video hardware/software response

My experience with the Olympus digital camera was different. It was weird working with something that was not actually a camcorder, to video tape something. It was a new experience for me to have to actually convert the video into the right format in order to edit the film. With a regular camcorder I never had to do that. I think I was able to implement my image capturing strategies to an extent with this camera. I was able to record what I wanted but I noticed that with this camera I was not allowed to zoom as much as I am able to with a camcorder. In an ideal world my camera of choice would zoom in and out as much as I wanted it to. It would almost be extendable so I didn’t have to work. It would work like a telescope. It would also come with lighting. The Olympus doesn’t have a light on it, so I had to make sure that it was the right time of day to capture what I wanted to capture.

The software I chose to use was Windows Movie Maker. I chose this because I am most familiar with the program. It’s very easy to use but is also very basic at the same time. It does not have many features as other programs like finalcut pro so there is only a little you can do when editing, but it still helped me accomplish what I wanted to do my film, which was cut clips into many pieces and change the colors around. I might try to experiment with some other program in the future.

The Future of Music by Credo

The Future of Music by Credo

I chose this article because the title attracted me. I’m into music, instruments and sound and wanted to see what Credo would say about this topic. If he would talk about how music would change.

The title of the article basically tells you about how in the past music was recorded from people playing instruments from the 18^th and 19^th century. Now music is being produced by electric instruments and how producers can music without intermediary performers, and mentions the pitch and tone. The article says “It is now possible for composers to make music directly, without the assistance of intermediary performers. Any design repeated often enough on a sound track is audible. 280 circles per second on a sound track will produce one sound, whereas a portrait of Beethoven repeated 50 times per second on a sound track will have not only a different pitch but a different sound quality.” He talks about how the music produced by electric instruments will be musical sounds and the rest is noise. It also mentions how new methods to writing music will be discovered.

I think that this article is kind of tells me what it will be like in the future, if I am going to work with sound and music. It gives me a heads up so I know what I would be working with.

Survey

• Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen?

There were some places where I could listen to one thing, but there were many sounds in the background, like the street and people. I did find a quiet place for birds to come and I think that is one of the places where I could hear one thing, maybe because I was concentrating on just them because it seems that when I recorded it, it picked up the street also.

• Was it possible to move without making a sound?

If I tried really hard and slowly to not make a sound when I walked you wouldn't be able to hear, but that was really impossible with all the leaves and rain on the ground.

• What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?

When I plugged my ears I just saw things happening but couldn't hear them, it was like everything was muted, just like when you mute your television, and then when u unplugged them it was like I unmated it. All the sounds came up at once.

• In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.

Birds

Voltage thingy

Basketball

Tennis court

Girls screaming

The street

People talking

Construction

Cricket

Planes

Thes dound of my bag hitting my leg

The rustling of the trees

The wind

Doors closing and opening

People breathing

• Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?

Yes, the sounds that had a recognizable source were the loudest ones. For example, the construction

• Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds?

Umm yah. People talking. Construction. birds

• Were you able to detect subtleties in the everpresent drone?

Ever present is two words, and I don't understand the question.

• Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?

Yah extremely close sounds were the my bag hitting my lag and the trees and birds I was standing by. Far away sounds were people talking and the sounds of the streets in the distance.

• What kinds of wind effects were you able to detect (for example, the leaves of trees don't make sounds until they are activated by the wind)?

Exactly that. The wind making the leaves rustle and pushing the trees.

• Were you able to intervene in the urban landscape and create your own sounds by knocking on a resonant piece of metal, activating wind chimes, etc.?

Yah like opening up the sewer or manhole

• Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?

I have an appreciation of being able to hear.

• How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?

I think that it will allow me to listen closer to sound more than i usually do. Usually there are so many sounds going on at once that you do not even take the time to listen to them, they are blocked out of your mind. Sound can tell you what is actually happening even if you can't see it. It adds detail. I think that this soundwalk experience will make me add more detail to my work.

Using the Hardware and Software

I thought that building my own microphone for a drift was like the weirdest thing. I was frustrated and high (due to the sauder...wrong spelling) while building it even though it was extremely interesting..ya know whatever. Making the wind resistance thing was hilarious cause it was kind of ghetto, but i felt sooooo good about myself when it was completed. Putting the mic into the mini-disc recorder and putting the headphones on my ears made me nervous...i was afraid it was not going to work and that I was going to have to start over....for the 5th time...but guess what? It had worked! woop woop! everything was suddenly amplified. It was like having extendable ears! I could hear people whispering. Will use for spying purposes.

The recorder was a little weird. It was kind of old school You had to click menu and pause and record and ya know...whatever...all that stuff. It worked very well though :) but my ideal recorder thingy would be like extra miniature so I could hide it when I spy on people. I could just hit record and thats all I would have to do. The settings would just automatically adjust.

To edit my sounds I recorded, I used Audacity. I never actually used Audacity before but I learned quick. It was actually quite fun messing around with the sounds. You could crank up the base or even add an echo. I chose this cause just did. I actually never had a lot of experience with sound editing software before and I remember hearing the name Audacity and it actually worked quite well. I will probably be using it again soon :)

Response

I chose This American Life, because we will be making a map of our drift and I wanted to see what kind of maps these map making people make. I wanted to get ideas for making my own map and wanted to see if any of the article relates to me going on my drift. I was hoping it would give me ideas.

I think that it is pretty amazing how Ralph Gentles makes a map of every crack and pothole with ignoring everything else. To do something like this you couldn’t have anything else around bother you. The article says, “Mapmaking means ignoring everything in the world but the one thing being mapped, whether it's cracks in sidewalks or the homes of Hollywood stars.” This got me thinking about the map that I will be making for my drift, I will not be including everything around me such as the people walking on the street, but just where I go and what I decide to record, leaving out unnecessary details. Denis Woods maps his own neighborhood, with the power lines and sewers. This reminded me of going out with my group of fellow sound recorders and putting our ears to the sewers. Other map makers in this article made their maps using only their sense of taste or touch.

Soundwalk

My Sound Walk was in Downer's Grove (Forest). I was to be very quiet while i was there. When I covered my eyes and heard, it was very different from covering my ears and seeing. I saw the things in the forest. I could see them move and be pushed by the wind, but I could not hear their movements. When i closed my eyes and heard (my ears uncovered) it was very amazing. I hear things i would never stop and listen to on any normal day. It was as if their sounds became louder. The trees seemed like they blew harder, the birds chirped louder and I think I was hearing a cricket. I think that if we cannot see things, we rely more on our ears to tell what is there or what is happening.

What did I hear with eyes closed?

Birds chirping 2-3 of them, (not constantly just every few seconds, coming from different places in the forest)
The swaying of the trees (all around me)
The sticks i was standing on
Cars going by every few seconds (in front of me)
A cricket ( constant noise,to the right of me)
Some sort of drilling sound from a machine (did not mix with the nature, to the far right of me)
A basketball htitting the ground ( in the court to the far left of me)
Planes going by above me ( overtook all the other sounds)

What did I hear with ears closed?

My own breathing
Airplanes above me

What did I hear while simply walking out of the forest?

Stepping on the gravel all through the forest
Stepping on the wooden bridge
Birds
Planes
Cars
Swaying trees
Girl screaming
A sports game going on
A whistle
Voices of men
Basketball hitting the ground
Tennis ball being hit by players
Squeaking of shoes from the court
The contents of me bag
Guys saying "Yah!"
My shoes scuffing against the ground
Someone bump into me
Door opening
Someone's jogging outfit
The Sound of the ATM
The spinning enterance to the gym at Klotsche
People not following the rules and talking
The turning of a page of someone's notebook
Girls giggling
Someone breathing
A buzzing from the voltage box thingy that feeds Sabin Hall
A fan

I was hearing so much at once, that I could not concentrate on just one thing. I think that if my eyes were closed while walking out of the forest, it would have been different. It was weird coming from the forest where all the sounds were of nature and going into something completely different like a Gym.