Soundscape of Sussex

Filming students around sussex

In todays seminar we were sent out into the world of Sussex University to interview fellow students and letting us get use to the bullet microphone and trying to improve our interviewing skills. Me and my partner Lux nervously interviewed some students around Sussex asking them questions about the accommodation and how they have found their first few weeks of seminars and lectures. We spoke to a young girls who was not ecstatic about her living space and also and older gentleman who was wishing to become a teacher and has become a student again. We also just walked around Sussex collecting the ambient sound and the atmosphere in Sussex to add to the interviews we did.  

Seaside Atmosphere

For our first 'homework' task I had to devise a short clip of a soundscape of a place using 10 sounds found on the BBC sound SFX library using Adobe Audition. I first looked into what sounds were available and what ideas I could project using the sounds. Due to living in Brighton one of the first ideas that came to my head was the seaside and there were many sounds that correlated with this so I began editing it together. I used sounds of waves, children laughing, boat horns etc. For my first piece I was quite proud of it and it was really fun to use Audition for the first time and start learning the software.

Sound of the woods clip

Walking through the woods

On my first seminar in the 'sound 'module we were introduced to the course. I had never had any teaching in sound before so this was a real new experience for me and I was really excited to see what we would be learning and the new skills I would develop. We began by looking at the module guide and getting the approach we will be taking for the next 12 weeks. Also getting to know my tutor and class mates was a great exercise, we had top go around and ask everyone questions learning names and what interests them. My favorite part of the day was using the equipment; the maranze. We were sent out in pairs to record the sound of the woods by wearing the sound recorder and closing our eyes whilst being lead by the other. It was so strange and surreal, it felt like I was listening to someone walking through the woods not that it was myself. The microphone picked up so many minimal sounds that I would not have picked up myself; the flap of bird wings, certain flushes or wind and small twigs snapping. It was a great experience for our first time using any equipment and I'm very excited for the future.