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Thunder, crickets and a sonic boom help make up a recording artist's oeuvre.
By JOHN BALZ, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 17, 2002
HUNTER'S GREEN -- Michael Oster has recorded some of his best work right outside his front door.
In August of 1998 he captured an hourlong thunderstorm, hiding his microphones under an overhang to keep them dry. He called the CD Suburban Thunder, and he says it has sold especially well among dog owners hoping to condition their pups not to fear thunderstorms.
Two years later he released a collection of crickets chirping, trees rustling and wind howling as part of Night Sounds.
But Oster's days of clean recordings have faded into the annals of history. In New Tampa, man has triumphed over nature.
"It's very noisy out here now," said Oster, 34, with a closely shaved head and long sideburns. "I'd never be able to get a recording like (Night Sounds) out here, not unless all the power went out and all the traffic stopped."
Oster has been all over Florida chasing great sounds. He has caught the space shuttle's sonic boom and F-18 fighter jets as they rocketed over MacDill Air Force Base.
But Oster is more than just a chronicler of sounds. He is a sound designer, a recording engineer and a recording artist.
For his 2000 offering, Fluid, he turned 14 seconds of trickling water into 54 minutes of experimental music by cutting, stretching and layering the same sound clip.
"Mysterious drones resonate beneath chirping timbres. Distorted arpeggios ramble through space. Monstrous earthquakes rumble in the distance." That is how a reviewer in Keyboard Magazine described the CD.
Ten years ago, to break into the sound design world you needed about $200,000. Today someone can get in for $10,000. Oster wouldn't say how much his equipment is worth. A piece of software that lets him mix and modify sounds cost $8,000.
After graduating from the University of South Florida with a degree in criminology, Oster went to a recording school in Orlando. He did production work for infomercials, news programs and various corporations before settling in Hunter's Green in 1996 and devoting himself full time to his company, F7 Sound and Vision.
He creates manmade sound effects for use on radio shows and multimedia computer programs. The March 2002 issue of EQ Magazine described his latest collections as full of "squrks, sneeps and blonks." In other words, don't expect to hear these sounds anywhere on Earth.
"There are sound effects companies out there that make CD-roms of every kind of natural sound you can think of, so I figured if I was going to compete in this business I was going to have to make something unique," said Oster, who, in an unrelated event, was struck by lighting last fall.
Oster spends most of his time in front of a Macintosh G3 computer. Sound foam covers the walls of his home studio, ensuring that Oster can listen to his creations in their purest form.
Electronically, he cleans the hisses and scratches off old recordings that people send him. He has worked with local jazz musicians and gospel choirs putting together CDs. He sells his products online and in music catalogs, reaching every continent except Antarctica. The Web site is www.F7sound.com.
- John Balz can be reached at (813) 269-5313 or at balz@sptimes.com.