Category: Thoughts

Scarborough / Soundcloud

peter wyethLeave a comment

I’ve had an iphone for a couple of weeks now and have slowly been getting used to it. It’s promise of being a creative Swiss army knife was what drew me to it and whilst it’s not perfect it does open up so many possibilities of creative exploration and that is something you can’t put a price on.

I’ve been away for a few days in North Yorkshire and have had the opportunity to use the Soundcloud app and the voice memo app ‘out in the field’.

I recorded a brass band playing in the cellarium at Fountains Abbey using the Soundcloud app and I have to say how easy it all was to use. Pressed record on the screen, followed the sound, pressed stop, added a photo and uploaded it via 3G. It was so easy. The fact I could do it within minutes of it happening was so gratifying too. I tried to use the publicise feature on it but got a bit confused so left it at that.

The next day I found my self in Scarborough on the North Yorkshire coast. I’d never been to Scarborough before and it was a real discovery. I used the Voice Memo app to do these recordings as I was unable to work out how to add new recordings on the Soundcloud app without deleting the previous recording ( I have since figure this out ). I could write an awful lot about Scarborough, I found it such an amazing place. The fact that about a mile and a half away from the town itself is the incredible ruggedness and beauty of the North Yorkshire Moors just makes it al the more mind blowing for me.

Visually and aurally there was so much to take in. The gulls on the cliff face on Marine Drive were so noisy, flying out in circular arcs and then returning to the cliff. Whilst this was going on I had the sea behind me hitting the rock defences and the rumble of traffic across the large cobbled stones of the road. It was a really involving sound picture.

Finally, a recording of the amusement arcade opposite Luna Park on the South Shore beach. I like how all of these recordings have come out. There does sound like there is a little phasing going on – I have no idea as to the physics of this as it’s recorded in mono but there does seem to be that washyness to them? Either way I found all of the recordings captured what I was hearing adequately enough to portray them even if they weren’t as good as they would have been from a dedicated stereo recorder.

But this is from a phone. In my pocket. That took HD videos as well as 5MP photos of it all too. And that’s mad!

I can hear skylarks

peter wyethLeave a comment

Bright sunny day. A small breeze teases wisps of cirrus cloud in a near perfect blue sky, long shaded trails of white. Sitting on the grass, looking up at the tall thin trees gently swaying. Then above the shimmering rustle I hear skylarks – somewhere higher than the trees in front of me and beyond, above a field somewhere up in the air. The fantastic fluttering melody rising as they fly, unable to place the sound as it’s carried off by the wind and then returning. I remember the first time I learned the sound of the skylark, I was instantly taken back to fields in Norfolk where that sound seemed to be everywhere in summer.

I’ve only seen a Skylark once before, as I was cycling up a hill in Church Langton in Leicestershire but that sound is such a wonderful, beautiful sound.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/skylark/index.aspx

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Ear ringing and hand wringing

peter wyeth3 Comments

You may not have known this but last week in the UK it was Tinnitus Awareness Week, you probably didn’t hear it (you can see where this is going can’t you?), maybe because of that constant ringing in your ear.

I can’t remember a time when my ears didn’t ring, from my early 20’s onwards it’s been a constant companion, if you could call it that. But in the last ten or so years I’ve been really aware of it. Baby sitting for friends a while ago in their lovely large quiet house I became aware of just how bad it was – it was like having my head stuck in a vice.

It’s reckoned that around 10% of the UK public suffer from tinnitus – i’d reckon that figure is a lot higher. Our general environments are so noisy anyway we probably don’t tend to notice it that much. I’ve been for a few hearing tests and my hearing is and I quote ‘ just fine’. I was even told that my hearing was ‘above average’ in the range one would expect it to be fried from listening to music at too loud a level. And it’s that listening at loud levels that’s done it.

It’s there all the time & it’s particularly bad at the moment – it can affect you more when your tired or stressed – and it’s really depressing. I’ve been wearing ear protection for gigs since I was thirty to try to keep my ears working for as long as I can. Too little, too late – I’m now facing the fact I will probably have to stop playing live with regular PA’s very soon, as it just does me no favours at all. I’m trying to figure out a way around this – it would mean smaller quiet venues with an ingenious low power PA output/hi-fi output – but I’m not holding my breath.

When I was younger I tried earplugs a few times but I couldn’t get used to them and they were really difficult to use as singer. What I know now is this – once you get used to them (just wear them as often as you can for week to be accustomed to it) you realise they don’t take away any of the pleasure and joy of listening to music.

Do yourself a favour, get yourself some ear protection today and start using it now.

BTA

So long, Josie Long / Hello songbird

peter wyeth1 Comment

The past few mornings I’ve had a set routine. I get up around 0550, feed the cat, make porridge and coffee and then sit down to listen to Josie Long’s All of the Planet’s Wonders, which I taped when it was repeated over Christmas.

I’ve enjoyed every minute of it – not just the funny bits or the insightful bits but the delivery as well. There is a real soft edge to her voice that’s really pleasing to the ear. I particularly like the fact that inspiration for one episode struck in an attic B&B in my home town of Leicester. I wonder where it was, what the view was like, would I recognise it too? (A quick search on Google can send you to many a link to the series for you to listen to too).

I’m going to miss this quiet time. It’s helped remind me of the intimacy of radio. I do intend to write about the radio at some point as it has had a huge influential effect on my life and how I interact act with sound (and other media) that I’ve only begun to realise over the past 5 years. So, thank you, Josie Long, it’s been a pleasure.

But as one thing finishes something else is beginning. I’ve noticed all this week the morning chorus of birds gradually gettng earlier and earlier. As each episode of the above finished I could slowly start to hear the morning unfold outside. True to form a thrush of some sort (it’s either a Mistle Thrush or a Song Thrush) has been calling out, it’s voice central, on top of the all the other sounds. It makes me very happy.

(Warning – there is a lot of mic rumble in the above recording as I didn’t have a windshield on the H4n)