Media Sound Culture Music
Ramp to I-490 W from Culver Road in Rochester, NY; morning. Cars can be heard passing by at various speeds, with moments of heavier traffic. The sound of the damp pavement makes the tires on the road more audible. Recorded on a Zoom H6.
Room 424 labeled "Mechanical" in the Frederick Douglass Building at the University of Rochester River Campus. Something sounds behind 424's locked doors and remains sounding 24/7.
Electric guitar with vibrato and reverb--perhaps the most "normal" sounding. Reverb cranked all the way up makes the signal sound as if it were in a big empty room and far away, while the vibrato cuts in and out creating a choppy effect, or the effect of a rotating speaker.
Electric guitar and ring modulator. The ring modulator takes he signal from the guitar and feeds it a low frequency oscillator, creating the vibrato effect, and the ring modulator, which essentially produces new frequencies around the given frequencies. The results is often wild, microtonal inflections sweeing in and out of our auditory soundscape.
Electric guitar with flanger and chorus. With both the flanger and chorus signal 100 percent "wet" the oscillations are deeply felt; the rate of oscillation, however, is relatively slow so the listener can "feel" their way through the timbral changes.
Electric guitar with reverse delay pedal. The reverse delay takes the signal and plays back short phrases in reverse order. With the repeat volume at max and no decay, the effect created is essentially high frequency feedback and uncontrollable repetition.
Electric guitar with synthesizer/fuzz. The signal is simultaneously distorted and dropped in pitch one or two octaves, depending on attack and tone (and basically whatever the pedal feels like doing). Recorded on a Zoom H6.