Assignment: Bryant Park in Three Audio Recordings

3_sounds.mp3

A3_BP3_GC3_Pro.mp3

I decided to record in a few different locations and select the location that
produced the greatest variety of audio. Between recording in my apartment,
Grand Central Station and Bryant Park, I selected to use the audio recorded
in the three separate locations in Bryant Park for this project. The park is
large and I decided to record only at the south end of the park. I first was
recorded sitting beside the relatively quite Pétanque courts. These are
located near both the road and the sitting areas. In my recording you can
hear the traffic, the rumble of the subway, the voices of these people in
the park and the tink of the balls as they hit one another. In the
post-production I worked to decrease the prominence of the lower sounds
(subway rumble, etc) as these began to sound like just noise. It was
difficult to remove some of the lower frequencies without eliminating that
very iconic traffic sound of midtown Manhattan. After much trial and error I
think I succeeded. I was also able to use EQ to bring out the sound of the
helicopter.

The second location I choose to record in was further towards
the centre of the park, still on the south side. Here, because of the
further distance from traffic and the like, I was able to get a better
recording of the voices and conversation of the people in the park. The deep
rumble of traffic still remains, as does the honking and the sounds of the
bus, but I was able to use EQ to bring the voices more to the fore. Bryant
Park is essentially a big bowl or canyon surrounded by high buildings and I
hear this in this second minute of recording.

I recorded the third minute of audio near the water fountain at
the south end of Bryant Park. I was surprised how the sound of the water
flowing took over the recording and almost drowned out the other sounds. The
subway and the rumble of voices can still be heard, but the sound of the
water flowing is the centre of the recording. I even attempted to move
further away from the water fountain to try to get a more balanced sound of
water, but anywhere near the fountain it became the central sound recorded.
In post-production I decided to work with this feature of the audio and I
attempted to use the EQ to bring out the different sounds heard in the
water. Through this assignment I learnt even more about the process of ambient
audio recording and the differences between real, raw ambient noise and what
you would build as ambient noise in an audio play or video. In one location
the sound can vary widely and even that pure sound can end up not sounding
like what it is. I already have a love of audio but this helped to remind me
that the process of recording ambient audio can be as technical as recording
video.