After the success of The Sound of the Playhouse I felt that the site was an important part of the practice and that for the experience to be authentic the sound had to be recorded on site. Many of the ‘virtual worlds’ including the death of the narrator were recorded on site to give the listener an experience of an event actually taking place.
Recording binaural audio
The narrators voice was initially going to be both in the head of the viewer and in the ear. The intention of this was to separate directional instructions from dreams, memories and
Virtual worlds. However I found that the combination of the two layers of binaural audio fought against one another, almost cancelling each other out. This was a problem when, for example there was loud music and narration in to one ear. To resolve this I decided to record all the narration in mono, the directions were given in a clear and stern voice and when the soundtrack moved to a dream like sequence the voice soften and showed emotion.
Working with the university as a site to produce an audio walk was different to the Playhouse because this time the environment was empty and quiet.
I found it difficult to choose a route because I knew the building so well and wanted to include all its ‘best’ bits, included creaky doors, windows, steps, etc. However the route I had planned to do was taking ten minutes to get around and I felt that this was far too long. There would also be too many instructions due to the complex layout of the building. The route was finally shortened to four minutes, which allowed for extra narrative to be added when the audio track referenced the physical and virtual worlds.
Influences and research
A reference to the uncanny and how sound has been used to produce dream like scenes from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me were added to the soundtrack.
The narrative was based on the notion of my personal fear; therefore it included a reference from horror and psychological thriller. I felt it was significant to include my experiences and translate these to the listener.
The audio walk was influenced by my research into the sublime, and I found that by demanding high quality sound in my work I was able to reproduce an experience of that similar to the sublime by referencing dark and light spaces and the fear of being followed
Using new audio recorder for narration
I had discussed my concerns with NTU technicians regarding the Edirol MP3 recorder that I had been using to record binaural audio. I wanted to use it to record mono narrative but the quality was poor and there was a lot of hiss in the background. I was given a Marantz and professional microphone to use instead and this solved the problem.
New binaural Microphones
I had previously sampled audio from the university to gather ideas for the narrative using the clip tie microphones taped to my ears and the dummy head, however I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of sound. It seemed that the last audio walk (The Sounds of the Playhouse) didn’t have any blaringly obvious audio mistakes but this could have been because the background environment was loud and hid any clicks or pops that the microphones may have produced.
I decided to purchase a set of in ear microphones to record binaural audio.
The microphones were fantastic, they were much more inconspicuous and sat inside my ears like headphones. They were brilliant at picking up every single sound, so good that my breathing can be heard on the audio walk for the MA Exposition.
I feel I have developed the technique of binaural audio in a very short time, but feel confident in the technology and the practice to immerse the listener and temporarily transport them in and out of reality.
