Design: Sounds

I want Akiniscope to hum, click and whir, like all sorts of gizmos are working inside. But subtly, so you only realise, once close, I don’t want it to dominate a space it’s shown in. Having worked in an Arts centre, I don’t want it to be annoying to invigilators in a gallery, if it ever gets shown in one. Well, maybe there will be a few louder sounds, as it’s doing something, like taking a picture.

I’ve been hunting and listening for sounds that might match, nice organic sounds that match the size and materials of the Akiniscope. I did try making some sounds. I couldn’t find a warning sound, so decided to record myself making the sound, with my mouth. But, after altering in various ways, it still doesn’t sound right, to me, so the hunt for that sound continues.

The sounds have all been recorded with a Tascam DR-60D audio recorder and a RØDE NTG-2 microphone. There may be some sounds recorded on my phone, but not so far.

Once recorded, I tidy up the audio in Audacity. If I need some blending of multiple sounds, I have Waveform on standby, but haven’t needed it yet.

At the time of writing I have most of the sounds recorded, but still have a few elusive candidates for some audio tasks. I’ll do a blog about each sound.