How Brian Humphries Captured the Wind for 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'

Engineer Brian Humphries didn’t use a field recording for the eerie wind that opens Shine On You Crazy Diamond. He set up a wind machine — the kind used on film sets — and pointed it directly at a ribbon microphone inside Abbey Road’s Studio 3. Ribbon mics are delicate; a strong gust can destroy the ribbon element. That fragility was exactly the point.

Humphries let the wind machine blast the mic at close range, overloading the ribbon and creating a distorted, almost harmonic howl. The mic was a Coles 4038, a classic BBC design known for its smooth high end. By pushing it past its limits, he got a sound that was simultaneously brittle and warm — the perfect introduction to the song’s melancholy atmosphere.

The recording was done live, with the band playing along. The wind part was actually performed in real time: someone (possibly Roger Waters or a tech) controlled the wind machine’s speed while the tape rolled. The result was a natural, unpredictable sound that no synthesizer could replicate.