The Sounds Around Us

[m1469]

Well, first of all, I'm going to call this music related.  Pretty please can it stay somewhere that we can attach audio clips?  

This is 5 minutes of recorded sounds in the place of your choosing.  The purpose is for whatever reason you want to make it.  I personally would *love* LOVE just hearing 5 minutes of different places, but I thought it might be fun to even form a challenge along with it - if people want, you can try to describe the place/scenery that these sounds depict.  And/Or you can ask questions about it.

The only thing I will say for now is that this was recorded around 8pm.  If you choose to give a written description, make it as detailed as you possibly can!  Imagine everything you can think of based on what you hear (or don't hear)!  Or you can completely make a story up!  Or draw a picture ... or play a piece of music .  Or just listen.  Or just say what it makes you think of or feel.  And, just in case it's not clear, please feel free to post your own 5 minute clips!

I think it would be fun that, if somebody takes a 5 minute sample of somewhere famous, we try to somehow guess where it is.

[ted]

There is the incessant drone of background traffic. A cricket is chirping all the time. What sort of bird is that at 1:10 ? A helicopter at 2:30 ? Somebody moving things around in a nearby room at 3:30 ? A kid bellowing at 4:00. An alarm of some sort goes off at 4:46. There is something around 2:45 to 3:10 which sounds like neighbours with a radio using a hose or  operating some sort of machinery - can't pick what that is.

I had to amplify the whole thing a great deal before I heard anything.

[m1469]

Hi Ted!  Yippee!  

Well, yes, there is that incessant drone of background traffic, and this observation is a hint towards the geographical layout.  Also, the fact that you had to amplify it all a bit is not just a matter of microphone or intake levels (though I might turn them up in the future), but an accurate depicting of my real time experience in the same place.  The helicopter was actually distant, rolling thunder and the alarm was my own (ooops!) telling me that five minutes was up (but I trimmed the clip differently).  And, the cricket is chirping still ...

I'm not sure what bird(s) it was, they just flew overhead.  So, I am very curious (and of course just do as you like), but, I'm very curious if these things give a kind of picture in yours or somebody's head of how things are laid out and how they look.  Also, if it gives a feel for what it's like to live here ... general mentalities ... etc.  .  I'm curious how much could possibly be discerned .

Should I tell that this was in my backyard?  What sounded like something moving in the next room was actually a neighbor's car door across the street (in the front of the house).  I think.  I'll have to listen again to figure out some of the things.

[littletune]

Oh this is cool!  I didn't see this before! It's very quiet where you live m1469! I don't think it's ever this quiet here...  I'll record something too!!!!!   

[m1469]

Yeah, and there's some more places around here that I want to record 5 minutes of.  Plus, I'm going to record different places and see if people can guess what kind of place I'm recording!  I can't wait for others to record ... it's a way to feed my deep hunger to know what it's like somewhere besides here!

[pianowolfi]

Here is my contribution from today. So far I'll just say that much of it sounds differently than I expected while making the recording

[m1469]

Here is my contribution from today. So far I'll just say that much of it sounds differently than I expected while making the recording

Ok.  Here's my shot.  First, you are on your road bike (skinny, low tread tires?) on a dirt road.  And, I can hear some kind of rattle in your fork ... and I can hear when little pebbles go on the tires.  OK, there's wind, but it's sometimes caught on something which makes it sound like a small motor bike riding up to you.  Ok, you stop the first time and we hear the brakes, then you do something with velcro.  You go downhill.  Into ... a clearing with a forest of ... not pine trees at the fronts of it.  You stop.  There's a bird.  Now, downhill again.  Oh, the next stop you take your clip-shoes out of the pedals or adjust them or something .. no, no (4:30) ... you do something with the shifters. hmmmmm


I can tell that if I knew anything about actual tire pressure stuff, I might be able to guess a number at what weight is in your tires... but, I'm going to say they are a little bit more flat than if you were on a paved road.  But, that means they're either a little flat on accident, or you purposely made them less to ride on the dirt road ... which people do sometimes.  hmmmm ...

[pianowolfi]

Ok.  Here's my shot.  First, you are on your road bike (skinny, low tread tires?) on a dirt road.  And, I can hear some kind of rattle in your fork ... and I can hear when little pebbles go on the tires.  OK, there's wind, but it's sometimes caught on something which makes it sound like a small motor bike riding up to you.  Ok, you stop the first time and we hear the brakes, then you do something with velcro.  You go downhill.  Into ... a clearing with a forest of ... not pine trees at the fronts of it.  You stop.  There's a bird.  Now, downhill again.  Oh, the next stop you take your clip-shoes out of the pedals or adjust them or something .. no, no (4:30) ... you do something with the shifters. hmmmmm


I can tell that if I knew anything about actual tire pressure stuff, I might be able to guess a number at what weight is in your tires... but, I'm going to say they are a little bit more flat than if you were on a paved road.  But, that means they're either a little flat on accident, or you purposely made them less to ride on the dirt road ... which people do sometimes.  hmmmm ...

Wow!   You have wonderful fine ears, well of course you know a bit of what I'm up to, but nevertheless, that's amazing!

Actually you got almost everything right, also the tire pressure, that's on purpose relatively low, indeed, because of the dirt roads. Except that I don't use clickies on that particular bike at the time. That click sound at the last stop came from putting my plastic mudguard back (which had moved a bit from it's place) onto the frame. And yes that small motorbike is in fact the wind, it makes that noise in the microphones of my Edirol R09-HR! That's what surprised me actually. Yes there's a bird, they don't sing so much anymore now. But some crickets are very active

[ted]

Sunday morning. What are we doing ?

[littletune]

Wolfi your recording sounds really cool!  When you stopped the first time it was sooo quiet!! I thought you already stopped recording! Where were you that it was sooo quiet?

Sunday morning. What are we doing ?

Are you having breakfast? And you're drinking something, maybe tea or coffee... and there are a lot of cars going by and a lot of birds singing. And did a cat come to visit you? And then there was water and some noise like the door closing or something I don't know... and at the end it was like you forgot you were recordning and then you were like oh right and stopped recordnig.   

Oh I really have to post something tomorrow!!

[ted]

Not a bad guess. We were having a cup of tea in the sun on the front steps after my wife had pruned her roses. I then gathered the clippings and dumped them around the back. A storm had filled a recycling bin with water and I emptied it, rearranging our wheelie bins and pulling out a few creepers on the way back. The loudest birds were tiny silvereyes, which look for aphids on the roses, but there are hundreds of birds all around this year. One of many neighbourhood cats came after birds but went when it saw us.

[goldentone]

Sunday morning. What are we doing ?

You're having your Sunday morning tea outside on your porch.  You saw your pet, Tiger.  And then your wife had enough of that and got active taking care of some things while you continued to finish your tea.

Some interpretation in there.   I didn't look, by the way, at your response.

[ted]

Not bad at all, except that Tiger is the neighbour's cat and it was I who resumed work while my wife continued to drink her tea.

[littletune]

I wish I could draw something and play something and write a story for all these recordings but I never have enough time for everything that I want to do!!!!! How can some people have too much time and get bored and don't know what to do??! It should be like... that you could buy time from the people who have it too much and don't know what to do with it!! Wouldn't that be cool!?

Oh... well I'll post a recording now!   It's not from today it's from some time ago... maybe you can try to figure out from when... but I think that would be very difficult!  And I put a few recordings together (cause none of them was long enough), but they're recorded in the exactly same place and the first part is just a few hours earlier.     
(oh and it's a little less than 5 minutes it's like a little more than 4 and a half, hope that's ok!)

[goldentone]

Here is my contribution from today. So far I'll just say that much of it sounds differently than I expected while making the recording

The sound of your bike tires sauntering along was very soothing, Wolfi.  

[pianoplayjl]

This thread sort of reminds me of john cage 4'33.