Isabel Bader Walk

For this assignment I chose the my location to be the Isabel Bader centre, specifically the section of lake in front of Juniper’s café. I chose this location because I often go on walks to the lake by myself, and find it really calming and special. I recorded me walking along the side of the lake and looking at the water after leaving the café, and I walked on various types of surfaces, such as snow, rocks, concrete, and pebbles to create a variety of sounds. I also sat close to the water’s edge to record the flowing sounds of the water. I tried to narrate some of the sounds as I was inspired by a soundscape from a previous class, but I also kept moments without talking to add a variety of sounds and encourage the listener to listen intently to the backing sounds. I also chose this location because there was many background sounds, such as a busy road and the water flowing.

I tried to narrate some of my actions and describe the sounds as well as what I could see to help the listener create vivid imagery in their minds. However, I did not describe everything because I wanted the listener to still use their imagination and encourage every listener to paint a different picture in their minds.

I used the azimuth plugin on dearVR MICRO to move sound between the listeners right and left ears to create the sound of a 3D soundscape. I also added movement from left to right when cars drove path to imitate the change in sound direction as they moved past the listener. For my reflections fx, I chose to use a glass room for the first part of the audio as it made the wave audio sound very crisp. However, I later changed the room sound to brick so the audio sounded more like it was outside. There were no room settings that were outside so I chose these sounds because they also produced less muffled sounds compared to ‘drapes’ and ‘curtain’ room options. I set the focus to the maximum after a fade in at the beginning as I wanted the VR MICRO sounds to have the maximum affects. I also changed the elevation depending on where my position was relative to the water, for example at the end I climbed up some rocks and walked away.