Audio Hardware/Software Response

I really enjoyed building microphones. Initially I expected the process to be rather difficult, but it turned out to be more detailed than difficult. Learning to solder was really fun, but it took a lot of patience and precision. During my Drift walk, my microphone rigs worked really well, except if I happened to move the microphones during the recording, they picked up a muffled sound that does not sound good. Nevertheless, I was so surprised with how well the microphones picked up sound! I was able to pick up overall ambience, like traffic noise or wind noise, but I was also able to pick up extreme close-ups, such as the flapping of birds’ wings. With unlimited time and money, I don’t think I would change anything about my microphones, in fact. I think they work really well, and I like the idea of homemade things. I suppose that with unlimited time, I would just spend more time on my soundwalk, seeking out the extreme close-up sounds, because I really like the feeling they give.

Overall, my experience with the MiniDisc recorder was positive. It took me a bit of time to figure out how to set the audio to “manual,” but once I got it, it was great. I don’t really mind having to set the audio to manual every time; however, if I had my ideal recorder, I would make it so I wouldn’t have to set that each time. I don’t have a whole lot to compare the MiniDisc recorder to, considering I haven’t used a whole lot of other audio equipment. I was really impressed with how good the sound that the MiniDisc recorder sounded, though. Ideally, I would change the screen of the recorder so it was easier to get around all the Menus, but other than that, I was happy with the MiniDisc recorder.

As for audio-editing software, I chose to use SonicStage and Audacity. Prior to Drift 1, I had never used either of these applications, but I found them to be pretty easy to figure out and use. I chose these primarily because they had good demos, but also because a lot of other people were using these applications, so I could get help if I needed it. I like how easy-to-use Audacity is; this characteristic of it helped me to accomplish my creative goals. For future projects, I will continue to use this software.