Posted by: "Barry Blesser"
>
> Now that we have the technology available to record natural sounds, we ca=
n
> preserve our soundscapes, which parallels the century old tradition of
> paintings and photographs. Cave art captured an image of ancient
> environments. Only now can we do the same for aural environments. However=
,
> recording a soundscape, which includes spatial acoustics as well as natur=
al
> sounds is not trivial or even possible. Those that have been recording mu=
sic
> in concert halls during the last century are well aware that spatial
> acoustics is extremely important and extremely difficult to record.
In nature recording we no longer have the nice well defined acoustics of
a concert hall or other indoor space to deal with. We deal with a much
more complex space, which basically does not have much in the way of
boundaries.
I've gotten more and more in my recording into the challenges of
recording environments. Or the entire community of natural sounds to put
it another way. It is a challenge, the equipment we have available was
not designed for recording the natural environment, but more for the
defined acoustics of indoor spaces, so a lot is a matter of experiment.
Many recordists are still recording in mono.
Note that you don't record acoustics. You record the sounds which are
transmitted through the acoustics of a environment. At least that's my view=
.
> What we experience when we walk through a forest listening to the sounds =
of
> birds includes nature's acoustic geography. Forests have there own unique
> reverberation, including sonic turbulence, thermal inversion sound channe=
ls,
> diffused reflections, and so on.
Have you gotten into what the animals of the forest experience? Human
experience is only that of one species out of millions. It's worthwhile
contemplating how other species experience sound.
Note that other things than birds make sounds. I record frogs far more
than birds. When I'm out with a bird recordist it's very noticeable that
they hardly even hear the frogs. Just as I'm more likely to hear the
frogs over the birds.
Some in this group have recorded the sounds of plants too. Or singing
sand dunes. Or just about anything you can imagine and then some.
> During my 5 years of research into auditory spatial awareness, which is
> discussed in my book Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural
> Architecture, I considered the importance of the aural properties of spac=
es
> within which the sound source and listener exist. There is strong, but
> speculative, evidence that most species are very aware of nature's aural
> architecture.
Humans were once much more aware of the sounds of natural environments.
Spaces sounds far too much like a room in a building, outdoors is not
near so much a defined space with discrete limits. I tend to talk of
soundscapes or environments. I would say that species are selectively
aware of the sound environment, just as humans are only selectively aware.
> My book established the foundation for cultural earcons but I need help i=
n
> advancing the discussion. Additional information about the book can be fo=
und
> at the MIT Press web site:
> http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=3D2&tid=3D10947 an=
d I
> will send a copy of the Introduction and Table of Contents to anyone who
> requests them.
>
> I would be delighted to open a dialog on how those who are recording natu=
ral
> sounds are dealing with the issue of natural acoustics.
Just keep posting. It sounds like your book and work is primarily on
human built spaces, or similar such spaces. The best way I can think of
learning about the acoustics of the outdoors is to get out and work on
recording the natural sound environments.
Walt
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