#audio class

Field Recordings Playlist:

https://soundcloud.com/amanda-61017344/sets/field-recordings

For my three exterior recordings, I went to the Day Hall stairs. The first recording is me walking by some buses near the stairs because I thought that the engine noises they were making was an interesting sounds. The second recording is me entering and walking up a short portion of the stairs. I tried my best to capture the sounds of footsteps on wood for this one but the buses from the previous recording could still be heard in the background. My third recoding for this would be me exiting the stairs. I recorded this in order to try to capture the change from being inside a somewhat enclosed area to one that is completely open.

As for my interior recordings, I decided to go to Archbold gymnasium since I knew that I would be able to get a variety of sport related sounds. My first one would be a recording of people playing basketball. I started the recording before I walked into the court and was able to get some nice echoey sounds of people talking as well. I think that the music playing in the background once you enter the court also gives the listener a good sense of how big the space is. Kendo was the next sport sound that I recorded. This provided me with the sound of a clack, followed by a loud shout. The last recording I did in Archbold was the sound of people playing Racket ball. I feel that the echo of the ball bouncing off the wall in this recording also gives the listener a sense of how big the room is.

I went around to different places on the campus in order to get recordings of my object exploration. My first object was the creaking of a door in Archbold. I feel that this recording really captures just exactly how old this door was and, listening back on it, I find that the creak is so high it’s actually somewhat painful to listen to. The low moaning sound of the room tone also gives it a sort of spatial aspect to it. The rustling of leaves was my second object. What I did was use a stick to move around some leaves on a bush and rotated the mic a bit. I also may have ruined the recording by accidently touching the microphone itself when rustling the leaves. My third object was the sound of a mail box. I opened and closed the lid multiple times in order to get the clangy metal sound. This mailbox also happened to be under a streetlamp so the humming of the electricity could be heard in the background. I moved around the mulch on the ground for my fourth object recording. What I did was shuffle around on the ground in order to get the crunching sound. I tried to move the microphone from left to right in an attempt to get some sort of moving motion the recording. My last object was more of a performance then an object. I went to the dome and stood in between the pillars. The way the pillars are made allows for a nice reverberation that can only be heard when you are standing there. What I did for this, was get me and my friends to make sounds that went high to low and vice versa. I thought that this was interesting because it was very similar to a warning siren.

Bounce 1: https://soundcloud.com/amanda-61017344/a3-track-1

For this piece, I started with the sounds of water drops and added an echo on it to make it last longer and to prevent it from being abrupt. I also used the back of a snare drum and ran my fingers across the metal strings in order to make the plucking noises. The second sound that you hear in the piece is also made using the same method but I changed the way I ran my fingers over the strings. This sound was made to be panned left and right in order to get the feeling that something is moving. The main track for the background noise is the sound of me blowing bubbles in water. The rough, short sound that you occasionally hear is made by rubbing two sponges together and changing the EQ so that the listener can only hear some of the lower pitches. I think that the strongest aspect of this is the deep rumbling sound contrasting the higher plucking sound. I think the weakest aspect is that sometimes you can hear a squeak from the drum.

Bounce 2: https://soundcloud.com/amanda-61017344/a3-track-2

This piece was made by making use of a rainstick. The first sound that is heard is made by shaking the stick and adding a reverb on it, then panning it left to right. I also used my nails to scratch the side of the stick to make the deep scratching sound and slowly faded it. I repeated this and made the last one lower by using EQ on it for a more muffled feel. The rain stick noise itslef was mainly left untouched and all I did was control the speed of it. I did this twice and made the second rain stick noise higher by adjusting the EQ on that too. The main background track was made by fiddling around with a metal box and making clanging noises. I controlled the volume of this track by using the pencil tool in order to prevent it from overpowering some of the other tracks. I think the strongest point of this piece was making all the different sounds with the rain stick. I think the weakest point would be that despite adjusting the volume of the background track, sometimes it is still somewhat distracting.

Bounce 3: https://soundcloud.com/amanda-61017344/a3-track-3

Bounce 1: https://soundcloud.com/amanda-61017344/a2_bounce-1-1?in=amanda-61017344/sets/assignment-2

Bounce 2: https://soundcloud.com/amanda-61017344/a2_bounce-2-1?in=amanda-61017344/sets/assignment-2

So to start with, we watched ‘Fishing with John’, a 1991 tv series about John Lurie fishing with one of his famous friends each week. We watched it for the sound design aspect, made up of surrealistic sounds, which made it much more interesting than normal fishing shows. Then we watched ‘Berberian sound studio” a horror film about a sound engineer/foley artist. It was really interesting to watch a film about an actual sound engineer and to see them do foley in a film itself .The sound design made the film seem creepier and eerier than it actually was, it made you feel uneasy which I enjoyed, most of the film was in Italian.