Synthesized Field Recording v9.1
bronze vases

For this piece, each sound started from either a basic waveform or white noise. These raw tones were generated and manipulated using an array of digital/analog synthesizers to form individual sounds you may recognize from the natural world. Birds are sine waves with quick descending pitch envelopes. Ocean waves are white noise with a filter. The sounds were then performed, recorded, and layered in Ableton. Editing such as volume adjustments, equalization, splicing, reverberation, and other treatments were applied.

The result is a “field recording” that is completely handmade. A hyper-realistic audio landscape painting.

Over the course of the 9 minute piece, there are 4 scenes. Each one made either from memory or by sitting at my open window mimicking what I heard. Trying to pick out the different types of bugs in a chorus of insects. Their unique rhythms, durations, tonality. When do they come in? When do they rest? I would do the same for the birds. I learned to recognize how they each claimed different frequency ranges. Much like people do with radio communication.

• summer night
bugs
• rain storm patio

• spring day airplane

• gloomy beach seagulls

This project is an exercise in biomimicry. An expression of belief that everything we need to know is already there for us, in the natural world. It’s an exploration of how all technology, has emerged from the earth, and is an extension of the human body. It’s no coincidence that we refer to some of our most important tools in natural terms - the cloud, the web, etc… All forms of human intelligence and design are forms of biomimicry. We even find this in the origins of our alphabet. O is the eye, the Oculus. M is a wave, Q is the monkey’s tail. A is the bull’s horns.