I started by laying out all the recordings roughly into Reaper. I also added the sound of a video I had taken of my bath fully draining. As this was the longest recording and had a clear end (drain gurgle), I thought it would make a nice base to layer the rest of the clips onto. As I tried to do so I realised two or three groups/types of recordings emerged. These were ones relating to water flowing, outdoor ambience/texture and musical. There was overlap as well, especially as some of the recordings are not static. (By that I mean I moved around when taking the recording – closer or further from the source)
I don’t usually feel compelled to include my voice in my sound work but i did this time around perhaps as this was quite different to usual. Maybe the intimacy.
I think it was a bit of a coincidence really. The day I started working on arranging the recordings I drowned a spider in the shower. It felt strangely significant and I was feeling quite down, so I wrote a little something in my notes app:
I washed a spider down the drain today
Not something I usually do
It felt cruel
But at least I felt something
I think I wish I was the spider
No I think I already am the spider
I then recorded myself reading/acting this a few times in the voice notes app again and added the two that worked best with the slight melancholy tone of the piece. As I did this I was reminded of the real/recreation theme. It might be on the nose for some having a itsy bitsy spider like poem? read over gargling drain noises but i thought the feelings matched.
I found it quite difficult mixing this due to the fact I was keeping everything quite quiet. This meant subtle changes of the volume caused noticeable difference in which track stood out. It also sounded very different from headphones, from monitors, from my computer speakers so was a balancing act. Also as the recordings themselves didn’t have stable volumes I had to use automation to work with the natural shape of the clips and piece as a whole.
The way I arranged it meant there was a natural crescendo to a peak in the middle then a gradual fading out. I also added a drop out (tried two decided just one) of all but the bath draining a bit after the peak to essentially remind the listener of its constant presence in the background. As well as again playing with the theme of reality.
Other than that the clips remain mostly unedited and run the full length of how it was recorded except cutting some beginnings and ends. I eq-ed each track to emphasise the frequencies of the recording I wanted to stand out, as well as making sure its not too muddily especially in the low end when played all together. I thought about adding reverbs and delays to create a dream-like effect but decided against it to keep the iphone microphone quality.
I also panned various tracks to lessen clashes such as the karaoke singer and young folks at the club. I also ended up not using the taiko drum, cd skipping and pub ambience as they were either too rhythmic or too noisy in a muddled way which made them stand out too much.
I realised near the end that whilst I had been using the sound from the video of the bath, the video was still attached and could act as a visual accompaniment. However not something too interesting to take away from the sound (like watching pint dry – like watching a bath drain). So I used a free online video compressor and chose the lowest possible video quality it will compress to to abstract the image slightly. I also liked that it was a portrait video like a phone screen bringing it back to the everyday aspect and lofi authenticity of a phone.
Another way I did this was after I had finished mixing the final product, as well as bouncing it to a wav audio and mp4 video, I recorded the full piece again from my speakers to my iphone on of course voice notes. Therefore there are 3 different final versions. I also thought about layering this under the existing piece, I guess I could repeat this cycle in an Alvin Lucier sort of way.
Re-recording it also added noise in and outside my bedroom I’m working in, creating a new memory voiced into existence by a voice note. Playing with artistic process is something I’m interested in doing and going further with, creating multiple versions and revisions of previous work.