Audio Hardware/Software Resonses

1. When I first learned we were going to make our own microphones, I thought it would be really hard. My TA gave us great instructions and helped us out as much as possible so it really wasn't that difficult. Cutting the wires and spinning them together and then soldering all of it together was pretty easy. I thought the hardest part was getting the materials for the project (the store was out of some of the materials) and then just waiting your turn. The mics worked pretty well during the sound walks. There were very low sounds and very high sounds that I am glad my microphones got. When listening to my recordings, I could hear everything that I wanted my microphones to pick up.

2. The MiiDsc worked well for me. It stores a lot of material so I was never worried about running out of space during a sound recording. The recorder we used for our sound walk was a little more advanced than the other recorders I have used in the past. I thought the equipment was easy to use and that it did what it was supposed to do. I would actually prefer to use the recorders I have used in the past because I thought setting the recorder up was confusing (the one we used during our sound walk). This might just be because the equipment was new to me. If I could design my own recorder, it would be a one-touch set up with a visual read-out of the sounds being recorded.

3. For this project, I used Audacity and LAME to edit my sounds. I used this system in the past when I was in high school when I helped one of my teachers who had to edit a lot of the school basketball games. We used Apple equipment so the software I used was iMovie and Final Cut in addition to Audacity. I chose Audacity not only because I had used it before but because it was pretty self-explanatory. I did have difficulty downloading and unzipping the LAME component but I'm not sure if that was because of my computer set-up or not having an unzip program. With Audacity, however, if you just experiment with the software, you should have been able to transfer and then edit the sounds pretty easily. I'm sure I'll be using this program again in school applications as well as some projects I'll be doing on my own.

Ten Questions

1. How many times should I record the same sound/video?

2. During your videos, are we able to change the colors and affects?

3. From watching some of the examples of the videos, do they all have to be abstract?

4. Are you able to write in words in your videos?

5. Are you allowed to make one of your videos all stills?

6. If you record a sound of the waster at Lake Michigan and get stills of cars, are you able to put two different things together?

7. Would I be able to record a conversation between two people and count it as one of my videos?

8. Could I talk when I am recording my sounds?

9. Are we able to put famous images in our videos, like if I had all stills of Van Gogh paints can I use them?

10. Could I use technological sounds like a ringing phone, a beeper or a watch alarm?

Drift Assessment

1. I did my sound walk in Racine.  That means I didn't have a lot of room to mess up.  Before I started the sound walk, I should have planned a better strategy.  Instead of walking to my favorite quiet sites, I should have planned for more lively areas where there would have been more varied sounds.  Another issue I had was the changing weather.  I had to redo a couple of my sounds a different day.  The weather was colder and windier so the sounds are very different from that day. In all, it was the location I chose to do my sound walk and the need to redo some of my sound walk on a different day which proved to be the most difficult for me.

2. Even though I found that Racine was a hard location to find good varied sounds, I still enjoyed walking to some of my favorite spots in Racine.  These were the places I went to often when I was little so the whole experience brought back good memories and I found it to be really calming.  I also enjoyed the opportunity to take some pictures of these sites.  I love photography and have gone past some of these places so often and thought "I really should bring my camera out here."  This gave me the excuse I needed.  Although I used only about six pictures, I took about 30 and some of them are pretty good; I'll keep them.

3. One thing that surprised me was the different sounds I encountered doing this drift.  You walk around town every day and hear the same noises; birds, cars, people talking and laughing.  In doing this drift, however, I was forced to listen for other sounds that are less obvious like the rustling dry grass, the sound of a slamming car door and the jingling of a dog chain.  I heard cars and motorcycles accelerating, grass hoppers chirping, the ticking sound from a car engine that was just turned off, the sound of foot steps made by people walking on a soft surface and the rush of the river.  Another interesting thing I found was that when doing the sound walk, people actually watch you or try to talk to you (people are pretty friendly in Racine).  When I was at River Bend, a lady came up to me and asked what I was doing.  She thought I was an ornithologist.  I didn't know I was that interesting.  Lastly, after living less than a mile away from the airport my whole life and getting used to the planes taking off and landing all day, I expected to get some good sounds at the airport.  Instead, not a single plane arrived or left while I did my sound walk, at least until I went to the next spot on the river.

4. One of the sounds I got was at a Mexican Soccer League game that plays on Sundays in Racine.  First of all, I love soccer so I thought this would be a perfect place to start.  It was very windy that day and the sun was trying its hardest to come out but it was overpowered by the heavy clouds.  That day was one of the first indications that fall was here.  The players were all very suspicious of me as I set up my equipment.  I expected someone to come up and tell me to move on but luckily no one did.  The sounds that day were wonderful.  The wind was blowing pretty hard and the players were yelling at each other in Spanish but since they were also laughing a lot, I think it was all in good fun.  I also got some great car sounds from the road that runs alongside the field.  I really got into watching this exciting game, thinking this would be the best sound of the day.  Unfortunately, it was my first sound testing and I didn't set up the equipment properly so there were no recordings from that site.  Welcome to my world...things like that always happen.

Reading: "The Aesthetics of Noise"

I read "The Aesthetics of Noise" by Torben Sanglid primarily because I thought it would be an historical view on noise.  I enjoy history and thought it would be a more traditional article tracing the evolution of noise and sound.

I believe the main point of this essay was now noise has evolved from the beginning of mankind where it was a concept controlled by priests and was mystical, to the present state where there is an abundance of man and machine-made noise.  I was also perplexed at the idea that we are tired of the classic musical sounds such as Beethoven and Wagner and that we much prefer the urban noise that surrounds us.  I'm hoping the writer was being sarcastic.

I think that as a student of film, I have paid very little attention to the sound in films, with the thought that it is the video that makes a film great.  This essay, however, drives home the point that the sound is a vital part of the film and that as much energy should be put into creating new sounds that will enhance the film experience.  Doing the sound walks has made me listen more and appreciate the sounds which we usually take for granted.

Val's Soundwalk

Film 116, September 13, 2008

Val Danculovich

TA: M. Carrera

I walked around the campus, including the dorms, Klotsche Center, wooded areas and city streets. It was a sunny, beautiful fall day and the leaves had not yet begun to turn. While walking, we found great areas where we could sit or stand and absorb the sounds that surrounded us. The Union was crowded with many sounds that were difficult to differentiate. We found the best opportunities outside where the sounds were more distinguishable. There were about 15 of us on the sound walk so it was really hard to move without making a sound. While walking on the concrete, you could hear the footsteps, including people who dragged their feet. On the grassy areas and woods, the ground was uneven and the grass and weeds dry, making our footsteps even louder than on cement.

When we plugged our ears, it didn't silence the sounds but just muted them a little and made the loudest of the sounds more noticeable. When we unplugged our ears, the sounds were more vibrant.

We heard the following types of sounds:

• car horns
  
• cars accelerating and braking
  
• people talking on the phone
  
• water bubbling from the fountain near Curtin
  
• doors opening and closing - some squeaked
  
• wind blowing
  
• leaves rustling
  
• longer grasses whistling
  
• bird chatter

In the Union, there were sounds that blended in with other sounds making it very hard to distinguish what we were actually hearing. There were computer start-up sounds, voices, trays banging, etc. that combined to create "noise". You could hear some of the sounds but because they were mixed, you couldn't really tell what they were. In the food part of the Union, the volume was loudest but once in a while a tray would be dropped that was even louder and you could identify that sound.

While walking outside, I was able to hear far-away sounds such as the traffic noise from buses and cars but at the same time I was able to identify close sounds such as people talking on their phones and people dragging their feet.

It was kind of windy that day and it was easy for us to identify the sound of wind even without the sound of leaves. We could hear the leaves rustling in the wind but also the "wooshing" sound of the wind as it blew past the buildings.

I didn't make my own sounds but members of the group did. One person hit his pen on a metal light post. Another person hit a pen on a wooden electric post. There were enough sounds to hear in the urban landscape so we didn't need to make our own.

I am a very observant person and I usually notice things like the sounds around me. I love going to Chicago, hearing the noises of the big city. I don't really have a new appreciation of sounds because I have always paid attention to them. I think that having to write down these observations about the sounds, however, has increased my appreciation for the variety of sounds around us.