Listen to the audio you recorded in Tute #1. Write a paragraph or two about your recording from a technical and/or “poetic” perspective.  Consider:

What these sounds evoke for you.  What associations they have. 
Do any of your recordings suggest images?  What might they be?  
Do any of your recordings suggest the possibility of other recordings?

Listening to the first track that me and Ella recorded, I noticed a lot of technical flaws which we could have avoided. For instance, the recorder could have been placed directly next to the hydraulics of the truck to get a cleaner sound; there is a lot of background noise happening, and I remember us standing about a metre or so away. The sound definitely evokes the idea of robots/technology, as it is quite distinctly a machine generated sound.

The second of our sounds was at the RMIT cafateria, where we recorded the sound of a barista making a coffee. Coffee making has some distinctive sounds which can easily be identified by the listener i.e. grinding coffee, the pouring of liquid and the warming of the milk. I believe this sound clip could easily be identified as a coffee grinder and milk steamer, however the sounds are quite repetitive. The warming of the milk goes on for about 30 seconds and it can be quite boring to listen to.

Some of our more ambiguous sound clips were the ones we recorded at the gym. I think we didn’t experiment enough with the gain, for in one of the clips, we were trying to record the sound of the wheels on a exercise bike. The repetitive hissing that the turning wheel makes can be heard, but it is drowned out by the talking of the people as well as the music played over the radio. A really confusing sound clip was the one of the gym fan. It doesn’t exactly sound like the wind outside, and so will be hard for listeners to picture the source of the sounds. In that regard, I think it could work quite well as background noise.

The last two were my favourite. The first was at the hairdressers, where two ladies were dying the hair of a customer. We got up really close to the brush they were using as it dabbed the colour on her hair. The squelching noises came out really good. Whilst they are quiet, they are unique. I also really liked our recording of the road crossing. Everyone knows the sound that the machine makes after you have pressed the button and are waiting for the green man to come on telling you it is safe to walk. The recording is basically anticipating the sound of the ‘go’ signal for pedestrians. The slow beeping noises build up to the moment when everyone can eventually cross the road, and I like how there is a feeling of the tension being lifted.