I have a keen interest in wildlife and ecology and, having lived in rural mid-Wales for over 20 years, I've spent a good deal of time exploring the open moorland, woodlands and quiet, off-the-track places nearby. For me, the sonic impact of such locations is often as memorable, or even moreso, than the visual. Sound recording has always been an interest of mine, both from a technical perspective and for its creative potential; so it follows from this that I want to record my experiences as souvenirs, sonic postcards, call them what you will. As composer Luc Ferrari once said, "I make photography with sound".
This section of the website documents an ongoing project to which I try to add at regular intervals.
soundscapes
Much as we think of landscape when we see the visual world laid out before us, so it is with soundscape. We shut our eyes and open our ears and perceive an equally complex and fascinating world, but this time through our aural senses.
Recorded soundscapes speak of place. They are evocative and capture the specific sonic aura of a particular place and time. My role is minimal. Beyond selecting the location, time of day, and then placing my microphones, I do very little. I don't employ layering or complex sound manipulation, but let the soundscape speak for itself. However, we live in a world of ubiquitous noise pollution and, before publishing soundscapes here, I almost always have need to remove sections where aircraft pass overhead. But I try to respect the soundscape and make the edit as seamless as possible.
recording
Almost all of the recordings here have been made using a pair of omnidirectional microphones spaced at around 40cm. This has become my preferred configuration for soundscapes and produces a pleasing and natural rendition of the surrounding space.
All sound recordings have been edited and prepared on a Linux PC system using Audacity and other open-source applications. In keeping with this open-source ethos, the files are encoded in the Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) format at Quality 7. This is a variable bit rate system offering sound quality which is roughly equivalent to 256-320k mp3. These files are compatible with all modern media players.
listening
For each recording, I have posted a 1 minute sound clip (which should show up as an audio player box in your browser) and also a download link to the full version of the file (typically around 15-30 minutes). Using the inbuilt audio player is a good way to check out the various recordings without having to download the larger file.
If you would like to listen to the full length recording you can then download it to play back on the system of your choice. This gives you the best quality replay, and the ability to listen whenever & wherever you want.
Many of these soundscapes are naturally very quiet, and the most realistic effect is achieved if you aim to recreate these low levels in playback whether listening through headphones or loudspeakers.
sharing
All sound recordings are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
You may freely download and share these recordings, but must credit me, Martin Winfield, if any material is posted elsewhere or used in derivative works.
Full details of the license are available by following the link above.