There’s a lot of screeching sounds with spontaneous high end frequencies. Occasionally some low end frequencies creep in but then soon fade out. After 10 seconds an airy sound creeps in the right ear. Soon after that, a crinkling sound enters with a lot of high frequencies in a somewhat rhythmic pattern. It appears in the centre staying at a fairly constant volume. This sound fills up the recording, acting somewhat like a pad. field-recording.mp3
Yes, you have uncovered my secret: I have a thing for crazy laughter when it comes to recording sound. It’s just such great noise, especially when the guy doing it is not only theatrical but has breathed in helium, changing the usual pitch of his voice! I mucked around with the helium too, for my Introductory Composition timbre assignment. But it turned out to be more like less of a timbre effect, and more appropriate for this field report 
The disembodied voices of different people from different television sets float, with just a touch of reverb, in the corridor bridging the living room and the dank smelly bedroom of a flatmate. The female voice and the male voice do not address each other (on different television sets, speaking to different characters). Instead they perplexedly try talking around the other voice, meandering lost in the corridor, never being able to quite sound like they are speaking to each other. Sometimes, they clash-one tends to dominate, in perfect dissonance with the clinking of cutlery as a flatmate’s solo TV dinner in the living room ensues.I just find it ironic, how the noise of a few TV’s echoing in a corridor can not only be a sign of dysfunctionality in human relationships, but sound like a dysfuctional human relationship-a situation in which both parties can’t understand the other and will rarely get along without clashing.
Train rides have been a source of inspiration for composers with their constant rickety rhythms, but nowadays modern trains have been made to make the journey smoother, eliminating the “rickety-ness”. however, with the new technology new sounds can be heard, a constant electronic hum on the note A, bleeps on F and electronic voices, as well as outside noises such as high pitched screeches.
Another post written about the WAAPA computer labs. Here there are two different high frequency pitches each floating in and out of sync with each other. There is a louder, coarser sound, rustling somewhere above my head, to the tune of a solid metronome. Occasionally there are cracks as something somewhere expands or contracts, a complete improvisation. There is organised sound floating through the air, stiffled and imperfect, distorted by several layers of concrete.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
This field report was recorded at a bus stop outside my home. I can hear all the unique sounds of each car that passes. Some are coming from one way and some are going the other way. But amongst the noisy car sounds I can hear the whisper of the slight breeze. On the other side of the road there is a high school student talking on his mobile and around him there are shopping catalogues which probably fell out of someone’s mailbox blowing in the wind making a flapping paper sound. A plane can be heard passing by as the cars are still coming at a constant rate, every five seconds or so with the occasional truck, but still no bus, which is now five minutes late. Eventually the bus arrives. Its noisy engine and motor sounds get louder and louder as it approaches. When it stops in front of me the ‘woosh’ sound of the door opening allows me to enter and begin my daily journey to University.
Walking around the ECU campus, my ears came under the assault of high pitched screeches from above me. I focussed in on these somewhat melodic fragments, all independent of each other, beginning with a sinlge call and then developing into a dense, polyphonic texture. Other noises surrounding me such as the droning, static hums and drones, did not permeate through the screeches in the recording.fr5.mp3
I’m outside my house late at night. It’s very quiet, just the sound i was looking for. I wanted to capture the sound of stillness or the sound of the night. I can hear these hight frequencies in a some what constant rhythm. It sounds quite distorted. To me it’s helping create this sound of stillness. The hum in the background also helps, acting as a pad for the “piece”. Occassionally there are some distant mid range frequencies, again with distortion. Towards the end of this recording I can hear muffled, bassy sounds in the distant.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
This field report was recorded in the middle of an empty classroom. I sit down and the room itself is dead silent at first, or so I thought. The first traces of sound come from the ceiling. It is a creaking sound. I then hear footsteps in the hallway outside, followed by the shutting sound of a door. After that, I notice a regular ticking sound which is the clock, and it is strange that I did not notice it before as it has always been there. There are muffled vocal-like sounds coming from outside the building. A motor-like sound suddenly becomes audible, like the sound of a car or something. Another creak from the ceiling is followed by more footsteps treading, while in the background you can hear a screeching sound like a bird call and the ticking sound made by the clock. This continues until there is no audible sound left, except for the regular ticks which will continue for as long as the clock’s batteries last.
On the train once again heading up to Perth. The strongest sound I can hear is coming mainly to my left ear. It is a muffled sound containg within it many individual sounds. In other words spill from an ipod. Something that has now caught my attention is a quiet hum from above. This is only emphasised when the train has stopped. Otherwise the hum of the engine takes over. An electronic voice says “doors closing” as i hear a rustle from a handbag. To my left i hear more rustling but then moves to all around me as more people get on the train. I hear a lot of high frequencies just infront of me and a lot lower frequencies about 10 metres behind me. It seems speech has an average higher frequency when heard from closer distances.
