The Sounds of the City

The hustle and bustle of the big city, cars zooming past, conversations between people, the blustery wind, and the random ambient sounds that people filter out when they are walking down the city streets. This is the experience I want my listeners to have when they review my soundscape. The sound piece starts as the train leaves the station. You are able to hear people’s voices, the rhythmic sound of the train on the tracks and the conductor. Soon after, you are off the train and enter Chicago’s busy Union Station where you hear chaotic and echoing sounds as you progress from the train platform to the revolving doors. Before entering the city, you are given a preview of what you may hear before you get through the doors. Finally, you cross the threshold into the city environment. You end the experience by returning to Union Station and re-boarding the train.

When you hear the overall project, you will note that there are some imperfections such as pops and cracks. There was nothing I could do to remove these sounds during the editing process and they may be related to limitations of my recording device. The sound of the conductor’s announcements on the return trip was very different from that of the inbound trip. Instead of using the overhead public address systems for his announcements, he used a hand-held microphone which resulted in a tinny, garbled sound. I used the ZOOM H2 which has a built-in mic and I set the controls to capture medium sounds so I could get a good balance of both high and low (I hope I succeeded). I recorded these sounds on Oct 2, 2010, between 8:00 am-7:00 pm. The weather was cool, very windy and we experienced scattered showers.

Image of Audacity:

To hear the MP3:

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/xythoswfs/webview/fileManager.action?entryName=/ved/Public/Film%20420%20soundscapes&stk=86DAD4F4D8ABEFE&msgStatus=The%20document%2C%20film%20420%20project%203%20chicago.mp3%2C%20was%20successfully%20uploaded%20to%20folder%20Film%20420%20soundscapes.

(film 420 project 3 chicago)