At 2:53 PM +0000 4/16/08, Steve Duncan wrote:
>Hi - I just discovered this group, and I've been having a blast
>reading through the archives.
>I've always been fascinated with sound gear, and fiddled with making
>recordings from time to
>time although I'd never really invested in decent equipment.
>
>After I discovered my old voice recorder wouldn't talk to my Mac, I
>ordered an Olympus LS-
>10, which should be arriving today. I decided on the LS-10 because
>I'd recorded what I guess
>I'll call "family ambience" a few times with my old recorder, and
>thought it would be even
>more fun now that our kids are starting to talk more. I'd once tried
>to make a custom
>ringtone for my wife of our oldest daughter's first giggles, but
>between noise and low signal
>levels it just didn't work.
>
>I suppose this is stretching the definition of nature recording, but
>is anyone else doing this
>kind of stuff?
>
>Steve in Milwaukee
>
>
Hi Steve--
The phonography (yahoo) list has many everyday life pho-natics.
You've probably come across that list too.
One, possible, perceptual tie I might offer is to consider the
relation between sound sources and the enclosure(s) or space around
them. I recorded hundreds of social interactions with friends,
family and strangers and crowds over a period of almost two years (25
years ago). There are a few special events I cherish but I have
little interest in listening to 98% of them. Even when the content is
potentially interesting, I find myself more interested in the core of
the situation than what I or others are saying about it. The
recordings also tend to be very busy and disruptive even when mic 'd
very well. This appreciation might change as I get older and a
sociologist might have an entirely different reaction :-/ (gulp). I
do find it more interesting to listen to family recordings I find in
thrift stores-- but most of them are also quite self-conscious.
We tend to have very developed expectations for voice
recordings/performances; its hard to please-surprise other folks and
myself with this sort of recording. I've found that I can get more
fresh distance from human made sounds when I consciously mic the
space where people are or will be and run very long takes. I can hear
motives and reactions at a distance that I will not notice in a
close-mic'd recording made at the same time. There is more acoustic
space in quiet places. People are, in part, always responding to the
space around them. Rob D.
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