My Lost Place Assignment: Lake Learmonth

Lost Places Soundscape: Lake Learmonth

The lost place I decided to base my soundscape on was Lake Learmonth. When thinking of a lost place the ABC Pool website mentioned ideas about dried up rivers. As a child I remember going to the lakes that surrounded Ballarat, one in particular was Lake Learmonth. Unfortunately due to drought and lack of rain fall the lake dried up. There was a caravan park that used the lake for recreation purposes and due to the lack of water the caravan park and surrounding shops lost business, as the lake could no longer be used. Therefore lake Learmonth became a lost place.

When researching my soundscape I looked into several different things, how to record my sounds, how to effectively put them together, what sound qualities did I want, what did I want to audience to hear? In [i]Notes On Sound by Robert Bressing, he states ‘What is for the eye must not duplicate what is for the ear’. I took this theory on board and decided to capture sounds of what the lake would of sounded like when it was full and in use. Sounds like children laughing, water sounds, birds and ducks, people in the water, wind and footsteps on a pier. I wanted the sounds to resonate qualities of being organic, full and deep, textural and dynamic but I also wanted to create a visual in the mind of the listener. I tried to find sounds that evoked feelings inside me and reminded me of that place. I recorded my own sounds using my IPod and external microphone as well as used sounds from [ii]freesound.org. When designing my soundscape I thought lots about the visuals and how I could contrast them to the audio. One important key technique I used was the use of space when recording my sounds and the colouring that space has on the overall sound. In the piece [iii]Theory of the Film: Sound by Bela Balazs, she states ‘every sound has a space bound character of its own. The same sound sounds different in a small room, in a cellar, in a large empty hall, in a street, in a forest, or on the sea.’ She goes on and uses the example ‘A sound recorded in a cellar remains a cellar sound even if it is played back in a picture theatre’. I used this theory of sound when recording my own recordings of water, tree rustling, footsteps and grass. Darebin Parklands in Alphington was a perfect place to do these recordings, as it is a very similar space to that of the lake and therefore would provide similar colouring and space. Once I had recorded these sounds I went in search of the sounds I was missing. I found it very difficult to create my own recordings of wind, as the microphone I was using would make the sound distort. I was also unable to record thunder, as there were no thunderstorms occurring at the time. I found the sounds I needed such as wind, thunder, children laughing and boats on [iv]freesound.org from the artists sazman, ERH, RHumphries, WIM and sailor 55. Their work is currently under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License which means according to [v]creativecommons.org, I can ‘sample, mash-up, or otherwise creatively transform this work for commercial or noncommercial purposes’. I can also ‘perform, display, and distribute copies of this whole work for noncommercial purposes’ just as long as I ‘attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor’.

In relation to the production of my soundscape I started by researching other soundscapes on YouTube and the ABC radio program The Night’s Air. I found the Soundscapes on [vi]The Night’s Air program such as Cones, rods and tubes relied heavily on the use of narrative. This type of design didn’t appeal that much, as I was not planning to use any sort of vocal narrative in my Soundscape. On the other hand the [vii]YouTube soundscape Amazon Rainforest (No Music) by Jkiltz used natural sounds that created the feeling of being in the Amazon Forrest. There are a range of different sounds you can hear in the piece such as insects, water, frogs, animals as well as plants and grass rustling. I liked this soundscape because it essentially embodied what I wanted to do with mine; take you to another place. The only thing I didn’t like about this soundscape was that it didn’t have any sort of progression; it stayed at the same pace.

I used Logic Express to put my Soundscape together and employed some of the techniques from [viii]Creating Rich Soundscapes with Organic and Electronic Sounds by Mo Volans. These techniques included fades and transitions and layering. I not only added fades to the end of the piece so that it did not sound abrupt or make an unpleasant sound but also to let the listener know that it had finished. I also used fades to transition the duck noises in and out of the piece so it sounded natural. Layering was used throughout my soundscape to help build sounds and create a sense of place. All together there was fourteen different layers in the piece. Some layers were placed together whereas others followed on from each other. I wanted to give off the effect of movement and stillness and did this by using volume automation and panning so that some sounds would sound further away and some would sound closer.

Overall through research and listening to other soundscapes I have created a soundscape that tells a story of what Lake Learmonth used to sound like before it became and empty lake bed. I would of liked to have made the soundscape longer than one minute so I could create further progression and sense of place throughout the piece. On the other hand the time limit gave creative direction and helped me project thoughts of that lost place across quickly and more directly. Lake Learmonth is a lost place but hopefully this soundscape brings back memories of the lake to those who remember it when it was full. I also hope it resonates something to those who might not be familiar with the lake but have their own personal story about something that is lost.

By Maddg

Lost Places POOL Page

Bibliography

[i] Notes On Sound by Robert Bresson http://www.filmsound.org/articles/bresson.htm

[ii] www.freesound.org

[iii] Theory of the Film: Sound by Bela Balazs

http://lavender.fortunecity.com/hawkslane/575/theory-of-film.htm

[iv] www.freesound.org

sailor 55: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=80733

sazman: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=28500

ERH: http://www.freesound.org/usersViewSingle.php?id=215874

RHumphries: http://www.freesound.org/usersViewSingle.php?id=1112