Assignment One

September 19th

Recording #1

Time - 5:58pm

Source – Park/Bandshell

Mic Type – NT3

Settings – Stereo 1 mic input

I feel this is generally good recording. Not too loud, but at the same time it's not too quiet. My only issue is, and I'm not sure if this was because of the recorder or what, but there's a very, very faint noise coming from the right side of the recording. Since I recorded it in stereo 1, it's a mono track and the audio is all in the left ear so theoretically I shouldn't hear anything in the right ear but some hiss (which I do), but occasionally I hear this weird staticy sound as if a bad mic is plugged in, yet nothing is. I'm not sure if I'm hearing things, so let's see if anyone else notices it.

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/msviers/Public/Sound/STE-000.wav

Recording #2

Time – 6:06pm

Source – Park/Bandshell

Mic Type – NT3 and NT4

Settings – 4 Channel Mode

I feel, regardless of this recording being loud and having a loud amount of background tone, it's not a bad recording because of the wide variety of sounds I got. I was able to get the sound of a guy and his son across a large field, some kids right next to me, and a fly flying past the mic. Only drawn back? The kid is really heavy footed and POUNDED his feet when he ran past. It peaks at the end. Lame.

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/msviers/Public/Sound/4CH000M.wav

Recording #3

Time – 6:18pm

Source – Park/Bandshell

Mic Type – NT3

Settings – Stereo 1

Same problem as number one. Dead air hiss in the right ear that occasionally sounds like a bad mic. Thoughts? Once again, I like this recording because it's not too loud and not too quiet. I can hear the birds and the traffic, but not get bombarded by it. I quite like the NT3.

Recording #4

Time – 6:27pm

Source – Park/Bombshell

Mic Type – Zoom Mic

Settings – Mic Settings

This recording would have been nice, had I been smart and used the Zoom recorders wind screen. It still sounds nice, but I get occasional sounds of wind passing by the microphone. Well, this is how one learns. The sound of sirens, kids playing nearby and occasional leaves blowing by make this a really neat listen. Damn you wind.

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/msviers/Public/Sound/STE-002.wav

Recording #5

Time – 6:40pm

Source – Park/Generator

Mic Type – Zoom Mic

Settings – Mic Stereo

This is a very clear recording of the constant hum of a power generator. You can hear the background sounds of cars and people which gives it a time and a place, but what's unique about the recording is how the longer you listen to it, the more and more the hum begins to sound distorted.

Recording #6

Time – 6:46pm

Source – Park/Generator

Mic Type – NT3

Settings – Stereo 1

Pretty much same as above, but with a NT3 mic. It's another nice, clean recording.

Recording #7

Time – 7:06pm

Source – Park/Pond

Mic Type – NT3 with Shock Mount

Settings – Stereo 1

I love this recording. I can hear geese freaking out when I get too close and clapping their little feet in the water, I can hear kids in the background, I don't really hear myself. My issue is... once again I hear that staticy sound in my right ear that signals a bad mic even though I'm recording and getting sound through the left channel. This is weird and frustrates me to no end.

Recording #8

Time – 7:10pm

Source – Park/Pond

Mic Type – NT4 with Shock Mount

Settings – Stereo 1

First off, ignore the initial clipping sat the head of the clip. This clip is good and I like it quite a bit, but the mic being how it is, made a much louder recording. It's kinda of nuts. But the constant sound of the nighttime bugs as I walk is my favorite part, next to the woman calling out for a cat. There's once of twice I can hear myself walking and hear the back shock mount move my mic, but other than that, it's a good recording.

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/msviers/Public/Sound/STE-006.wav

Record #9

Time – 7:40pm

Source – Park/Bandshell

Mic Type – Lav

Settings – Mic Stereo

The park's bandshell had some holes blown in the wall so I thought why not drop the mics down in the holes and try to get a weird echo or stale air. Oddly enough I hear traffic more than anything, but a fun experiment nonetheless.

Recording #10

Time – 7:46

Source – Park/Playground

Mic Type – NT3

Settings – Stereo 1

I did another walking recording, this time without the pesky shock mount. Once again, I hear that annoying sound in the right ear, but strangely I feel I got a better recording. I don't hear any mic handling. The only issue is I was walking too fast so you can hear my walking.

September 20th

Recording #11

Time – 10:25pm

Source – School/Dumpster

Mic Type – Lav

Settings – Mic Stereo

Warning! Intense freaking clipping as soon as you hear the train! Holy Gods there were trains every few minutes. I live a block from the train tracks. This is a cold hard fact of life that I've grown used to, but I've never known them to come to regularly. When I WANT them to come, they never do. My goal was to record wind. It was a freakin' still night. I thought by putting my Lav's in the handle's of a dumpster, when wind finally DOES blow, it'll blow through there and pick up a cool noise and I'll hear it. WRONG. Never happened. I just have a long ass train recording clip.

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/msviers/Public/Sound/STE-009.wav

Recording #12

Time – 10:30pm

Source – School/Dumpster

Mic Type – Lav

Settings – Mic Stereo

Same deal, tried to get wind with my dumpster idea and it didn't work. Just got a bug clicking and my occasionally breathing from still being sick. Woe is me. There are times where I think there's wind, but I'm not sure if it's wind or stale air, but I start to hear the rumble of a train so I cut the recording off.

Recording #13

Time – 10:34pm

Source – School/Rain Garden

Mic Type – Lav

Settings – Mic Stereo

I tried ever so hard to get wind. I even clipped my mics onto plants hoping to get wind going through the plants. All I got were some fascinating bugs, my mics rubbing against the plants and a car with a bad muffler that thought he was awesome that lingered for BLOCKS. Shockingly... he didn't clip.

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/msviers/Public/Sound/STE-011.wav

Recording #14

Time – 10:37

Source – School/Rain Garden

Mic Type – Lav

Settings – Mic Stereo

Same as above. You can still faintly hear the car.

Recording #15

Time – 10:57

Source – Home

Mic Type – NT3

Settings – Stereo 1

I couldn't find any natural running water, so I faked it. I turned on the hose on the side of the house and recorded that.

Recording #16

Time – 11:00pm

Source – Home

Mic Type – NT3

Settings – Stereo 1

Same as above, but I moved back 12ft.

Recording #17

Time – 11:02pm

Mic Type – NT3

Settings – Stereo 1

Another 12ft back but with a little wind noise.

Weekend Sound Walk

I thought the best place to take this Sound Walk would be the local park by my house. So, I walked to Humboldt Park and made my first stop -- the Veteran's Memorial Gazebo.

What I heard at the Gazebo:
- Wind blowing through leaves on the trees.
- A bus' squealing breaks coming to a halt at what I assume is a stop light.
- Low rumble of a Passenger jet overhead.
- Faint sounds of cars moving by.
- A the beeping of a "kneeling bus" reverting from it's kneeling position back to normal then driving away. - Low hum of traffic.
- Windblown crusty leaves dancing and scraping across the pavement.
- The vibrations of a bad engine in a crappy car. More distinct than other car sounds.
- The rhythmic clicking of a bike chain.
- High pitched yelp of a small dog.
- The chime of the dog's metal tags clanking together.

After the Gazebo I walked down the trails a bit more until I came across the pond. I decided to sit on the dock so I can look at the geese and hopefully hear them. It was really cool being able to hear the geese searching for food. It was a rather amusing noise because they'd flip upside down in the water the faint sound of their feet paddling frantically could be heard. It was rather amusing. What really ruined the tone and mood of my spot was the road I thought I got away from. The traffic now at this point was reduced to a barely audible hum, until a group of overly loud motorcyclists decided they just HAD to zoom past the intersection close by as quick as they could. But I digress.

There were two deterrents while doing this exercise:
1) Being able to turn off my brain and focus on the sound. A side effect to having A.D.D.
2) Discerning dominating sounds from middle sounds because neither would last long. I eventually came to the conclusion that traffic was the middle ground, but wind would come and go, and sometimes traffic would boom louder than the wind. It kept shifting.

However the sounds of kids playing nearby was always a constant "tiny" sound that, if I wanted to, I could focus on, but I could then just as easily drone it out.

Finally, before walking home, I took a walk over to the Baseball bleachers and popped a squat to draw my Sound Map. The results are below.