Field recording is a favourite of mine.
Like everything in audio, it is prohibitively expensive - in equipment, travel and time. However, it is mandatory for high quality videogames, film, documentaries or other media.
-
Nature and ecological recording is astoundingly meditative. No environment will ever bore the attentive listener; there's so much to hear.
You may be aware sound is important for emotional wellbeing.
Consider the wild phenomena of organised pressure waves - music. No other concept can gather so many diverse people of any belief system or culture into a gigantic army of emotional regulation.
But are you aware that your immediate and long term acoustic environment is an important factor of health and wellbeing?
-
There are numerous studies demonstrating important physiological changes in human's subject to city and industrial sounds, or natural sounds.
You may feel serene when escaping to the country or a well designed park, but it's rare that a person correctly attributes the critical role of aural processing to this improved wellbeing.
The auditory cortex not only has a sensitive connection to the amygdala, which is why hearing loss can lead to emotional impairment (PLEASE wear earplugs) - but is also tied to memory formation.
I'm sure you are anecdotally aware of this; that song that instantly takes you back to a far distant past, your loved ones voice in a crowd, or that Xbox boot up sound that transports you to playing Halo with your friends in high school...
-
If you have working ears, please keep them working.
Also, consider your acoustic environment, try putting on some ambient rain or birdsong one day.
Â
There is no choice in unconscious processing, you will feel different.
Various acoustic environments recorded on Yorke Peninsula's natural and unnatural landscapes
Red Rock Farm
Coastlines
Weather
Abandoned Buildings
