Audio Hardware & Software Response

1. Discuss your experiences with building your microphones. Was this process more or less what you thought it would be? How did your microphone rig work on your Drift walks? Were you able to capture both overall ambiance and extreme closeups? Describe your ideal microphone and recorder setup, with unlimited time and money.

Building the microphones required an amazing amount of patience, but I am very pleased with their performance. The most difficult part was the soldering as I managed to burn myself frequently. While I didn’t clip my microphones to objects, I did use them on walks clipped to my jacket sleeves; I was able to get different noises just by separating them that much. I focused a lot on “close” noises, but the ambient walks sounded just as nice. I’m not very familiar with other sorts of mics and recording devices, and for what it’s worth, I would be happy to just continue using them.

2. How was your experience with operating the MiniDisc recorder? How does this recorder compare to other audio equipment you've used? In an ideal world, how would your recorder of choice function?

It took me quite awhile to get used to operating the MiniDisc recorder, and I feel like I missed a lot of potentially great recordings while I was figuring it out. After I got the hang of it though, I enjoyed using it and my recordings sounded great. The only other recording equipment I’ve used was an old tape recorder, so my experiences are fairly limited. I wouldn’t mind using a simpler model of the MiniDisc recorder; that would be my ideal.

3. Discuss the audio-editing software you chose and your history with this application. If you used this software for the first time, explain why you chose this particular application and how you think it helped you to accomplish your creative goals (or proved detrimental). Will you use this software again for future projects?

I chose Audacity as I feel it’s the easiest to utilize: especially for someone as inexperienced as myself. I’ve had some history with it because it came with my USB turntable and the songs are imported into it during the process. It was probably the most painless part of the Drift 1 assignment and I’ll certainly be using it again in the future.