In today’s class, we were introduced to Zoom H4N. It is a professional sound recorder and widely used in media industry. Like we did an exercise for Sony EX3, we also had to do an exercise for this as well. This time we had to document a location by using Zoom H4N with the objective to ‘describe’ the location so that is it identifiable to the listener.

I was paired with Constance again, so we started off with the ambiance of the nucleus space at level 2 of building 9 but we listened first before recording and it didn’t felt like we were at the same area, so my attention diverted towards the blow dryer sound and i asked Constance to go inside the toilet area and record it, I thought the sound in there is common enough and so the location would be identifiable.

I think the first sound clip is pretty much identifiable, the water coming out from tap, some footsteps to approach the dryer, and then the sound of dryer itself. So one can assume well that the sound clip is from the toilet.

However the second sound clip is a bit confusing, we hear a car moving, water stream and crumpling of paper. one can assume that it may be from a park but actually we recorded at bowen street. So in this sound clip we were not successful in achieving our objective.

The third sound clip is of footsteps and cars, so its safe to assume that sounds are from a nearby road, and indeed we did captured it on Swanston street.

The last clip we recorded were of Trams, but it is a bit confusing whether it is of trams or trains as they sound more or less the same, but I think it is pretty much identifiable. Overall I believe we achieved the objectives of the exercise except for the second clip.

I listened to another Groups sound recording, it is pretty much identifiable that they are sitting in closed environment, with the chatting and footsteps going along. As I’m reflecting, I realise I did a mistake by not following the rules as it mentioned to document just one location. But then again, if we omit the first recording, then it is easy to identify that the location is a street where people walk by, cars go by and trams run along.