EXCERPT Sound Devices A squat shiny column, the manufacturer’s name embossed in cursive across the lid, the nickel base milled with a reeded edge: a piezo pickup designed for recording stringed instruments. A pair of discs, each the dimensions of a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Button but a little heavier, one dipped in blue liquid rubber and one in red: contact microphones gifted by Rory Salter. Another pair of contact mics, scuffed and dented, the foam circles at their centres bruised and blemished by use. A black cylinder, shape and heft suited to a small palm, the manufacturer’s name debossed along its side, the base tapering to a steel thread from which the cable sprouts: a geophone devised to detect subsurface energy waves. Two black metal tubes inserted into plastic spheres encased in fleecy synthetic fur covers, the globes cradled in suspension supports that are screwed onto a powder-coated horizontal bar printed with the manufacturer’s logo, a centimetre rule and guide marks for direction alignments: cardioid microphones arranged in the ORTF configuration of 17 centimetres separation at 110-degree angles.…