Gosh darn, think I'm done!

Here it is.

This should be a link to a direct download.

Naturally you freak

Digital Composition Final Draft

To preface:

This piece is supposed to be alarming and misleading. I willed it to play with ideas of conventional sound editing and breaking those barriers so that things are unexpected or uncomfortable.

It is obviously kind of a satire of performance and how seriously it can be taken as opposed to how uncomfortable and childish it can seem.

"Touch Me, I'm Sick" of Audacity

Digital Composition (Under Construction)

I have clips...

Here's the primary track

Glassy Cafe

...and some clips I want to sample from

Echo Cafe

Chirpy Night

Beebe Samples

and

Isaac Karaoke

Soundscape Final Draft

DONE!

Alterra, Enslave!

Soundscape Draft

Here's a trial..

ALTERRA, ATTACK!

In-Progress Soundscape

My location is the Alterra cafe on Humboldt, my place of work.

...chock full of a wide array of sounds, both ambient and specific

Here are some clips...

Back Room

Dining Room/cafe sounds

...more to come, I promise. Two more clips to be posted once I sort some things and make myself more room on pantherfile!!!!!!

WALK!

Soundwalk Response

Location: Shorewood Nature Preserve
-Beach Alcove/Grassy Knoll

I’ve done a substantial amount of filming here, specifically for Dick Blau’s Experimental Narrative class, which I took in Fall of ’08, and thought it ripe for observing in a soundscape setting. It seems kind of hidden, but I know enough people that know of the area to assume I should not call it secret. There is a mulch path off of Lake Dr. once first entering the Shorewood limits, accessible only from the sidewalk that leads one down a steep hill accessing Lake Michigan. Taking a left and walking about a ¼ mile North along the shore leads to a strange structure that occupies a large chunk of what should be shoreline. The lake backs right up to a large cement retaining wall that creates a sort of ugly walkway set above the lake elevation. This walkway creates a sidewalk to a set of cement stairs that lead further away from the lake and to a grassy knoll area that must be the outer limits of someone on Lake Dr.’s backyard, even further above lake elevation. In between the knoll and the lake is a large gravel pit submerged a ways under lake elevation, protected by the mass of cement. There is one large boulder almost in the middle of the pit. Bridging the gap in elevation between the grassy knoll and the gravel pit are stacks of what must be eroded sandbags, from when the cement retaining wall didn’t exist, that have been formed into a sort of pyramid of cement-like sacks, wrapped in the remains of black tarp. The picture I’m trying to paint should make it absurdly obvious that this is a perfect example of the city’s failure in trying to reduce shoreline erosion and keep the remaining shoreline intact. Essentially, there is a newer, bigger, uglier cement retaining wall that is protecting what used to be the shore, now turned useless gravel pit, from the lake, placed directly in front of a sandbag retaining wall that had been eroded and failed as a retaining wall, protecting the grassy knoll….I know, it’s confusing…

Sound ranges from loud claps and thumps of water filling up the empty space between the tide line and the hollow bottom of the cement retaining wall to the sheltered gravel pit where one can hear the hiss of wind flowing through the confused geometry and the more distant and faint splash of waves, muffled by the cement wall. Even further away from the lake, the grassy knoll, where the forest sounds are more prevalent: chirps, clicks, rustling, wind blowing the leaves, bugs, birds, and even further out, the faint but constant roar of traffic on Lake Dr.

Dominant/High Frequency

-waves crashing against cement wall
-my feet against the gravel, scuffing along the cement walkway, Seagulls crying overheard
-Crickets chirping, rustling in the bushes of smaller critters
-hiss of the power running through the small spotlights that illuminate the grassy knoll



Low Frequency

-distant roar of traffic
-constant roar of the waves further out, coming ever closer
-thuds of water filling hollow space under cement retaining wall

Tiniest Sounds

-wind rustling the leaves above
-again, hum of electricity running through spotlights
-rustling in woods
-very distant sounds of presence of other humans either on one end of the shore or the other end on Atwater Beach

Response to Shifting Eardrum Technique

This process always fascinates me and I often relate it to close listening in music, which I do a lot. Picking up on individual sounds amongst a symphony of them, especially in such a lively environment, is something that seems relevant to me in the sense that it puts one, individually, in perspective amongst the world around them. Doing this audibly, through just the sense of sound, is a process of realizing one’s size in relation to the space around them and how their perspective interrupts the natural and occurring world one occupies without a constant reminder of it.

Close Listening Sounds

-waves of all sorts, distant, near, loud, soft, thud, crash, etc..
-bugs in forest, chirps of crickets, rustle of leaves, small critters scuffling, birds chirping both far away and near, accompanied by the flutter of a bird flying from one location another audible one, flight and landing
-leaves in the tress up above rustling in the wind, leaves bowing on the ground, my own footsteps on leaves and gravel and stepping through moist grass
-wind shifting from one elevation to another due to gain or loss of pressure from lake to shore or otherwise, blowing through the gravel pit
-interspersed with faint and infrequent sounds of other human life on the beach, either coming closer from the mulch path I came from or further away at Atwater Beach, on the other side of the woods.
-the disappointing and faintly constant hum of traffic from Lake Dr.
-awkward realization that electricity has made it all the way out here, running through spotlights that light up the cute little grassy knoll for all to be seen trespassing on

I detect rhythm in most sounds I hear in this location, from the birds chirping back and forth, to the crickets responding to one another, to the constant crashes of waves and thuds underneath and my footsteps walking at a pretty consistent pace when moving from one space to another.
Highest and lowest frequencies are hard to detect because my perception of them seems to shift the more I listen. The highest should reasonably be the hum of electricity or chirps from birds and bugs. Once I begin to really think about it though, maybe the distant waves coming to the shore is a quieter and less noticeable high frequency that is even more frequent and admittedly more prevalent once really tuned in. Same goes for low frequency: is it traffic, or is it something closer to me like thuds of waves and the sound of things falling from trees and other infrequent occurrences.

The New Location I chose to draw a soundmap of was a completely different location that I was filming at most recently. It is another very wonderful place to pay close attention to shifts in sound.

Southside/Port of Milwaukee/Industrial/Warehouse/Sketchy District

SoundMAP