worldsoundsurround

September 6, 2010 5:38 PM

Soundmaps are field recordings of the unique audio ecology of a particular place and time. Often they are cities: New York, Berlin, Montreal, New Orleans, Barcelona, London (previously), Madrid, and many others. Sometimes they move through space: Ramallah. Sometimes they are mixable (probably my favorite, from Portugal). They might be of entire countries (Spain, the United States (previously), the United Kingdom, or continents (Africa, while on a bike!). Sometimes they cover the entire world: aporee (you may prefer the map interface). Some attempt to preserve sounds that are in danger of being lost. And sometimes soundmaps are of the deep ocean. Most of the sounds are, appropriately, licensed under Creative Commons.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul (8 comments total)

That's all well and good and all very interesting, but time spent listening to Madrid is time not spent listening to my immediate environment. And I might miss an event by doing that. Perhaps, for instance, while meandering virtually through Burundi, an unusual owl will hoot outside my window, or a heating pipe will expand. What I must therefore do is record my surroundings while I'm listening to these other environments so that I can play them back afterwards to see what I missed. And then of course while reviewing this recording I'll need to make another. I can see that I'm going to have to stock up on blank tapes.
posted by The Discredited Ape at 5:52 PM on September 6, 2010

I've been working on a sound mapping project with a geographer peer as well: Urban Sound Ecology. We're archiving walks for Vancouver and Toronto – and looking for people who are interested in recording soundwalks for/with us in either of those cities.
posted by serial_consign at 6:03 PM on September 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

Also previously.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:31 PM on September 6, 2010

Ahem. (self link of saharan/sahelian recordings)
posted by iamck at 7:18 PM on September 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

aporee, "an open project about the creation and exploration of public soundscapes. it collects and organizes sound recordings from daily surroundings and environments all over the world."

SOUNDWALK, "Audio Tours for People Who Don't Normally Take Audio Tours."
posted by mykescipark at 9:34 PM on September 6, 2010

Oh, damn, sorry about the aporee double-link. Damn my non-close reading.
posted by mykescipark at 9:35 PM on September 6, 2010

This is fantastic! Thank you.
posted by vacapinta at 3:51 AM on September 7, 2010

Hurray!
posted by Theta States at 7:05 AM on September 7, 2010