First Meeting with Sound Students

Here is some notes on the outcome of the first meeting we had with the sound students on Friday...


We are planning on incorporating sound into the event in two ways.

1. Use a layering of ambient sound to create a initial soundscapes.
2. Use sensors to trigger a change in the ambient sound or to trigger an additional sound.

AMBIENT SOUND 

There will be four speakers placed along side the staircase at different intervals.  The speakers will each be on a separate "channel".  This means that we need to decide on the four different types of sound that we want to use to create our soundscape.  We thought that it would be nice to use four similar sounds that can be played over each other to create depth.  At the moment we are considering oceany, breathy, weavy sounds that can relate to the idea of water course and also enhance the experience of the proposed fabric wave that will flow over the hill.  The sound student were going to pursue recording some sounds for us to sample or different underwater noise.

TRIGGER

As part of our event we wanted to provide some kind or interactive sound experience.  The sound student are looking into two possibilities to make this happen.

1. Use a sensor similar to the sensors in dairy doorways to set off a sound on the hill.  The sensors would be placed along the stairs so that when the fans walk past it sets of a sound.  One concern was that if the senors were on the stairs and there was a continuous flow of people for 4 hours, the sensors would continuously be set off and the full effect we wanted would not be achieved.  We decided that this would not be the case, there would not be that many people, so we wont have to worry about this.  Each sensor we have will also have to have it's own mini speaker and amp and power lead which could potentially be a problem.
2. Use "contact microphones" which are triggered by vibration and could potentially be worked into a musical instrument of some sort, like the chimes.  The sound recorded could be mixed up and played back as another sound.  Footsteps up the stairs could be mixed and played back as running water.

For the next meeting we need to figure out what ambient sounds we want. We also need to give the sound students an estimate on the cable run to each speaker placed down the slope.

Nicola

Sound and Lighting Team