Author Archives: previous-student

Sound Journal #1
Posted on by

1 – 1/27/14 – 12:39pm – Axinn Library, second floor

2 – Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you.
Numerous students conversing in the adjacent room.
A group of people shuffling toward the stairwell door.

3 – Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you.
Students talking to each other on the red couches.
The student printer, printing out homework.
The “pinging” noise the elevator makes as it approaches the second floor, along with the opening of the elevator doors.
The stairwell door closing loudly.

4 – Identify and list the sounds closest to you.
My repetitious typing on the computer’s keyboard.
The drone of the heat registers in back of the computer monitors.
Students flipping through the sheets of their study guides near me.

5 – Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity.
The general sound level and rate of activity feel moderate for the second floor. The noises of the keyboards are generally consistent. The loud voices of the other students prove to be distracting as they carry out their conversation, while other students are completing assignments.

6 – Assign a one word description to the “sound environment”.
Busy.

7 – Select and list 3 sounds which are essential to the sound environment.
The typing on the computer keyboards.
The elevator’s noises.
The consistent sound the heat registers make.

Sound Journal 1 – The Endless Creaking
Posted on by

1. 1/29/2014, 1:08 AM, Home on Front St.

2. Identify the sounds farthest from you: Four housemates upstairs, their muffled voices above my ceiling. They laugh and scream with excitement, not a care in the world. I hear very faint music as well, so faint, in fact, I’m not quite sure what it is. The water in the sink upstairs goes on occasionally and reminds me our water pressure is harsh when the facet is turned up high and tonight, it seems to roar like thunder.

3. Identify the sounds at medium range: As the housemates joke around and enjoy themselves, I hear the sounds of a loud, squishy mattress, on a rickety, old hardwood floor. The floor creaks beneath them every time they jump off the bed and walk down the hall to another room, and I can hear it ALL from my room down below.

4. Identify the sounds closest to you: The vaguely rhythmic clicking of the radiators in my room as the heat attempts to warm this frigid night. Someone is in the bathroom outside my room. The water from the faucet is much softer and I hear the opening and closing of the medicine cabinet.

5. General sound level and activity: It feels rather chaotic in the house tonight. It seems I’m the only person with homework. The feeling seems to intensify with every creaky footstep, every rustle in the bed above my head, every muffled laugh. Even the heater in my room seems to tease me by assuring me I’ll get no silence tonight. While most of the sounds are muffled through the ceiling and the walls, they are all too familiar and are indicative of an active, loud house of college students. The sound of every footstep on the old hardwood is like nails on a chalkboard. The worst.

6. One word to describe the sound environment: Distracting.

7. 3 essentials sounds to the sound environment: The creaking hardwood above me, the constant clicking of the radiator in my room, the near constant rustling, tossing in the bed in the room above me.

Library Noises
Posted on by

1- 9:13 PM, Axinn Library (Lobby), 1/28/14

2- Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you.

  • People outside Hammer Lab, talking loudly, their voices mumbled and distorted by the glass doors of the library
  • The rumblings of the people on the floor below me, trailing up through the open staircase
  • The voices of the people at the front desk, helping those who need assistance

3- Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you.

  • The clicking of nearby keyboards from the PC’s in the middle of the first floor
  • The clicking of high heels against the tile floor as a woman exits the library
  • Keys jingling as a Public Safety Officer approaches the front desk
  • The turning of the pages of a book the man a few tables over is reading

4- Identify and list the sounds closest to you (You can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant).

  • The clicking of the keys on my friend’s Mac, as she types furiously away
  • The vent above the outside door, continuously blowing
  • The roll of a book cart across the floor of the Axinn
  • The noise of sipping, as my friend enjoys her coffee

5- Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity.

  • As would be expected in a library, there is not too much loud noise, however the sounds of people busy at work create a lot of sound activity.

6- Assign a one word description to the “sound environment”.

  • Focused

7- Select and list 3 sounds which are essential to the sound environment. Note: you need to try and figure out what sounds make up this environment and which of those sounds need to be there for the feeling of the environment to stay intact.

  • The sound of the vent above the door
  • The voices of those talking (well, practically yelling) outside the Axinn
  • The turn of the pages

 

Posted on by

1- 4/25/13 11:30 PM Lowe

2- Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you- People outside on the quad screaming

3- Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you- elevator dinging as the janitor uses it, music from Spring Awakening drifting in from the design studio
4- Identify and list the sounds closest to you- typing as Nic and I each work on our respective projects, wind howling through the open window
6- Assign a one word description to the “sound environment”- Busy
7- Select and list 3 sounds which are essential to the sound environment. Spring Awakening, Nic and I typing, widn

Field Recording #11
Posted on by

Listen to

Location: My Dorm Room (Alliance Hall) — Thursday, April 25, 2013, 10:14 am

Sounds Heard: My good friend came over to do homework with the night before, and she fell asleep in my room.  I woke up early to keep working, and she was breathing very calmly.  The way people breathe when they are fully asleep is very interesting, as an automatic body function.  I could never fake this rhythm as a kid to convince my mom I was sleeping.  I also wanted to test the microphone on my iPhone and see if it would pick up any of the traffic or birds outside.  It’s great at picking up soft, close sounds like breathing, but doesn’t seem to catch anything from outside.

(I got her permission to upload a creepy clip of her breathing.)

 

Bonus Recording!

Location: Social Sports Kitchen — Friday, April 19, 2013, 12:11 am

I was having a few drinks with friends and decided to take out my phone to record the barflies singing along to the music.  This clip is funny to me because, without fail, whenever I tell people that I am recording sounds for class, someone says, “Kat, put your shirt back on!”  I even used one such recording a couple weeks ago, from my improv rehearsal.  

Listen to

Sound Journal #12
Posted on by

1: Thursday, April 25, 2013, 4:41 pm, outside Alliance Hall

2: Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you. Today I had one of the cooler sound moments of my life. I was walking back from class, and I stopped outside my dormitory to listen for the starlings that live in the trees around North Campus. When they’re active in the spring, they’re very feisty in the late afternoon and make the trees buzz and quake with their frenzied chatter. They must not be living in these trees this year though, because I didn’t hear them. I could hear the exuberant chatter of all the students congregated at the picnic tables outside the student center, enjoying the warm weather and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes, and I could hear the whirring spokes of bikes as the occasional hipster pedaled past – but no starlings.

3: Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you. At my back, the set of handicap-accessible doors would sporadically make a punchy, metallic pop as the automatic lock would release and the entire thing would swing slowly open. The airy sound of the steady hydraulics could be discerned, as well as the miniscule yet sharp beep that the card swipe makes before granting a homebound student admittance.

4: Identify and list the sounds closest to you (– you can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant). I almost moved on from my spot when I noticed a very aggressive, throaty chirp from directly over my head. The bird call was at once so warbled and so squawky that it sounded more like the noise you’d hear from a mutated frog in a radioactive swamp. I looked up at a low-hanging branch and spotted a puny, grey-brown bird perched there, his chest swollen with the sound he was making and his twiggy legs leaning him forward. He looked absurdly eager for a bird. Just to test my whistling skills, I tried to imitate his call. I didn’t do it quite right, but to my pleasant surprise, the bird immediately repeated the modified call back to me. Of course, I then realized it was a mockingbird, a creature I’ve never encountered in real life. I tried a variety of different, completely made-up calls, and he returned each one with visible excitement. It was a really lovely experience.

5: Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity. The sound activity is very moderate – nothing painfully loud, yet nothing requiring closer listening.

6: Assign a one-word description to the “sound environment”. “Quaint”

7: Select and list 3 sounds that are essential to the sound environment. Note: you need to try and figure out what sounds make up this environment and which of those sounds need to be there for the feeling of the environment to stay intact. The industrial sounds of the hydraulic doors and the beeping card swipe don’t contribute much to the springtime vibe of the moment. However, the bike sounds, the cheery assemblage of students, and of course the highly conversational bird are all sounds that contribute to a cohesive sonic environment.

Journal Entry 12
Posted on by

1- 4/23 Student Center dining room 8:00pm

2- The smoothie machine grinds loudly on and off and two girls in the line are fooling around a little, and their laughter echoes

3- The boys at the table next to us are listening to rap music on speakers, alternately singing along, talking and “oohing” over things.

4- My table is filled with the rugby team, who, as usually, is extremely loud. Two people are deciding whether the long smoothie line is worth braving, another is begging them to get something they like so she can have some. A group of people are yelling across the table to eachother about the details of the last game we played. The girls next to me are discussing getting together to watch a movie later.

5- Sound level and activity are medium high

6- animated

7- the grinding of the smoothie machine, the girls yelling about the game and the tin-y rap music playing from small speakers.

Journal Entry #12
Posted on by

1) 4/25/13, 10:16pm, Carrie Rehearsal Break

2) People walking in the hallway outside, the door of the bathroom being shut, the wind outside

3) Everyone talking, drums playing, piano playing, some unidentifiable scraping noise I don’t want to know about, what seems to be throwing and catching, which I should probably put a stop to.

4) One of my ASMs pencil scratching, a box opening next to me (bet someone’s stealing my candy), my own keyboard strokes, zippering.

5) The sound level is high, as is the activity level. Always.

6) Typical.

7) Everyone talking, piano playing, keyboard strokes.

Field Recording #11
Posted on by

Listen to

1) 4/23/13, 3:56pm, hallway 1st floor of Lowe, between the doors, drounge, and psibrary.

2) Various actors: Anna, Jesse, Cyndi. Doors swinging open and then shut. Rachel Levi saying goodbye, saying hello to me, then being quiet, a wrapper being opened, someone (Jenna Tanzola?) yelling “Willllll!”, discussion about an open window.