The Equipment Room

Building the microphones was a highly gratifying experience. I had worked with audio equipment and soldered in the past, and had very little trouble with the process. However, before this class I would have never thought anyone could just cut the plugs off an audio wire and put on microphones. I always thought the wires were built different or that there was more to it than just cut and solder. Once out on the drift, my mics worked great in all situations; I was especially pleased with the performance of the felt wind screens (they truly were cost effective). Furthermore, the fact that my microphones were hand built allowed me a more personal experience with my recorded sounds; really made me feel as though I had created them from the ground up. On the other hand, if I were allotted unlimited amounts of time and money I would have made a few improvements. First of all the recorder would have been able to clip to my clothing. This would give me a little extra room to work with my hands. Also, my microphones would need a little extra wire for those hard to reach places. It would be incredible useful to have a detachable/rotatable “cup” on the mics in order to better isolate, shield, and direct sounds.

The Sony mini disc recorder served my purposes albeit aggravatingly. Don’t get me wrong, the sound recordings were solid, it didn’t lose any of my recordings, and it didn’t freeze or crash on me. However, the device felt rather clumsy. It was a hassle having to reset manual gain mode after every session. To add insult to injury, the device only allowed me to do so through a slow and clumsy process consisting of button combinations and unnecessarily long wait periods. I became quite familiar with the term “wait a moment” during saving, start up, and attempting to access the menu. At times the device was even unresponsive. I would have to hit record multiple times with no prevail and even unplug and plug my microphones at start up in order to get a response. Though I have not used other sound recording equipment in the past, I imagine there are better devices. In a perfect world, my recorder would maintain its setting, be lighting quick, record to a hard drive, and would have a seamless control scheme One day I will find such a device.

I edited my field recordings with Audacity. I found this software to be very straightforward and highly useful. I thought the program had a wide range of useful tools and functions, especially for freeware. I used it for the first time recently when it was recommended to me by a professor. Since this was the only audio software I’ve ever heard of, I went ahead and used it. I took advantage of the various effects and plugins to achieve just about everything from cross fades to distortions. Due to these facts, I will most likely use this program in the future.

Further Investigation

1. What more interesting city sounds lye further downtown?
2. If I wouldn't have cut my Drift short because of class, what new sound scapes would I have discovered?
3. What areas other than downtown are there to explore?
4. Are there any other public schools or playgrounds in the drift area?
5. Are there any areas other than residential or commercial to explore further south (i.e. Industrial)?
6. How would the sounds recorded at night differ from daytime sounds?
7. What new sections of town could I discover by going north or west rather than south?
8. What part of town could I go to that is most different from the environment I'm used to?
9. What part of my drift had the most people and least cars?
10. Was there a mysterious or otherwise unsettling location I could explore (within reason)?
    
11. What would Glenn Bach do?
    

Recollections

When I first went out my drift, I was a little upset because the residential environment we were in was seemingly sparse and generic in its sounds. However, I was pleasantly surprised at not only what I found in this area, but also the subsequent areas it led into. For example, after leaving the residential neighborhood I found the perfect mix of peacefulness and commotion at a sidewalk café. Another bothersome aspect of the drift occurred when I was stuck on Lincoln Memorial drive with no roads to turn off on. This walk was extremely tedious and filled with bland traffic noises. However, it eventually led to the amazingly rich downtown, where I captured one of my favorite sounds. Another unexpected surprise came in the lab. After recording sounds at a rich playground location and later reviewing those sounds, I came upon the realization of the cultural and societal importance of the playground. In particular, an interaction I captured between a mother and her son as she pushed him on a swing shed light on the unintentional roles a playground fulfills.

One of the most peaceful instances on my Drift was when I ended up on the rocky shore of Lake Michigan. It was incredibly serene sitting out on the rocks with only the sounds of the waves echoing in my headphones. Another instance was sitting on the playground and watching the children running around laughing and carefree; it brought me back to those happy times. As the preceding text may have shown, the playground was in fact my favorite experience. Sitting on the playground and looking at the children and their parents running about the grounds I was able to not only appreciate the family function of the grounds, but also reminisce on my own experiences with family and playgrounds.