Einn er sá hljóðbloggari sem ég fylgist reglulega með. Er það Des Coulam í Paris sem heldur úti blogginu Soundlandscape. Er það rómað fyrir skemmtilega frásögn af borgarlífinu og því sem borgin hefur að geyma í fortíð og nútíð. Oftar en ekki beitir hann Binaural tækni við upptökur sínar. Eru litlir hljóðnemar þá staðsettir sem næst eyranu. Gefur það mjög skemmtilega hljóðmynd ef hlustað er á upptökurnar með heyrnartólum.
Mér hefur gengið ótrúlega illa að hljóðrita með Binaural tækni úti á götu. Er það ekki síst fyrir það að ég er varla búinn að ganga um með hljóðnemana nema í nokkrar mínútur sem ég er truflaður af fólki í kring um mig, oftast nær fólki sem ég þekki á einhvern hátt. Það fylgir oft ekki sögunni í mínum Binaural upptökum eins og “Kringlan” og “Tunnumótmæli á Austurvelli” að beggja vegna er skornir burt atburðir þar sem einhver kemur að tali við mig á meðan á upptöku stendur.
Það var því 17. júní 2011 sem ég ákvaða að prófa Blimp á bómu og með heyrnartól á höfði. Taldi ég líklegt að allir myndu sjá að ég væri við upptöku. Ég ætti því ekki að verða truflaður.
En það kom í ljós að það var ekkert skárra. Heyrist það t.d. ágætlega í hljóðritinu “Harmonikkuball í Ráðhúsi Reykjavíkur”, sem ég tók upp þennan sama dag. Þar er ég spurður hvort ég sé að taka upp. En af nokkrum upptökum hér og þar í Reykjavík þennan þjóðhátíðardag þá tókst mér einu sinni að standa sem steinrunninn með hljóðnemann á lofti án þess að vera truflaður í 20 mínútur. Var það á þeim stað sem myndin sýnir, við inngang Landsbanka Íslands í Austurstræti.
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Ocean of words
There are many sound bloggers I regularly visit. One of them is Des Coulam´s “Soundlandscapes´ Blog”. What he writes in the blog is often very informative. But he also makes very nice Binaural street recordings. Something I have tried many times, but just seldom be satisfied with, because I have always been disturbed by many things during recording.
In a small community like Iceland – Reykjavik where everybody knows everyone I am usually disturbed after some minutes with someone who knows me or I knows. Just an “ordinary street recording” can therefore be as difficult to record as many nature recordings with extreme situation.
In 17th of June 2011 at Iceland´s independents day I tried something different than Binaural setup. I planed to use a blimp on boom to record in many places in Reykjavik. I thought if I used this highly visible items some of the people who knew me would not disturb me. But it looks even more difficult to record with this setup. Many people now stopped, even foreign tourists, looked at me, and asked: “Where is the camera?” or “What are you doing”?
But in one place in town center, in Austurstæti I could record ocean of words without being disturbed in at least 20 minutes.
Sækja mp3 skrá (192kbps / 26,4Mb)
Recorder: Zoom H4n v/sound devices 302.
Mics: MS setup. Rode NT2 (sidemic) and Rode NT55 (midmic)
Pix: Nokia N82
Hi Magnus,
First, thank you for the mention of my blog and of my work and also for sharing these wonderful street sounds of Reykjavik. You’ve done a great job and I’ve much enjoyed listening.
Street sound recording has it’s own technique. You have to get close to the sounds but at the same time remain invisible. That’s much easier to do in a big city like Paris but much harder to do in your own local community. It’s a problem I wrestle with all the time. Recordings like this provide their own unique colour. I’ve never been to Reykjavik but, thanks to these sounds, I feel as though I’m getting to know it. I’m building my own pictures of the place and the people. Your written and spoken language is impenetrable to me but I can relate completely to the sound language of your streets.
The recording of street sounds is really important, it’s the very fabric of our sonic heritage. In two hundred years time, people will listen to these sounds of Reykjavik and say, „So, that’s what it was like all those years ago“. You have created something for future generations to enjoy and to learn from. For me, that makes it all worthwhile. Thanks.
Des
Thanks for your comment Des.
One of the reason I am doing this is exactly that you mentioned. Capture the moment for the future. It is like photography. Therefore I save almost all recordings I have made since ca. 1977.
Those recordings I don’t like today can be valuable after some years. Some recordings I made about 30 years ago and somehow I did not erase are now funny to listen. They can even fresh the memory more than pictures from same time.
I just wish I have record more of nature sounds in the past because nature have change dramatically last 25 years, specially birds life.
But, I am probably excused because quality of my equipment was indeed poor until 2008.
Hi – I agree with both of you. These everyday sounds from local streets will be an interesting record of how we lived. I wonder how the same street sounded just decades ago? How will it sound in the future? Maybe you already have some answers about the past if you’ve been recording since 1977 – it would be great to hear some of them on your site.
Most of my recordings from early days are concert recordings, then nature recordings and spoken words. I just remember two street recordings I made. I will publish some of this recordings after I have convert them to digital.
I think street sound have not change so much last 50 years. It is mostly background noise from car traffic that have not change so much previous years. I think if we look further back, before „personal car revelution“, street sound can be interesting. In historical view for the future a new street recordings can then be very interesting with all this steady traffic noise. They will sound strange, like a pictures from 1900, when almost every vestern cities was covered in coal dust.
I remember it was always problem with the short battery life so I recorded much less outdoor I exspect.
Today I have other problem with this cassette recorders. They can hardly- or can not play some of this cassettes.
But at the moment I am looking for a new cassette player. Hopefully will I listen to all my old collection soon.