the klettcraft: December 2011

I will write a little bit more on the meaning, what I was aiming for with this Imaginary Sound Walk, in the future. Briefly, I was trying to express the diversity of sounds heard on a daily basis, all within 7 minutes. I aimed to capture the sounds that I hear sometimes within minutes of each other. I love parks, I run, I take the bus, I bike, I'm not fond of the mall - but I find myself there sometimes, I like parades and music, and then reality sets in and I am forced to go to work. It's almost a day in the life of me. One could hear it as such, I start with a dream state of being on the water and running through the woods, and then I wake up and I am really running to catch the bus, I get on get off, bike to my next stop, strangely find myself at a mall and float around ride its machines, then open the elevator doors to experience the joy of leaving the mall - the music triumphing thrown into a parade. Then that fun drifts off and the reality of working the restaurant scene sets in. With the music, its flow of sounds and spaces.

I used a lot of my recordings for this, but not all of them. I omitted a space here and there. I really had a blast with it. I first composed more conspicuous design of panning and fading. That was a strong thematic element, almost a motif, in the first production. It might have sounded a bit unnatural and artificial, and it was suggested to bridge it more together without all the 'obvious' pans, so I changed the theme a lot. A lot of the pans and fades were extended over more time, or lowered in degree or amplitude. I tried to make it more of a realistic journey from places I experience, the many spaces in a time limit, while still making it feel natural. I did manipulate many stationary recordings into making it feel like the character, let's call him/her 'the hero', was moving through these spaces and into new ones. I think it worked. And now for the descriptions.

BEGINNING SEQUENCE - waves better drs park stereo, birds and waves quieter, river closeup rain trees, running through leaves; wind:trees:rain, breathing, to bus wait and ride

waves better - This was a recording I used in my previous sonic snapshot. As described in an earlier posting, this recording was 4 channel with a zoom and an NT4 pointed and angled forward on the left and right side of me within a foot of the water breaking at Doctors Park, along the beach. The waves were less choppy, and I could more range of frequencies with this recording, a nice true sound, water moving behind the mic then back in front, then behind. I believe I didn't do anything to this initial recording, left it was it was, and put it in there. If I did do anything, it was very minimal equalization to cut the lower frequencies just a little.

I have this track starting out at 6 dB and slowly beginning to fade out at 13 seconds until it reach -64 dB at 47 seconds. I used the enveloping tool to fade it out. I put a gradual minimal pan -38 from the center to slightly behind from 20 to 32 seconds to give the feeling that the person was moving from being engulfed with waves to reaching the shores of the beach and slowly moving away from the water breaking. As this was fading out, I started up the next track (at 14 seconds until 21 was the fade in), which was a recording taken on a different day at doctors park. It was recorded farther away from the water breaking, more into the woods of doctors park, just slightly up the hill and into the woods of Doctors park but with the waves slightly visible/audible through the trees. I was stationary when recording this. I wanted to have it come in from the right and then out the left. As if the character was standing looking out over the water with the water all around him (without this track, then track starts -birds and waves quieter) then turning around walking away from the water breaking, and up the hill. I tried to subtly make the character seem like they were walking up the steep hill like many people do, parallel to the waves, and then turning at the pass, and walking parallel in the other direction, but still up the hill. Thus, having a pan move the waves come from the right and then the left ear made sense to me. Even though when I did this (without recording) I just ran straight up and down the hill. I had the pan start immediately when the track did, at 100 percent right at 14 seconds, then panned left until 52 seconds, then slowly fading out and behind the character.

I wanted to have a rhythm start with the waves, then slowly walking the beach up into the woods, where one can hardly hear their footsteps, then into the woods where one does hear steps - with running and breathing. From 7 seconds to a minute I included the river closeup rain trees. This recording was recorded in Jacobus Park in Wauwatosa on a windy, rainy, afternoon/early evening. I believe I used 4 channel for this recording, but it may have been a nt3 closeup and then duplicated, made into a stereo file. I really can't remember. Anyway, I liked the idea of moving through the space of a beach and woods with a landmark - the creek (it was a really small little stream I recorded). For this, we'll call it a river. It starts at 7 seconds and lasts until the 1:10 mark. It starts in front of the character and to their left, and then they hop over the little stream - its at the center, then goes slightly to the right and behind the character as they run onward.

The breathing track I added to the piece to give it a more personification. It was recorded with an seinheiser nt3. I made some noise removal, keeping the breathing steady but naturally bumping around, then duplicated and created the stereo track. To signify the hurry that the character was in to leave this natural space and rushing back to civilization. It starts when the character starts to run away from the waves, past the stream, and then up out of the woods onto pavement until the bus stop. The running tracks were two different recordings. The first starts at about 30 seconds, right when the stream starts a steeper incline in volume. The river was slowly building as the character was supposed to moving away from the waves. This first one was recorded with an NT3 in Jacobus park in the woods near the stream, it was raining and windy, and I was running along a leaf filled dirt trail with occasional stone steps climbing upward. I made this track into a stereo file in audacity and then put what i wanted from it into the soundtrack pro project. The transition from this recording into the next running sequence presented some challenges to make it sound natural. The character is running through the woods, past a stream, then out of the woods, all in the rain, then onto pavement where there is some natural protection from rain, then the rain picks up steam and they run faster to catch the bus on time and get out of the rain underneath the bus shelter. The second running file was with a zoom recorder in stereo, recorded on a quiet nighttime on a suburb street with the zoom held as low, and pointed as downward at my feet as possible. I started running faster in the recording to give a different sound, and experiment, and decided on the hurrying up to reach the bus/get out of the rain, once I connected it with the church bells in the rain file.

The church bells in the rain is faded in as I begin to run faster. This was recorded with a 4 channel outside my apartment in riverwest on a rainy night without much traffic around. I tried to make the bells seem farther away and then have them draw closer with the fade in. The water draining from gutter was recorded 4 channel outside my apartment in the rain. I messed around with reverb to get a sound of what it sounded like to be under a bus shelter in heavy rain. It slowly builds up to it's height of volume as the hero stops running and reaches it. During this I have traffic sounds from a bunch of recordings.

I recorded a bunch of bus sounds, getting on the bus, getting off it, riding the bus, etc. One of those was recorded when the road was wet, to get the sound of cars driving by accurately - traffic sounds different in the rain, you know of course. So I used the waiting for the bus, 33, talking with marvin track for this sound. A bus does stop nearby, but I don't board it on this track, the talk with Marvin I didn't want to include, so I put another getting on bus track in addition to this one. That was the 1, getting on bus, starts to drive away decent track. I had it build up until you could hear the sound of the bus beeping. The waiting for bus track 33 stays on to keep the sound of wet tires and traffic. These, along with the next track of the bus doors opening/closing, were recorded with a zoom. All the zoom only tracks were recorded using a leather glove and the little screw-in handle, to keep bumps at a minimum. The actual boarding the bus and riding it track is the next one, a later part of the waiting for bus 33 track, where you can hear slight squeak of my foot as a I take a seat on this bus. This riding track then goes until I mesh it together with another bus track recording, bus 33, get off bus, grab bike. I know it's a very short bus ride, but that's the point, to go quickly from one space to another, but still keeping it realistic. I felt a long, long, bus ride doesn't need to be heard. Many times when I ride the bus, I simply doze off, but still awake, and time and space seem to operate on illogical levels, especially when reading. So the bus driver announces route 76, my stop, at 60th and Vliet, it's the end of the line. Thus, the bus stops, shuts down, and waits to depart.

BUS TO CITY BIKING BY SCRIMMAGE TO ENTERING MALL SEQUENCE

This brings us to the next sequence and space. So is the hero getting off the bus. During which the sounds from outside can be slightly heard while still inside. This includes many different tracks of different spaces and types of recordings. The church bells, seagulls, runner past, plane, truck track picks up as one gets off. This was done with a zoom on state and 2nd st. A runner ran past me as I started the recording and seagulls and church bells can be heard. Another traffic building up and then out as I depart the bus is the cars over bridge in waves track. This was recorded stationary with a zoom facing the bridge just west of the Marcus PAC and some hotel. Cars going over it made interesting noises from left to right, so I wanted to include it, as another symbol of rhythmic traffic and continuing hustle and bustle. I also added in the sound of the wind from my front porch. This wind was held minimal until the recording of biking. It was recorded with a zoom and nt4, 4 channel. It was a very windy day, and the leaves of autumn were still scraping along the streets. I live up a little hill, on the second floor, with the privilege of having two giant pines in my front yard. These resilient beasts created some cool wind sounds, which I put in for the sound of wind both swirling around me as I biked. So then we come to another track during this sequence, that slowly picks up as I bike away from the traffic noises. This is sound of a soccer scrimmage, at Valley field, on a pretty quiet night (around 9:30 pm). My initial attempt to sneak-zoom into a casino failed, so I took the gear to the middle of the field, (the 50 yard line, on the sideline, and recorded the adult scrimmage. Done as a 4 channel recording, stationary hand held zoom and mic stood nt4 (as all my 4 channel recordings were), one pointed slightly left and one pointed slightly right, kind of like a V, but a very wide V. My four channel recordings of stationary spaces usually were done so, with this shape, still getting that sound directly in front of you, though.

So the biking tracks were two different recordings as well. Both were done with a zoom hand held with the screwed on handle -as all them were, with strong grip leather gloves, and a windscreen and windsock of the mic, facing forward and a little down to get the wheel/wheel on the ground sound. The first one I had start at 2:05 and go until 2:24, this one ends with me putting on the brakes, which are hardly heard over the traffic going by, but the intention, at first, was to make it sound like the truck was cutting off the biker - forcing the biker to stop. This turns out to sound like traffic just kind of picks up and then stops. The biking does pause for a bit after braking, then continues on another biking recording - biking, car door shut to bike fall. I did actually fall on this recording because I couldn't reach the brakes, ha. I was ok, but I didn't include that fall sound. So this biking track picks up, after a brief pause and one can hear a whistle and some cheers from the soccer players. I raised the amplitude on both the biking tracks, and you can tell I am biking, at least I can, because that's what my bike sounds like. At first I had me ride around the running track by Valley field (around the soccer players), so they would be louder in the right ear and quieter in the second and would move around me. This apparently sounded too artificial, so I just made it so I was biking through and past the scrimmage. So I have the scrimmage go from 1:55 to 3:05. Starting in front of me and to right 22 degrees, then at center, then to the left 22 degrees and far behind me. I did do equalization on this track, as it was kind of a wet night, and traffic behind me could be really heard on the initial recordings. So I tried to locate and frequencies of the voices and kicks/running of the players, I felt I did so. In the latter half of this track the entrance mall music picks up. Malls always play this music, you can hear me get off my bike, it makes a bumping noise as if I am going down a curb. The scrimmage is taking place right before I reach a mall, with the mall on the left and ahead of it.

I chose not to include any more prominent footstep noises from here on. I could have, and maybe the piece would have sounded more realistic, but I didn't feel like including steps throughout the composition. I just didn't want to keep that theme throughout it. I could, and maybe I will, in another edition. When walking through a mall I hardly ever hear my footsteps, it's the last thing I can hear. The mall is an artificial space, so in this sense, the mall is kept artificial by the fact that footsteps can barely be heard as he walks towards Santa's workshop upon entering. As people are heard in the left and right, faintly, speaking to customers.

I really wanted to explore the mall sounds, and I think I did. The character enters with the music growing and the scrimmage is heard in the distance. Until he enters the entrance of the automatic doors. This entrance track was one recording. It was a 4 channel recording that became just a zoom, and the nt4 was pretty bumpy along the way (bumping into people leaving the mall didn't help). The voices heard hear were all from one recording, except for the recognizable distant voices of soccer players. As the entrance recording slowly comes from the left to center and staying there until it fades away, the Santa's workshop 4 channel recording begins and is gradually inclined as the character gets closer. As the character does get closer, recordings from different merchants are heard. All these were recorded with an NT3 closeup. I went around the mall, rarely telling people I was recording them, but kept the mic facing them as I asked questions on products, and to give me their best sales pitch. I aimed to have the character enter and then immediately hear shopping talk on their left, right, and in the middle. So I chose three, the shades talk on the right, moccasin talk in the middle building up and fading out as I reach center of Santa's workshop, then right before that ends is the basketball shoe talk on the left. The moccasin talk I chose to include because the voice says..."and, as well, you can take out the sole so if it's ever, um, if you want a new sole you can replace those". Replacing the sole of a moccasin seemed interesting to me, especially since I just came from a beach, river, woods; natural landscape where my footsteps were heard to a space where no footsteps were heard. Who replaces the soul at the mall? The "how many pairs of basketball shoes do you own?" question also intrigued me. There is only one thing that I think I am better at than all the people I know well or have hung out with more than once, and that's basketball. I own many pairs of bball shoes, but never wear a pair one day and another the next. It's always wear a pair until their completely unstable and untenable, then reluctantly give in and buy. The woman trying to sell me sunglasses was used because her logic was great. I would like what she held because a character named Snookie wore them. I initially had their voices higher and more moving from left to right/right to left, but I was told it sounded too artificial, which I probably did, so I lowered their volume and kept the panning left to right minimal, to keep it simple, and I hope more natural. Then the character stops having reached the epicenter of the mall, Santa's workshop. This was a 4 channel recording, that I don't think I was allowed to record, but I guess I looked like I was hired by Santa, or something. Santa's sound helper.

So that track initially starts at 3:06 and ends at 3:58, but is all by itself from 3:30 to 3:58. It fades out from 3:58 to 4:24, as the other 4 channel of Santa's workshop / Mall epicenter picks up. At 3:05 it is at 82 or so in front of the character, then at 3:30 it is at the center and stays there until it fades out entirely. This was done to create the mall sounds way out in front and then at one's center. I used surround stereo with the enveloping tools of volume, with surround pan x, and surround pan y almost exclusively, except for times I slightly increased the width of certain tracks.

I decided to include the "Colin, where's dad at?" bit. First, it's part of the santa's workshop track, and I wanted to include voices here. It's just that question that opens the ears of direction. But also because I had a neighborhood friend named Colin, who went canoeing down a river one summer day with his dad, and his dad drowned. I found about this after calling and asking if he wanted to catch a brewer game, and his aunt told me. I remember it as the first time I dealt with death. Repetitive listening to the track triggered this memory, and everything else, and I'm definitely over-thinking this, but it's what I hear when I listen to it, now, and sometimes that's all that matters.

This is the one time the character actually stops moving, from 3:30 to 3:59, they are in the Santa's Workshop, which was in the very middle of the ground floor of Mayfair Mall. I felt it more of an establishing shot at Mayfair, as if the character arrives from running, bussing, and biking and finally stops, relaxes a little, with the music, and thinks about where they are. At about 3:52 I included a very quiet closeup recording of a woman selling me a calendar saying, "Nuns having fun, it is just old pictures, of Nuns having a good time". I maybe should have increased this amplitude but it fits as almost inaudible talk in the middle of the mall. I tried to make it seem far away to the left. So I was about 11 feet away from the line to Santa, with Santa on the left forward about 15 feet away, and photographer on the right forward about 15 ft away. These two recordings were slightly different. Both were 4 channel, but the second one to come in, I positioned the mics a little bit more downward direction (parallel to the ground). The other 4 ch had them positioned slightly upward off the ground axis.

From 4:15 to 4:27 there is the good closeup register recording. It was recorded with an NT3 closeup on a register printing out the days transaction history. The register was in the middle of the mall, near some random Kiosk. The woman behind it offered me a complimentary butterscotch candy sucker, and I agreed to have it, but only if she let me record her actions. So then I asked her to open it up and close it. I felt it was necessary to get a register at the mall, and decided to place it here at Santa's workshop.

ESCALATOR TO FOOD COURT WALK AROUND SEQUENCE

At 4:28 I started the riding up the escalator recording. This begins farther away in front and to the right of the character and builds up in sound and then comes to center at its peak volume. This occurs as the Santa's workshop recording fades out and behind the character. During this escalator ride is the mutant alien talk it is supposed to be someone in front of the character as he rides up the escalator and reaches the next floor landing. The talk is occurring on the landing and builds up with the sound of the escalator getting louder. During this is the buildup of the food court recordings. From 4:34 to 5:34 the food court is there. These were two recordings. One was of me walking around the food court with the restaurants on my left. I held a zoom facing the restaurant lines and such during this. I panned it to the left to give the feel of the restaurants there. I put the 4 channel stationary recording from the center of the food court to the right. I tried to get the feeling of walking around the court with different sound coming from the left and right.

I added some recordings to this sequence. I added the chopping of food from my restaurant here, put it on the left, in front and then behind the character. I added some foreign language behind said by a cook in the food court walk around, put it to the left, front and then behind. The kid crying recording was from barnes and noble, and I had it in the middle front then middle behind the character. I added the sound of scooping up ice from a recording being in line at barnes and noble's cafe, and put it on the left, after the word 'sprite' is heard.

FOOD COURT TO ELEVATOR TO PARADE SEQUENCE TO RESTAURANT

Then comes the kid crying at barnes and noble recording, another part of it. This was done with a zoom as I walked towards the escalator at barnes and noble's 2nd floor. I liked the phone ringing and hello, as well as the sound of the escalator signifying that I had walked in a complete circle around the food court and was back where I began, the escalator. As this is fading out, I fade in the sound of the elevator track, at 5:18, while the food courts are still heard but quieter. This was done with a zoom getting on the elevator and then off. I rode it a few times and chose this one, it was the quietest ride I got, even though a man says 'this is kinda a creaky elevator, isn't it?". I liked the 'Feliz Navidad' being heard as I boarded, and then when I depart there's the Dia De Los Muertos Parade sounds. As this ride is going on, I add in a couple of recordings the parade. The first is at 5:44, a zoom, of just people walking around the parade making noises, the second is of a band walking by my zoom at the parade, which starts at 5:47 and fades in as I get reaches it max as the elevator door opens. I put these two zoom recordings on top of each other to create more of a 4 channel feel. These recordings, I messed with the surround panner of course a little, with the sound in front and then going behind the character. As they are fading out and going further behind, I put in the church bells off a 60th recording at 6:14. This was a new recording of bells, 4 channel, actually at 55th and Highland, outside St. Sebastian's in Milwaukee. I tried to make it sound like the character was moving away from parade, and back to work, and with these bells I had a smoother transition from the parade to the restaurant, as if the parade was right next to my restaurant, because bells were heard at both places.

At 6:35 the restaurant recording begins and it flies solo from 6:51 to the end. It was recorded with a zoom as I entered from outside on a city street, open one door, open another door, then in a lobby area, then quickly open another side entrance door to the restaurant, and then walk through the restaurant, push open the swinging doors to the server alley, someone says hello, I grab the key (which is connected to a metal handle that occasionally bumps stuff and makes a ringing tone). I walk through the alley, turn left past the kitchen on my right and dishwasher to the left, someone says 'adios pepe', ringing of the key metal thing, then opening and closing the door to the outside hallway. End of Sound Walk. This is the exact walk I take when I arrive to work, I walk through those doors, grab the key, and walk through the place, and close the door to the hallway - the hallway leads to the lockers where we change. I kept this recording centered through until the closing of the door. I walked through the restaurant with a zoom numerous times and chose this one. I liked its flow, and liked the ringing tone immediately after someone said something to me. And it ends with "adios pepe", a ringing tone, then something faintly heard, and the door shuts - THE END