Field recordings of Central
This recording mainly focuses on field recordings from Ma On Shan to Central and from Central to other areas. When making this recording, I used a Zoom H3 VR to record ambient sounds from the day’s itinerary in Ambisonic format. This recording was mainly done by recording and adding the sounds of people driving in the bustling urban area of Central to bring out the feeling that Hong Kong people live in a fast pace, always in a hurry and noisy. It also expresses the feeling of escaping the hustle and bustle of the city by recording sounds from Central to other quieter areas. In addition, I also want to bring out some unique elements of Hong Kong through this recording, so that the listeners can feel like they are in the bustling city of Hong Kong.
In order to bring out this effect, I made a series of sound itineraries that I wanted to include, and chose to include them on Fridays, so that I could include the more prosperous sounds of the Central community. Regarding the itinerary, I recorded the sound of the bus departing, the sound of office workers having lunch in the Central community, the noise in the restaurant, the sound of the
Hong Kong tram that embodies Hong Kong characteristics, and the sound of the boat heading to the pier to board the boat. The entire collection process covers the sounds from noon to nighttime in Central District, and some sounds that may not be noticed in ordinary life were discovered.
In order to create a transition between noisy and quiet sounds, I divided the sounds during the trip into three parts. The first part starts with the quiet environment on the bus, and the second part is the voices of citizens in Central. The sound of the restaurant and the sound of the restaurant represent the noisy part. The third part is composed of the sounds of trams running, boats and birds around the pier. This part represents the longing for tranquility.
During the editing process, I arranged the location of the itinerary, starting with the bus boarding sound and the announcement sound. I used room-encoder and CoordinateConverter to create a sense of space in the bus and used MultiEQ for this part of the sound. Edit the timbre of your voice to create a quieter and calmer sound. I also used the same method of creating a sense of space in the sound of the restaurant. Immediately after the sound of the bus are the sounds of the Central zebra crossing and the sounds of passing pedestrians. These two sounds are noisier than the quiet space inside the bus, but quieter than the sounds of the restaurant. Therefore, this audio is used to connect the transition between the two quiet and noisy areas of the bus and the restaurant. After the noisy sound of the restaurant, I also connected the sounds of pedestrians on some quieter sections of road and the sounds of Hong Kong trams to prepare the way for the next sound to the pier. These sounds are calmer than the noisy ones at the beginning, so they are also well connected to the sounds of waves encountered on the pier, the sounds of boats docking and the sounds of birds. I also used Stereo-encoder for these three sounds to create the difference in distance between the sounds heard from the left and right sides. And thus, through such layout, it creates the effect of stepping into the noisy urban area and escaping from such a noisy world.
Reference
Michael G Wagner. (2021, June 23). Creating a realistic Doppler effect with IEM RoomEncoder [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr98U52C9N0
sadnoise. (2023, July 10). IEM Stereo Encoder in Reaper (Binaural) [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiBVtMYHA-Y