a magnetic field going across it.

Personally I'd just stick a boundary mic on the floor.

[Archmart]

Hey Hey! I was thinking the same, but... never hurts to ask.

[ashcat_lt]

It doesn't really need a magnet to work. It could have been some sort of electrostatic pickup situation. It would have required quite a lot of voltage, and I honestly can't say how this would have worked, but...