Commercial Fireworks: Up Close and Loud

Commercial fireworks: Up Close and Loud is a collection of commercial-grade fireworks – the big stuff – shooting from mortar tubes not 20 feet from my microphones. Each thunderous burst is heard directly overhead. Many feature a long decay at the end. The result is an assemblage of sounds filled with power and punch. Every round leaving its tube gives off a solid gut-thumping boom. Only such nearby access can provide this perspective. If fireworks aren’t your thing, that’s cool. These files could have been used for any number of WWII movies I grew up watching and will put you right there on the battlefield again today.

A barrage of fireworks burst directly overhead during a commercial display in north central Ohio. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
A barrage of fireworks burst directly overhead during a commercial display in north central Ohio. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon

The other advantage of this normally off-limits perspective is the lack of crowd noise seeping into the recordings. With this collection, no fans are oohing and aahing with everyone else after every explosion.

Quite a few tracks feature the sound of crackling rain, a type of firework that emits a sound which, according to the American Pyrotechnics Safety and Education Foundation is “An effect created by large, slow-burning stars within a shell that leave a trail of glittering sparks behind and make a loud sizzling noise.” See a link to their informative site here. It features illustrated examples of different kinds of professional-grade fireworks.

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Behind the Scenes

I grew up 500 yards from here, watching my town’s Independence Day display from the vantage point of our two-story home’s shingled roof. My siblings and I would carefully climb the TV antenna, which became wobblier with each passing year, to get this choice view. That said, my position for this show blows that view away, hands down.

I enjoy recording the sound of fireworks. Usually, it’s from a distance. To be able to get a pyrotechnician’s perspective on the show was a sonic and visual treat. I hope you agree.

Commercial Fireworks: Up Close and Loud Library details:

  • 6 minutes, 46 seconds total, including a 1:02 finale (with distant but quiet approving fan noise at the end)
  • 224 MB
  • 32 tracks captured with a Sound Devices Mixpre D/Sony PCM M10 combo and two Audio Technica 3032 omni mics in a baffled omni configuration at 24-bit/96kHz
  • Universal Category System (UCS) compliant filenames
  • Metadata included
  • a rare and booming close perspective (mics 20 feet away from mortar racks)

Lagniappe

  • Have you ever wondered what you’re looking at when you see a firework burst in the night sky? Here is a glossary of terms used in the commercial fireworks industry, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association.
  • Are you interested in becoming a pyrotechnician? American Fireworks, who put on the display I recorded for this library, teaches just that.
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