The Spaggat Sauce Soundwalk.

When my uncle called me on Saturday and asked me if I wanted to make «une sauce à spaggat» with the fresh tomatoes he harvested, I told him that I couldn't since I had an assignment to do over the weekend. Thinking about the fact that I would spend some great family time and have spaggat sauce (the regional Québécois version of spaghetti sauce) for years, I called him back and decided I would use the sounds of the preparation of this oh-so-delicious spaggat sauce for my soundwalk. Plus, since he lives out of the city, I thought I could record really interesting outdoor sounds (which I recorded between two rain showers...)

The point of this project for me was to familiarize with Protools and the sound recording techniques. The software and the device were both new to me and I thought I'd keep my creativity for when I'm at ease with the technologies. I really wanted to keep the narrative as simple as possible and record the clearest sounds. My uncle, besides being an excellent cook, has been a great helper on that project. While he cooked my spaggat sauce, I recorded as many sounds as possible. Since I had no idea how my narrative and the quality of the recordings would come up, I made sure I had more than enough sounds.

The visual component of a sound really adds to its power (Alten, 4). For this assignment, I really emphasized on the clarity of the sounds and their association with a particular mental imagery. Some sounds appear to be very similar to others(boiling water and caramelizing onions) and I didn't use them in my project. Once again, my goal was to make it as clear and audible as possible. I also really became aware of the emotional part of a sound and its power. There's one in particular (my uncle stirring the sauce) that sounds very viscous, it makes me have the quivers everytime I hear it and there's really nothing I can do to prevent that reaction. Furthermore, when I recorded sounds at the grocery store, I can hear a child babbling to his mom on one of the ambient recordings, it adds sunshine in the moment and I can't help myself but smile. Not only did I wanted people to have a visual image of the sounds I recorded but also be able to identify their source (Chion, 29).

I use the microphone for most of my recordings, whether I would record ambient sounds or isolated ones. On standby, I usually tried to find the clearer way to record the sound and leave the microphone in place for the recording. For example, to record my footsteps, I left the microphone hanging down and walked the most natural way possible. For the chopping sound, I placed the microphone above the action to get the most of the sound.

The only thing that bothered me with this assignment was trying to get rid of human voices in the background of any ambient sound. In my uncle's backyard this was something feasible. But, recording ambient sounds in a public place without hearing anyone is quite a challenge. I thought about the people in my class who decided to record ambient sounds in an urban setting and wondered if they had the same problem. At the same time, I found it really interesting to reflect on noise pollution and the fact that we are constantly bombarded with sonic stimuli. When you think about it, sounds become noises and omnipresent becomes pervasive. I mean, when do our ears take a break? Like ... never. Doing this assignment made me want to escape to the most silent place in the world and spend a couple of hours there with my ears. I now think they deserve it.

In the first post, I said I thought I was hyper-aware of the presence of sounds my surroundings. After a post-assignment introspective work, this idea has taken a quite different form. We have that saying in french: « Y'a rien que les fous qui ne changent pas d'idée!» I mean, I'm still extremely aware of noises around me and they still bother me as much (that's why I have my earphones on in a quasi-autistic manner)but I realized that I wasn't paying much attention to the construction of soundtracks in the media. As if, because the stimulus is always there, I take what I hear for granted. I think being aware of the work behind the recording of sounds really adds depth and texture to the understanding of a work and my readings of those works will definitely change from now on.