Field Recording #9
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Identify the location of the clip – This recording was taken as I was walking from the student center to my room during the torrential downpour

Identify the sounds heard in the clip – This clip starts out with me holding my phone up in the wire frame of my umbrella in the middle of a torrential spring downpour. Shortly after the clip begins one can hear the sound of a very loud and deep thunder clap across the campus as I walked into the unispann. From here you can hear a bunch of voices murmuring of all the people that are waiting out the storm. Their voices have a small echo to them and fill the space as I walk through it. From here you can hear me shake out my umbrella of all the excess water and begin to walk across the unispann. The rest of the clip is of me walking across the unispann and passing different groups of people as they discover the storm outside. 

Journal #10
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1- 4/8/13 – 11:13 PM – Walking from the student center to Lowe in the quad
2- Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you. – Furthest from me is the sound of a helicopter racing back and forth across the sky. It had a much harsher and deeper tone to the propellers that one would normally associate with a helicopter. It passed back and forth for about three minutes while I sat on the quad.
3- Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you. – At a medium range from me I can hear a loud drone of different air units and air conditioners that are pulling air and running a fan at high RPMs. Coming from the building on my left are two different tones coming from two different units. These tones are similar but not identical, making somewhat of a choral effect as they rang through the quad and bounced their waves off of Bits. On the opposite side of the quad (at Bits) there are distinctly three other fans and air units that are running at a very high RPM and making a very loud choral effect as well. All of these tones are extremely loud and overwhelming as they rang through the quad but none of them were the same intensity, quality or tone as each other; however similar. 
4- Identify and list the sounds closest to you (You can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant). – Closest to me I can hear the sound of the young grass being squashed under my shoes. This sound had a distinct difference from the noise one would usually hear when walking through grass as the grass I was on was younger and crisper in a colder harder ground. 
5- Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity. – At a far and medium range from me the sounds are overwhelming and I can hardly stand to be in this space but it is almost calming to have the ever so soft pattern of my footsteps on the young grass buds beneath me.
6- Assign a one word description to the “sound environment”. – Paralyzing 
7- Select and list 3 sounds which are essential to the sound environment. Note: you need to try to 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. – Drone of fans, helicopter, grass footsteps

 

Journal Entry #10
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1) 3/29/13, 1:28pm, my house

2) The cars passing on the highway behind my house, the road out front, some very irritating television show being watched way too loud downstairs.

3) My mom sanding the stairs, swearing at the stairs, giving up on the stairs and sighing, and sanding again. The creaking of the old stairs every time she moves. Dave coughing in the room next door.

4) My typing and sneezing, my cat attempting to find a comfortable position in one of the moving boxes I’m supposed to be packing.

5) The sound level is medium, with a lot of different activity.

6) Typical

7) The television, my mom ranting about something, the cat making general noise.

Sound Journal #9
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1:  Monday, April 1, 2013, 10:19 pm, interstate (headed south) to Long Island

 

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

I’m having one of the weirdest sound experiences of my life, sitting alongside my friend as we roadtrip back to school from Syracuse in his dad’s old car. It’s a 1990 Honda Civic, and something about the way it’s built and how loudly yet evenly the engine runs makes it rather soundproof.  I can hear cars flanking us on either side at nearly 80 mph, but they sound very far away and unreal.

 

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

The car’s original tape deck has been replaced very haphazardly with an equally outmoded CD player that barely fits inside the dashboard.  Additionally, all the sound is coming not from all sides, like in modern cars, but exclusively from speakers at the back.  This is surprisingly unsettling when you’re grown accustomed to surround sound.  Adding to the odd aural effect of this distance is the fact that, at some moments, the CD player seems unable to keep up with the speed at which I burned the songs to play.  Few sounds are as subliminally upsetting as that of a song you know and love slowed down and muddled so slightly that you can’t quite tell if anything’s really wrong.

 

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

The weirdest thing of all occurs when Steve and I sporadically speak to each other, trying to keep each other awake and alert.  There seems to be some sort of sonic deadzone in the mere 18 inches of space between us, which perhaps also accounts for the deadening of the music from the back speakers.  For the entire five hours, we have to nearly shout to one another.  No matter what, the sound seems unable to go very far, like trying to throw a feather.  The effect is that of abruptly losing fifty percent of your hearing, and it’s absolutely, maddeningly surreal.

 

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

The sounds are being emitted at a high level, but the aural experience of these sounds is very diminished and foggy.

 

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

“Distorted”

 

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 distant mishmash of sounds that vaguely resemble my favorite songs is very important to this dopey sound environment, as are the sounds of Steve and me impotently hollering to one another.  Car sounds seem equally important, in a contextualizing sense.

 

 

 

Journal Entry 9
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1- Thursday April 4, 10pm, on the sidewalk near Popeye’s on Hempstead Tpke

2- Down the road, I can vaguely hear the thumping bass of the club nearby. Someone far away honks their horn.

3- The door into Popeye’s opens, momentarily allowing the chatter of the half-full restaurant to be heard on the street. The noise becomes muffled as the door closes with a small whoosh of air. There is a group of people walking on the sidewalk coming towards us. I can hear their footsteps echoing slightly on the concrete and a pair of girls is murmuring to eachother, but other than that, the group is silent.

4- Cars on the turnpike drive by quickly, sending gusts of air our way. The girls I am with chatter excitedly, someone is playing “I’m sexy and I know it” from their phone and the music is slightly tinny. Someone mentions they want to get some Popeye’s before continuing down the road, and this idea is met with a wave of approval.

5- The general sound level is at a medium high, especially due to the loud cars driving by, though the sound activity is closer to a medium low.

6- Pleasant

7- cars driving by, the chatter of the girls around me, and the song playing on the phone

Field Recording #8
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Location: A House on Longwood Dr, Syracuse, NY — March 29, 2013, 2:30 pm

Sounds Heard: This field recording is fairly straightforward — my friend is playing the piano in the living room of his house while I get ready upstairs.  I didn’t know he could play the piano at all, and he hadn’t announced his intent to play — so the sudden onset of beautiful music came as a total surprise to me, and I had the instant need to pull out my phone and record the moment.  The house is fairly open, not divided up by a bunch of walls and closed doors, so the sound of the piano can be heard bouncing off the walls and filling the space.

Field Recording #8
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Location: At the Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne or World Irish Dancing Championships in Boston over spring break, hearing some of the results. My boyfriend’s family is very affiliated with the Irish step world, so I went along to support.

Sounds heard in the clip: Man reading off the scores of the competitors in a very thick Irish accent, random background chatter can be heard. I thought his accent was worth recording and sharing!

 

Field Recording 8
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Identify the location:
Yankee Stadium, Yankees Vs. Red Sox, Third game of the season

Identify the sounds:
You hear dull clapping and cheering, which suddenly intensified and is joined by screams.  Immediately following that is the classic, “The Yankees Win,” announcement, which, of course, is followed by Sinatra’s famous New York, New York.  You can also hear my mom singing along to the song and people talking and singing in the background.