Silence is all around me. It is a chilling silence, that creates a kind of relaxing ambience. There is a quiet undertone nearby. It creates a warm pad underneath the soundscape. It has a slight reverb to it, as it hums.
I can hear very faint percussive taps, that echo near me. They are high pitched, but short and sharp. They seem to come at regular intervals, but are sometimes delayed by a second or two. These noises are interrupted by a short burst of banging. It moves from behind me, to in front, getting quieter as it moves away. Each individual 'bang' is quickly followed by another. Their low timbre startles the soundscape, disrupting the once quiet ambience. Soon after, the soundscape returns to its relaxed nature, where once again, the faint percussive taps can be heard again.
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A high pitched tone plays to my right. It stays constant in volume and pitch. It is very resonant, and bounces around the room, with a very small echo. This noise becomes a distraction to the main feature of the soundscape. The noise comes from in front of me, but pans left and right as well. It has a general low tone to it, The noise varies its timbre. Sometimes it is flat, but at other times, it is more vibrant and colourful. At various times the noise becomes louder, and come from the left and right of me, as if there is two of the same noise, but there is only one.
After a while, the focus on this one noise changes. It moves out of perception, and lots of other noises start up. They move from behind me, to in front of me. The number of these noises start to decrease, and soon the space becomes almost silent, where only a few noises can be heard. The high pitched tone is now audible again. As I start to leave the soundscape, the noise becomes quieter, to the point where it can no longer be heard. The overall soundscape is very percussive, filled with lots of different bangs and crashes. They come from different heights and different angles, some left and some right. Some of these pitches are quite high. They echo for a couple of seconds, getting quitter every time. Others are more phat and low. These one echo for longer and are louder, thus becoming the forefront of the soundscape.
Amidst the bangs, a loud fast roar starts up. It drowns out all the other percussive noises, making it the only to easily be heard. Its medium pitch, pulses through the air. It starts slowly, before building up into its fast pace. After a few seconds, its pitch gets higher, like a high pitched screech. It continues before the high pitch suddenly returns to the lower pitch, and soon after starts to slow down and stop entirely. More percussive sounds come back. In the distance, a short high pitched noise can be heard. It comes at regular intervals, and doesn’t change pitch or timbre. It rings out a little bit after each one, but only for a short period of time. A large space is occupied by many noises. It varies in bright noises, to very dull and flat noises. It is a very relaxed soundscape. There is nothing startling or aggressive that can be heard. A beautiful noise comes from above. The noise has clear vibrato. Although it doesn’t echo, the sound can still be heard after the noise ends. Further away, another sound source repeats a similar to the previous one, as if its replying, or calling out to the first. Both these noises are quite sharp, and fairly loud, though they are far away.
Many quiet hums and ‘whooshes’ pan across me in the distance. They make a very small impact in the overall soundscape. Further to my left are many of a similar sound, some are higher than others, some more full and deep. Each one has its own timbral quality, none are the same. Each one isn’t continuous, it stops and starts every so often. After listening for a further few minutes, each of these sounds begin to dissipate, in other directions. The number of them start to decrease, before none are left. It is at this point that there is only one outstanding noise. It calmly passes by me every couple of seconds. It has a fairly high pitch, but sometimes low. It isn’t consistent in any way (timbre, pitch, duration). This noise creates other sound objects, a percussive kind of sound, where objects hit other one, creating a broken up calm tone. When the high pitch ends, so does the percussive one, and the soundscape becomes stagnant. I sit in a very small room, where to the left of me, two separate sound sources are fighting for my attention. One noise is right next to me ear, while the other come from above me. They both remain in the same position, not moving.The lower source generates a hum. It is relaxed, not aggressive in any fashion. Every couple of seconds a click comes to the foreground. Each time this click comes, it changes it pitch, volume and timbre. Some are more bright, some more mellow. Some are louder, and some are quieter. Some are higher, and some are lower.
After a few minutes this sound source stops creating noise, making way for the other sound source above me. This noise is similar to the first noise, but much quieter, and lower in pitch. It timbre is more phat, it fills the small room more, and it echoes around. This noise also stops every so often, but for not as long as the first noise, only a second or two in-between each pause. It’s been around 30 seconds before the first noise kicks back in again. Instantly overpowering the second noise. I can then hear little clicks in the corner of the small room. They are just loud enough to be recognised amongst the other more dominating noises. The clicks are mid-ranged, and have a short duration, and come at inconsistent time periods. After a minute or two, this noise stops, as does the other two noises. I know that these pauses are only for a short period, so I leave the noises behind me, knowing the cycle will continue to go on. A sound begins in the far distance. It is very quiet but maintains a certain pitch, that doesn’t change. It is like a hum, very gentle and subtle. It’s low hum can faintly be heard. Slowly, the noise gets louder and louder, as it moves closer to me. As it comes closer, more characteristics of the noise become clear. A very percussive rattle slowly crescendos into perception. It is very faint, and has a high/medium range.
As the noise comes towards me, it continues to get louder. As it passes me, it reaches its highest volume, almost deafening me for a few brief seconds. At this point I can hear everything from this one sound source. The once gentle hum is now aggressive, as it roars past. It is almost like a growl, it has a coarse aggression to it. The rattling is at its loudest, like its trying to take over the hum. Soon its moves away behind me. A very high pitched screech comes a few seconds after it passes. The noise pierces my ears, it’s bright timbre soon ends. The noise halts in it position, before taking off again, getting further and further away, fading into nothing. Noise is coming from all around me. Different ranges from high, to very low. Each noise has a different timbre, some very warm and phat, other very bright and piercing. The noises don’t move to different positions, they stay where they are, creating a cacophony of noise bouncing off walls. The tight space makes the noises seem even louder than they are.
For a couple of seconds the noises stop to make way for a singular noise coming from my left. The source has a low timbre, and it intense. It isn’t loud, but it seems that way as the noise bouncing off everything in the room. This noise ends, before a loud bang that echoes around the room. Soon after, the loud cacophony of sound begins again. The noise starts with a noise repeated a few times, separated each time by only a few milliseconds. After a few repetitions of this noise, its becomes constant. It is a very rough and phat sound, and is generally a low pitched noise with a general undertone sustained through the entire time the sound lasts for. There is a rumbling tone over the drone. It is also rough, unlike the drone, and is a higher pitch as well.
After a few seconds a high pitched noise is heard. It is short and sharp. Soon after this sound occurs, another noise begins, a short and sharp click. It comes from in front of me. The noise is lots of individual sounds, lasting less than a second each. It is a mid-pitch sound, and has no distinct tonal quality. After many minutes of the sound lasting, it stops suddenly, leaving a silence and a slight reverb behind it. The clicking noise can be heard, very faintly. As I move away from the source of the noise, it becomes fainter and fainter, until it can no longer be heard. A large room is filled with many noises, coming from all around me. I sit in the middle of it listening to all that surrounds me. A high pitched screeching comes every few minutes, both in front and behind me. This sound lasts a long duration of around 30 seconds before ceasing to exist. It sustains this high pitch for the whole time, shifting around between different tones, but stays mostly consistent.
Another noise comes from many different sources. They don't have a particular rhythm or tone. They are all different. They pan from left to right, right to left, behind to in front, and in front to behind. It is too difficult to pick where each source of sound is coming from. A constant mid to low pitch noise also surrounds me. This sound also pans across from where I am sitting. Each sound lasts less than a second but repeats itself at a constant rhythm. Each one again is different, some more quiet, some louder. They also have different timbres, light, heavy, etc. But because there are many of the, they merge together to create a cacophony of the same noise. With all of these sounds, they merge together to create a very dense soundscape. An individual sound cannot be isolated amongst the total amount of sound coming from this area. The space is generally quiet, kept to a very low pitch and tone. However, there are many more layers of noise around me. There are short and sharp low pitched noises, medium-high pitched rings which pierce the ear with force, and very soft, consistant taps, that as they get closer, become more recognisable, before fading away as they move away from me.
There is one overlaying noise however. It comes from a variety of directions, from right next to me, to tens of metres away. The closer ones, are louder, easier to recognise, but the ones further away require much more concentration to pick up. These ones have a clear undertone. The noises all sound different as they all have different qualities; some are high pitched, some low. Below everything, there is one drone, which doesn't stop. It sustains a single tone and frequency. As other noises come, this one seems to fade out into the background, although it is still there, it is just not being focused on. Through all of this, there is a very slight echo, where each noise is given not even a second to ring around the very large room. The many layers of noise continue to come and go, showing that they will never stop. |
What is Acousmatics?Acousmatics is a noise that one hears without seeing what causes it. This section analyses real world sounds and how we perceive them. ArchivesCategories |