Audio Response

1. Discuss your experiences with building your microphones. Was this process more or less what you thought it would be? How did your microphone rig work on your Drift walks? Were you able to capture both overall ambiance and extreme close-ups? Describe your ideal microphone and recorder setup, with unlimited time and money.

The process of constructing the microphone was a bit harder than I thought it would be. Using the older, dirtier soldering irons it was quite difficult. This is why I went out and bought my own. Once I had new tools the process was over rather quickly and efficiently.

On my drift walk the microphones worked very well, at times picking up more ambiance then I would have liked. It still managed to pick up on close up sounds. Most of the sounds on my walk were traveling sounds (meaning that I would travel from point a to point b to record sounds fading in and out naturally). I rigged the microphones to mimic my own ears by attaching them to my headphones. This approach worked very well, I think.

Ideally, I would have liked a microphone with a better wind screen. Otherwise, I quite enjoyed the smaller set up. For a project like this the set up works very well and only loses quality due to the wind screen.

2. How was your experience with operating the MiniDisc recorder? How does this recorder compare to other audio equipment you've used? In an ideal world, how would your recorder of choice function?

The MiniDisc recorder was a major pain. Having to put it in manual all the time was difficult because sometimes the menu would not give me the option of REC SET, and I had to sit around for near half an hour before I could figure the tweeks out.

I have never really worked with sound recording devices before, so I have no real frame of reference, but other than the wierd menu glitches this worked fine.
In an ideal world the recorder would stay on manual at all times. This is the only problem that I encountered in my drifts, otherwise I think everything was fine.

3. Discuss the audio-editing software you chose and your history with this application. If you used this software for the first time, explain why you chose this particular application and how you think it helped you to accomplish your creative goals (or proved detrimental). Will you use this software again for future projects?

I used SonicStage and Audacity, as was recommended. I chose it because it was highly recommended for the project. It worked very well. SonicStage transfers were time consuming but fairly simple. Audacity was very easy to navigate because it seems to have been designed to be user friendly. I will definitely use them again in the future.