Sounds of Lincoln

Overall, I believe that the making of this project has been a great learning experience, from the beginning all the way through to the post-production stage for the final mix. I had multiple roles during this project; I was the sound recordist, audio mixer, and a researcher.

My personal aim for this project was to complete all of my learning outcomes. My first learning outcome was to learn how listen, meaning that I would need to learn how to listen to my location in a way that deepened my understanding of the sounds within my area. I did this by going to my chosen locations prior to the days I recorded my audio, and just stood and listened to all the sounds in the area, while contemplating which sounds could be used within my auditory narrative. My second learning outcome was to increase my ability in the use of the environment to my advantage when recording. I completed this outcome through the incorporating different materials into my audio, such as trees, and the vibrations picked up by walls, windows and other surfaces. My third learning outcome was to increase my own knowledge of the topics relevant to my project, as well as surrounding subjects. I have shown this through my research of various sources surrounding my chosen subject matter. This allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of sound art. My fourth learning outcome was to improve my ability in using Pro Tools and mixing audio. I believe that I have succeeded in this, as I did the majority of the audio mixing and was able to expand on my previous knowledge of the tools I used through the additional experience. For my final learning outcome, I wanted to increase my patience while doing field recordings. I think I have shown this throughout the recording period of the project. I would spend time at my location, listening for up thirty- forty minutes before starting to record. I also created multiple recordings at different times of day in the same location, which I believe helped to increase my patience during field recording, as well as giving me a new appreciation for the sounds that are around me everyday.

The main strengths of this project were the planning and the research that went into the creation of the project. These were strengths due to fact that there is a lot of information on sound art and on the specific people we chose to research. This gave my group a clear idea of where we wanted to do our recordings, what the end goal was and how we going to achieve our target. This allowed for the project to proceed ahead of schedule and gave us more of an idea of how to attain our desire result.

The main weaknesses was poor cooperation within the group, and a lack of equal contribution to the project. The reason for this could be a weakness is due to fact that the plan we made regarding how we were going to record and which locations we need was not adhered to, and made the process more complicated and time-consuming. This resulted in some poor quality recordings which could not be used and I had to create more recordings of better sounding quality.

A problem I encountered during the making of this project was that it was often difficult to try and book the audio edit suites, as there is a limit to the number of bookings you are allowed to make per week, and often I would find most of the edit suites where booked, so I had work around other peoples time slots and try to book in advance and liaise with my partner about what times he would be able to do . This problem may not have existed outside of a university setting,  as we would have our own space, which would have solved any mixing problems that did come up due not having booking restraints.

If I were to do an experimental sound piece again, I would be more proactive in planning with my group around different time schedules, and also take into account the reliability of my group members. In implementing these measures, I think that I would have more success in future projects. Overall I am pleased with the project’s end result, and with the work done throughout the project.