DRIFT STRATEGY! .....sort of.....

My original Drift strategy was Left, Right, Right, Left, Right. I started at the east side of Riverside Park and started following my strategy. Except by the time I had made it to the tennis courts I had run out of right turns. So basically I followed the bike path next to the tennis courts south till I was able to turn right. Fortunately by that time I had received a wealth of sound recordings around the bike path and from houses along the way. After the right turn I took I realized I was getting farther and farther away from my apartment, and I'm quite a lazy walker, so I turned and abandoned my strategy and head in the general direction of home.

All in all I think my strategy worked pretty well, ultimately leading me to some successful recordings. Yet I think something is said for your choice of where you start your soundwalk. I started mine in Riverside Park, hoping I would receive interesting sounds right away. Instead I found the sounds I most enjoyed to be near by to the park and in a cluster a block south of the park.

My Drift Drifting Map

The Link to my Google Map is here.

AIR VENT VS ummmm AIR VENT

I wanted to start my sound postings with this post of a more common air vent. Unlike my other postings this sound isnt contrasted by any other sound because it is an all encompassing, chocking sound. The rattling and the intense humming of the air vent create a wall of sound that aches for attention but as it is a sound many of us hear daily we disregard it as unimportant.

YOU CAN LISTEN TO IT here

It is not a sound I can honestly say I enjoy listening to but it has a certain intensity that I find I need to pay attention more. I recorded this vent by just walking by and stopping next to it and holding my mics 3 feet apart. The vent is on the side of a "Contemporary World Cuisine" restraunt building. And in the window next to the vent is the kitchen where you can see cooks and dishwashers working fast and steadily which I found worked with the sound of the voilent vent really well.

CAR VS WIND CHIMES

As I was walking back from the soundwalk, I stopped and recorded this sound, basically just because I like the sound of wind chimes. On Newhall st. the wind chimes were just holding on in the strong wind of that day, on the pole connected to the house. It doesn't have such a musical tone as much as it has a peacefulness nutrality caught in a violent situation. I held the mics in my hand on either side of the chimes and caught a rather intersting sound for someone who enjoys wind chimes. I like the contrast, like my other sound recordings on my blog of the opposing sounds, between the peacefull wind chime and authoritative sounding car.

YOU CAN LISTEN TO IT here

BIKE VS STICKY SHOES

Just past the tennis courts I came across a bike path that wen under a bridge. The sound of the bikes whizzing by made a nice echoing sound under the bridge and I decided to stop and check it out. I at first held the mics in my hand as i stood by the side of the paved path. But then I realized I received better sound by placing the mics on the ground. It gave a good left to right relationship and a better sound of the rubber tires and shoes on the pavement.

YOU CAN LISTEN TO IT here

If you listen you can here the differences in the types of bikes as they pass. The off road bikes had thicker tires so they made a lower more noticeable noise. The street or racer bikes had much thinner tires and tended to have a smaller lighter sound. One sound I wasnt able to include in this track was a kid's bike that had thick half-way deflated tires, which made a terrible humming sound as it road by, making it sound quite unique. And ways why I chose these sound was the contrasts between the bikes themselves and between the bikes and the solitary jogger who had old, wet and loud shoes on. I very much enjoy listening to the shoes thud and squish past the mic. In between the bikes and the jogger is a sometimes serene sound of birds and wind which I also enjoy.

TENNIS VS FOOTBALL

This sound was taken at the end of E Park st., just before you get to Newhall st. Only a block away from where I recorded the liquid oxygen tank. I entered the park where the football field meets the tennis court. I found a group of girls playing tennis rather heatedly. Granted their permission, I sat in the back of the court and recorded them playing. I have always liked the sound of the whack as the tennis racket hits the ball, been when the football teem came out and started to scrimmage in the background, I found a plethera of sounds hitting my mics.

YOU CAN LISTEN TO IT here

It turns out the girls were practicing for the championship match they had with a rivalling school the next day.
All in all I am very satisfied with about a 45 second recording that took place and which during the whistle of the football coach set of a chain of sounds that mixes rather well. After the whistle you can here cars, a plane going overhead, tennis shoes scrapping against the pavement, the rackets whacking the tennis ball, the ball bouncing on the court, the pads of football players hitting against eachother, and their chantings towards the end.

LIQUID OXYGEN VS CAR

About 35 minutes into the soundwalk I had not found any interesting sounds, when I came across what at first looked like a moving van parked at the side of the road, on N Bartlett st. with its ramp unloaded. When I came closer I realized a high hissing sound coming from the side facing the house. It seemed a man was draining air from some kind of high pressurized tank. I walked up and started recording. It just so happened about 10 seconds after I started recording a car with a very low humming muffler started up and gave, I think. a really cool contrasting noise to the hissing of the tank.

YOU CAN LISTEN TO IT here

I placed my microphones almost directly under where the oxygen is being released in the photo.

It turns out the tank was holding liquid oxygen. A serviceman from Home Care Medical was refilling it for an elderly lady that lived at the house. I created a link to hear him breafly explain what liquid oxygen is.

[Serviceman talky] Liquid oxygen is a form of the element-oxygen.It has a pale blue color and is strongly paramagnetic. In commerce, liquid oxygen is classified as an industrial gas and is widely used for industrial and medical purposes. I did a little wikipedia searching.....