This weeks reading was all about sound and soundscapes. According to the extraordinarily long reading in soundscapes there are 3 main units of composition.

• Figure – The focus of the soundscape
• Ground – Mid-ground sounds
• Field – Background sounds

These three components create perspective within a soundscape. In real life we have sound coming at us from all around, 360 degrees of constant bombardment from sound. However, soundscapes can really can only ever have a very linear construction, as the sound is generally mixed as one audio set, these three features are integral to creating believable sound environments.  Sounds can move in and out of these groups, such as the sound of rain dying down (moving from the figure to field) and dialogue rising (moving from mid ground to figure).

I find these theoretical groupings of sound very helpful in terms of keeping things neat. However, I personally find the ability to freely edit sound a little more fun than being constrained during the editing phase, instead I prefer to label these sound as such in post post-production rather than during editing.