Elephant & Castle Sound Collage

I decided to create a 5 minute collage of all the sounds I recorded around Elephant & Castle on my first day "out in the field". Have a listen.



Elephant & Castle Collage by AudioHive

What is interesting is because the sound track immediately establishes itself as an urban soundscape, one expects a bustling and chaotic sound environment, all of the sounds do seem to knit together and sound like all the same recording. This soundscape is in fact 20 seperate segments, this only becomes apparent when sounds suddenly drop out or appear suddenly, this I commented on at the bottom of my previous post Cut & Paste. All of these sounds were also recorded in mono, so I panned the multiple tracks in different directions to give the illusion of space.

The sounds recorded are fom various locations in the area; the roundabout, the underpasses, the market, inside the shopping centre, the train station, the underground station, the foyer and atrium of LCC and the LCC tower block.

Cut & Paste - Editing the City's Voice

Here is a short experiment in which I have taken a number of the recordings i have made at Elephant & Castle and cut out all of the segments where instances of sounds with sharp attacks occur. These I have clumped together, and the sound files they are taken from are left with the gaps exposed.

Cut & Paste by AudioHive

These sonic punctuations and accents are for me, the real rhythm of the city sound scape, these are the sounds that break through the hum and get themselves heard. They remind me of watching wildlife documentaries where the explorers visit jungles, and all the animals that live there are screaming and shouting to communicate their presence, all with their own distinct calls.
By cutting and pasting these elements so that they all occur within a very short space of time, it's interesting that it becomes very difficult to establish the causal nature of these sounds, and in a tip to Pierre Schaeffer's desire for reduced listening, what I hear in these short bursts, now cut out of context with the narrative they naturally occurred in, are their sonic characteristics rather than their visual accompaniment. However, I do confess that I already know what was the cause of these sounds and as Michel Chion points out in his book Audio-Vision:

At the same time, Schaeffer thought the acousmatic situation could encourage reduced listening, in that it provokes one to separate oneself from causes or effects in favor of consciously attending to sonic textures, masses, and velocities. But, on the contrary, the opposite often occurs, at least at first, since the acousmatic situation intensifies causal listening in taking away the aid of sight. Confronted with a sound from a loudspeaker that is presenting itself without a visual calling card, the listener is led all the more intently to ask, "What's that?" (i.e., "What is causing this sound?") and to be attuned to the minutest clues (often interpreted wrong anyway) that might help to identify the cause.

Also, considering the sounds I produce will be to compliment the visuals in a film, this avenue of exploration is probably not beneficial becasue the audience will automatically create their own relationships and synch points between image and sound, even with the sound being asynchronous.

However, I do think that by editing the sounds in such a fashion, I can draw greater attention to their presence. Another interesting thing is that these sounds, when removed from the sound recordings, are not conspicuous by their absence, what is noticed is a pause, but you couldn't guess what was missing. That's an interesting thought about this experiment, I can remove and substitute sounds, and if delicately done, could construct a soundtrack, completely artificially. Hold on...more thought there, traditional movies do this all the time, their soundtracks are completely fabricated.

Field Recordings - Mono Vs Stereo Vs Binaural

For my initial sound recording sessions around Elephant & Castle I've been using the Sennheiser K6/ME66 super-cardiod microphone unit to capture monaural recordings.

I wanted to use this microphone with the conscious knowledge that this "short gun" style of microphone was quite adept at reducing off axis sound. With this microphone I intended to try and focus in on my subject and try and erase any unwanted background sound.

This method, I hoped, would help alleviate the problems that I would tend to face when just using the built in omni-directional XY stereo pairing on my Zoom H4 Handy portable recorder.

Firstly, the Zoom H4, whilst a fairly competitively priced little machine that has served me quite well over the last two years on numerous Uni projects, is compact, discrete and portable, using the built in XY stereo microphones outdoors, in even the slightest breeze is a fucking disaster! What on earth were the designers of this poor little alopecia sufferer thinking of when they made the useless afro-cum-"Red Nose Day" foam wig to reduce wind buffering? It's absolutely useless, and renders the device's built in mics redundant for recording sound out in the field.

I've resorted to various methods to try and reduce this, including putting two pairs of socks over the end and also my beanie. The beanie was actually pretty successful at reducing wind buffering, however, by doing this, the depth of the recording is constricted and the resultant sound does indeed sound like it is recorded through material. I have yet been able to find a suitable, professionally made alternative.

Also, recording in an urban environment, with a heavy stream of traffic passing through, the omni-directionality of the built in microphones means that its pretty cosmopolitan in the sounds that it'll accept, i.e. its a right slag.

Hence the flirtation with the beautifully engineered and snobby German ME66. (along with a shock cradle and Rycote Softie. Now, I'd taken on board, when researching and subsequently filming on location with the film Sidney the fact that mono mics are used within the industry for recording dialogue and sound effects, so that they can be positioned within the audio mix. Therefore, when out investigating sounds for Broken Bottles with a view of recording only interesting sounds, I was treating this practice in the same way, mono recording, in nice and close, and trying my best to cancel out any unwanted sound. The truth is, for Broken Bottles this idea was not very effective. The sounds I was recording were not giving me the characteristics of depth and space that I had been accustomed to when recording in stereo, I persevered in the hope that I could isolate interesting sounds, and then through the editing process, position these sounds within the audio mix to give the soundtrack to Broken Bottles a sense of space. What I found, however, was that it was not individual sounds, isolated from the rest of the sounds in the environment around Elephant & Castle that were producing interesting results, but rather the interplay different, fleeting sounds that would suddenly emerge from all around me. Capturing these sounds in mono produced results that lost the excitement of the original event; all sounds recorded being mixed into one channel, with a lot of the identity of the sounds lost in the process due to the subsequent lack of depth to the recording, where all similar frequencies would be bunched together, therefore "muddying" the recording.

Mono, for out door (or on location) recording, unless recording something as specific as dialogue, or a specific sound effect that is required to be flexible to be positioned within an audio mix, is an ineffective choice. I was still pleased with the off axis cancellation and so enquired as to the possibility of a "short gun" microphone with stereo capabilities. They don't exist, I am naive.

I decided, therefore, to get a pair of binaural microphones out from the Sound stores office. I'd used them before and was extremely impressed with the reproduction of three dimensional space when listened back to on headphones. I went for a sound walk around Elephant & Castle with them and Oh my! I'd honestly forgotten just how fantastic these bad boys are. Oh yes, as much as I have been harping on about how Elephant & Castle doesn't have any interesting sounds, and what not, suddenly, I was absolutely in aural bliss, and this was even before I listened back to the recordings. There's something psychological about putting microphones in to your ears. I swear, I was listening so much more intently to the sonic environment than I was when I was holding the ME66 in my hand. Perhaps, it was the physical connection of the microphones to my ears, I was fully conscious of their presence, and so I was constantly reminded that this was my purpose whilst walking around; TO RECORD SOUND. Wearing the binaural microphones, I also felt a greater urge to investigate different spacial differences with sound, so I found myself going inside and outside buildings, just because I knew that spatially, this would get great results, as the acoustics and reverberations dampened and expanded.

Wunderbar!

I'll upload examples of what I'm rambling about, soon.

The Dilemma of Sound in Broken Bottles

As I have already mentioned in a previous post, I am at the point where I do not believe that the recordings I have, at present, work within the context of Broken Bottles. I am at the stage of considering using effects processing and audio manipulation of the sound recordings in order to produce results that will better suit the aesthetic choices of the film.


Gary has stated that he wants the film to have a "dream-like" quality and be "unsettling" in parts. I do still want to be sensitive to the original material that I have recorded and I am concerned that if I process the sounds, they will lose their identities and then I would ask myself the question, is it even necessary to include recorded sounds of the area at all? If they are going to be so coloured by technological manipulation. And what of introducing sounds that are not field recordings? or recordings that I have made?


I set out to find what sounds are interesting, to me, what are unexpected, and in having found very little of real interest in my recordings, nothing which really speaks of the area, nothing with a real identity, I am now trying to reconcile the use of effects processing in order to create something unique sounding.


I have already started using contact microphones and a telephone pick up coil in order to increase the variety and palette of my recordings, these I feel are justifiable because they are still recording what is already present.

I have also changed my stance, when recording sounds, from an observer, to actively interacting with the environment. By striking and knocking against objects and surfaces I am actively creating sound so as to capture it. This change I decided upon is because I felt the need to explore the area not just by listening to it, but by participating with it. This area is an urban area, built by man, its an area where people interact with it every day, all of the sounds I recorded were man made, I could hear none of the natural world, save for the scraping of dead leaves on the ground. So why not manipulate it? Why not make my own man made sounds?

So now thinking of technology; Elephant & Castle is a fabrication, a construction built with human technology, full of concrete, steel and glass. So why not take the raw elements that I have and create a construction that whilst using natural ingredients, is in the end a manufactured product?

And what of introducing sounds that are not recordings I have made of the area? What about artificial sounds? electronic sounds that I create at home? How do I justify doing this? What if a sound that I have, that is completely unrelated to Elephant & Castle, fits the idea, the impression of what the film is about, much more effectively than a sound I have recorded in the area? Is this cheating? They do this in films all the time. Some sounds sound better than the real sound does, in evoking the emotional response the film maker wants. My previous post about Gary Rydstrom's work on Saving Private Ryan, is an example of creatively "cheating" with the sound of the bullets underwater, in order to get the desired effect. This is a film, that for its battle sequences has been commended by war veterans for its realism.

An example of the emotional response that a sound track can evoke is with the below recording.

First Composition for BB by AudioHive

This recording is pretty much devoid of any effects processing or manipulation, save for a little bit of delay effect, however, Gary (the director) on Broken Bottles responded that it sounded "doomy". This segment is made up of contact microphone recordings, with me knocking on surfaces, and by simply presenting this as a piece for the soundtrack to the film, this sound track is already inflected with the emotional response of the audience. That contact microphone recordings are very susceptible to low frequency vibrations, and through cultural influence and quite probable primal nature, one can't help but get the impression that there is an ominous identity to this piece. So even through choice, or not, assumptions as to the intent of the film-maker will always be drawn, by the audience.

I will try processing and manipulating the sound for Broken Bottles but I will have to be very careful with my choices. As I begin, I will document my decisions.

Contact Mic Recordings

Made this little composition below with contact microphone recordings that were taken at the top of the London College of Communication tower block, the elevator ride to the bottom; and then the train journey home (where I had cookies and milk waiting for me, so Mum wasn't too cross.)

Contact Mic Recordings by AudioHive

I really love the texture of the recordings produced by the contact microphone. You can hear the thick band of low frequencies creating this muffled bath of sound that sounds not too dissimilar to what you hear with your head underwater. I knocked on a few surfaces during this recording as the contact mics pick up the vibrations and you get this really nice "natural" reverb from the surface vibrations.

The underlying low frequency hums that you can hear are caused by the traffic at street level (bear in mind that I was on the 14th floor of a tower block) and also, when I pressed the microphones on to a stairwell, the mechanics and motion of the elevator across the hall can be heard.

I really enjoy the fact that these microphones strip away the higher frequencies, like a natural EQing and help you to record frequencies that would otherwise be overshadowed by the sensation of touch. There's a real physicality to these recordings, perhaps because these mics are directly attached to their surroundings and don't rely on air pressure changes to record sound.

The microphones I used are simply piezo discs soldered on to a "phono to mini jack" cable. Both these piezo discs and the cable are available at Maplin electrical shop. the discs cost about 50p and the cable, depending on length, is around £5.

Give 'em a go, and maybe one day, you too will appreciate the sensation of sticking your ear to the wall and listening to your neighbours go at it.

The Sound of The Michael Faraday Memorial

I visited the Michael Faraday Memorial (which is also a London Underground electrical substation for the Northern Line) to see whether I could record any electromagnetic currents that might be emanating from it.

A shot of the memorial features in Broken Bottles so I was keen to find out whether the Pioneer of electromagnetism's memorial, in fitting tribute, resonates in his memory.

Success! I used a cheap telephone pick-up coil; (available at Maplin.co.uk) which I had been shown the wonders of back in my first year of my BA Sound Art course. This coil, whilst primarily designed to record telephone conversations, is also sensitive to electromagnetic currents, these currents are inaudible to the human ear, however, this little gadget allows you hear them. The sounds are very abrasive and pure electronic, which are fitting sounds for a Brutalist memorial to Faraday.

Below is a very quick composition of the sounds I recorded at the memorial, just to give an idea of the sounds this beast pumps out. None of the sounds have been modified, except for a bit of pitch shifting.