For our Comm Lab assignment this week, Alex and I had to record and play with audio. This is something that I hadn't done before. We started out with a couple of M1 recorders, shotgun microphones and headphones. Our original idea was to head out to Washington Square Park and walk around next to each other with the microphones held out to opposite sides, effectively trying to create a 'surround sound' experience. It was a good place to start, but I don't think either of us we were enamored with the results. We then headed into Bobst to try and capture some interesting sounds in there. We started recording before we walked through the revolving doors, then on the elevator and walking around one of the floors. There were snippets of conversation and other ambient noise, but nothing too interesting. While we were in there, we played around with sounds like the scratching of hair, the flipping of book pages and other sounds. It turned out that my recording levels were a bit low and most of this was not usable. I think we were both inspired by the next class and started tossing around ideas for how to create music using only voices. Alex explained to me the concept of the fugue and that became the foundation for the next round of recording. Armed with the same equipment, we walked around the floor asking people to read the line, "Sometimes it's so loud in here that I can hardly hear myself think." This was a great phrase because it had the homonyms 'here' and 'hear' as well as a good rhythm. With about 10 different voice samples, we had to edit them in Audacity We then used GarageBand to put it all together. Audacity was much better for actually trimming and manipulating the pieces but I found GarageBand much simpler for repeating sounds and the construction of the final cut. So here it is: