Unlike the Knowledge’s wide open (but perhaps too vague) ambition for members to collect and share any general notes, tips and info relating to sound collecting, ‘Think Tank’ is intended to simply be a melting pot of ideas and inspiration relating to the Club’s specific themes.

People can contribute photos, articles, videos….pretty much anything they want (in as polished or as rough a state as they wish) as long as it informs or inspires members collecting sounds for one of the Club’s themes.

Contributions to Think Tank can be made using Gimme Bar which, if you’d like to contribute, you’ll need to add to your Bookmarks Bar and then you can simply grab images, articles or videos online to add to the pot.  Basically, it’s a sexier and cleverer version of Delicious.

My plan is to invite all members to collaborate with these Gimme Bar collections.  If people add stuff, great but, if not, then I’m happy to treat the collections as my personal scrapbooks for members to dip into as they wish.  For a while, I’ve been looking for a format to enable me to gather together the various notes, vids, drawings or photos that I seem to accumulate in the process of collecting sounds (‘field notes’ if you will, that are sometimes useful to refer back to but seem a bit scruffy and disjointed to publish in an actual blog post) and I’m hoping that Gimme Bar might provide an attractive solution.

This feature is in a very early beta stage so I won’t go to town fully explaining how to use Gimme Bar in this collaborative way just yet – I’ll build up some of the collections a bit first and then send out collaboration invites to all members.  However, if you’re interested in checking out the basic concept a bit further, you can check out my first additions to the pot:  I’ve made a small start on a ‘Trains: Design’ Collection by adding a couple of rough vids and jottings I made whilst recently hunting down a Leaf Blower Train to record.

More info to follow in the coming months via the Home page of the website and Twitter.

Happy New Year all sound collectors!  The first theme of 2012 is inspired by a question posed by Rene Coronado on the Social Sound Design forum just before Christmas, and very well answered by Paul Virostek.

Church Bells has been a popular suggestion on the poll I set up a while back too so I thought I’d finally select it as a new theme.  All different kinds of church bell sounds are welcome:  Close recordings from within bell towers to ambient distant tolls (with the usual proviso that the subject must not be swamped by other ambient noise such as traffic).

A couple of stipulations though:  No handbells.  All bells must be operated by some kind of mechanism rather than being handheld.  Secondly, although I’ve specified church bells as the theme title, recordings of bells attached to any religious building are acceptable.

Oh, and one last thing; whether you record one toll or a dozen, you must get the entire series, i.e. don’t miss the first bell toll or cut off the decay of the last, otherwise the recording can be impractical to use.

Good luck!

I thought it might be good to do our first proper ‘background chat’ theme this month.  I know we have Echo Space but that is more about the space than the human activity within it; in fact, that doesn’t even need to be the sound of people at all. 

I like doing vocal themes because they tend to best exploit the international nature of The Sound Collectors’ Club.  However, this theme doesn’t necessarily have to be all about the chat.  You can also contribute ambient cutlery / glass / crockery tracks recorded in cafes too which are often actually preferable to have separate from chatting customers if possible.  If plates and cutlery are clinking away too predominantly on a chat track, the recording can become a pain to edit for film or TV when you need to avoid such noises clashing with a character’s dialogue.

Coffee machine and hot water blasts are ok to contribute too, for now – as the set grows over time, I may end up dividing it into separate collections but, for the time being, it’s quite useful to keep these elements together.  Especially if, say, a chat, cutlery and coffee machine recording all derive from the same cafe and therefore have matching acoustics.

Also, bear in mind that in the future I may well introduce ‘pub’ or ‘restaurant’ (etc.) themes as well so please pick your locations carefully so that recordings from these separate themes don’t all just blur into one.  I’m thinking of focussing on getting some nice gentle murmur tracks from various greasy spoons in London but there is obviously a wide variety of types (more continental style or street cafes, for example) that you could choose from – simply make sure your choice is distinct from a restaurant or bar / pub.

Lastly, background music or TV / radio in the cafe is a definite no-no!  Sure, sometimes you can barely hear it so could get away with using a recording anyway but, for this occasion, let’s not go there.

Good luck!  No tea slurping once you hit record!

The Night and Day collection is back in action, which means that all Club themes are now back online for members to start contributing to again – but this time with a bit of a difference.  

As 2011 has passed by and the collection has grown, I’ve already begun to think that The Sound Collectors’ Club needs to find a more suitable location to store it’s collections in than Soundcloud.  Soundcloud is great aesthetically and perfect for linking to other social networks and blogs, and I’ll definitely continue to use it for the mp3 samples that can be auditioned in the Browse The Collection page.  However, as a means of cloud storage for an ever-growing sound fx library, it isn’t ideal – the more themes we amass, the larger the amount of ‘secret links’ we’ll have to keep hold of and keep handy for whenever we want to access the collections.  Downloading and then re-loading file metadata is also cumbersome via Soundcloud.  What I feel we need is a form of cloud storage which more closely mirrors the way we store our own sound fx libraries on our work computers.

In my opinion, the application that currently fulfills this brief the best is Sugarsync.  There are many other similar applications but they all seem to fall down on one or more particular function that is essential for the Club to work well by this method.  For example, Dropbox is great, but it requires everyone sharing a folder to have the capacity for the full size of the shared folder in their personal account, which is impractical.  You can get around this by signing up for one of their Team accounts but that costs about £700 which is obviously far too expensive.  

With Sugarsync,  only I need to buy the amount of storage needed to hold the Club’s collections.  I can then share it with all contributors, who only need sign up for the free account.  You will receive an e-mail from me saying that I’ve shared a folder with you;  if you’ve already signed up to Sugarsync you can access it straight away.  If not, you can click on the ‘Sign Up’ link on the e-mail and then let their website lead you through the registering process before returning to the e-mail to access the shared folder.

As soon as you access the shared folder, it will be synced to your desktop  - if you’re on a Mac, it will sync to a new folder in your ‘Documents’ folder.  It isn’t ideal but this folder has to stay in this location in which it is created AND MUST NOT BE EDITED OR ADDED TO!!!  This is because in order for you to be able to sync the folder to your desktop I have to enable you to access AND modify it.  I’m pretty sure better permission controls will come along before long so that I’ll be able to let you access but not modify folders but, for now, please don’t change, move, delete or add to this folder, as it will change the folder for everyone else as well and will get very confusing.  For this reason, please install Sugarsync on your personal computer rather than any shared work one that you might use, in order to minimize this risk (you can still access Club sounds via the internet on shared computers).  However, having said that, I do have backups should any accidents happen and Sugarsync has quite a good ‘undo delete’ system, so it’s not quite as precarious as it sounds.

As is often the way, there are workarounds to these slight flaws:  If it’s a bit of a pain having to go into your ‘Documents’ folder to access the sounds then you can, of course, create an alias of the folder in a more easily accessible location.  However, for now, it’s probably a good thing that the sync folder is tucked out of the way because you’re then perhaps less likely to accidentally edit it.  In my opinion, it’s maybe best to create a new ‘The Sound Collectors’ Club’ folder in your sound fx library then create new folders within that for all the sets that you have access to.  Once you’ve done that you can just use the sync folder in ‘Documents’ to copy new audio to your sound fx library from whenever I tweet that new sounds have been added to the collection.  Please let me know of any other non-destructive workflows you devise to incorporate the Club’s collection into your sound fx library.

So that’s the downloading taken care of!  As for the uploading, we’ll stick with the existing system via Soundcloud for now – I don’t want to throw too many new systems at you all at once so I’ll probably hold fire with any new uploading instructions until the New Year.  I’ll gradually start adding step-by-step instructions or even a tutorial vid to the website to explain the new process (as well as gradually sharing all the other collections) but hopefully, for now, this post will suffice in pointing you in the right direction towards setting up your Sugarsync account then syncing collections to your desktop.  Obviously give me a shout if you have any problems.  

However this system ends up being adapted to suit our needs, I really feel this type of cloud sharing is the future for the Club so do please give it a go.  I think the ideal scenario would be for all Club members to have a dedicated folder (which they can’t erase) somewhere useful on their computer (such as in their fx library or in their menu bar like Dropbox) which auto-syncs whenever new sounds are added to the collection so that you only need to drag and drop them into Soundminer / Audiofinder / etc. from time to time.  Sugarsync may just be the first but vital stepping stone towards that goal – please let me know how you get on with it.

After the last few crazy months, this theme has become a necessity.  Demos, riots, revolutions and protests are going on all over the world but good quality, and commercially usable, sound recordings of these events are currently thin on the ground.

‘Protest’ sounds needn’t be solely vocal.  Sounds of destruction, crowd movement, police activity and general ambiances of areas of unrest are as equally valid as the usual chants and megaphone shouts that we tend to associate with the idea of protests.

@rene_coronado kicks off this collection with a very generous donation of an excerpt of his recording of the Occupy Dallas protest which I’m sure you’ve all read about and listened to over at his excellent blog, the sound my head makes.

Last bit of humble advice – stay safe, and keep what we do in perspective.  Most demos are perfectly safe to go out and record but some, such as the recent London riots, for instance, are way too unpredictable and simply not worth risking your neck for for one lousy sound recording.  I, for one, never had the slightest inclination to go out recording during the riots.

This set’s bound to be quite a slow grower as it can be hard to get good recordings of these events but, over time, I’m hopeful this could become a really unique collection of sounds which are useful for all sorts of different projects.

Ever since collections started staying online and remaining active, new themes have been accumulating tracks more slowly.  With hindsight, this outcome is perhaps obvious – members’ new contributions are getting spread amongst an ever increasing number of themes.  Also, new themes inevitably inspire less urgency to participate before the end of the month when people know that they can join in and grab the collections at a later date when they specifically need them or when they simply have more spare time.

That’s all fine but I think a change is in order to address this ‘imbalance’.  If old themes are still attracting significant interest then perhaps a more steady influx of new themes is necessary.  I’m proposing making themes bimonthly for the time being.

I must admit that, when I’m busy, I do find that the month’s fly by and before I know it (and before I’ve barely had a chance to add a recording) it’s time to come up with a new theme again.  With an extra month for each current theme, I’m hoping it’ll give me more of a chance to explore each subject; posting about my own and other members’ recordings, as well as hopefully making club meetups a more regular occurence (one for every new theme) as well.

Generally, I’m quite a strong believer in the idea of not trying to please everyone otherwise you end up pleasing nobody.  However, on this occasion in particular, I’d be really interested to hear members’ thoughts on this matter so please feel free to leave any comments below.

As the club’s collection expands, it’s inevitable that I’m going to need to come up with different solutions to how we can keep all this audio well organized and easily accessible.  I’ve been thinking for a while now about how best to keep members aware of any new contributions that are uploaded - hence the decision to start tweeting all new uploads.  

However, another solution fell into my lap last week via a Soundcloud newsletter which mentioned a new app called Memolane.  I really like Memolane’s design and the way it displays Soundcloud updates so I’ve decided to use it in the BROWSE THE COLLECTION page (in the menu at the top of this page) to showcase all the MP3 samples of contributions as and when they are uploaded (you can still browse by themes as well if you’d rather).

In this way, if members choose to download en masse intermittently, they can now keep track of what’s been added to the collection since their last visit.  Together with the twitter alerts, hopefully members will find it easier than ever to keep up to date with their copies of the club’s collection.  However, besides being a good inventory tool for existing members, I think it’s also an interesting alternative way for new visitors to the site to investigate and audition the collection too.

Hope you like it !

The Club’s very first theme (from back in November) is now back online for members to start contributing to again.

I’ve re-uploaded any tracks from the old collection that qualify under the current requirements - in other words all those that have some form of vocal ident on.  The contributors of these qualifying tracks have been e-mailed new secret links to the reactivated set and so can gain access immediately.  

Unfortunately, if you originally contributed a track but it hasn’t been re-uploaded then you will need to contribute a new track which meets the current requirements in order to regain access to the set.  If your old track does qualify but you aren’t currently a member of the Club then I’ve got your track on standby ready to add to the set should you join the Club in future.

For those who don’t remember the original brief regarding what sort of rain recordings we’re after, here’s what I originally wrote:

Rather than just ‘rain’, I should perhaps say rain on surfaces, i.e. rain on windows, roofs, pavements, etc. – whatever sounds interesting. Rain on surfaces such as corrugated iron or greenhouses can sound great but in some ways I think it’s a bigger achievement to simply get a great recording of the sound of rain on a window which doesn’t just sound like white noise.

Next up is the old Night and Day set which I’ll try and get re-uploaded as soon as possible too.  Watch this space….

As many of you will know, one of the good things about Soundcloud (and particularly with the Pro account) is the stats it provides you with regarding your uploaded tracks.  

These stats are particularly interesting with regards to the Club due to it’s international nature.  I haven’t posted any geographical info on club activity for a while so I thought I’d upload the above snapshot for those who may be interested.  UK running tings!

I must give credit for the inspiration to @EnosDesjardins and @rene_coronado who were discussing on Twitter the other day how train sounds were amongst their favourite background atmos FX.  I wholeheartedly agree so have decided to make it this month’s theme.

This time around, instead of the close, clean detail that was required for June’s ‘Trains: Design’ collection, we need more distant train sounds that are suitable for use in background atmospheres.  Similarly to the requirements I described for the Street Voices’ collection in July, these train sounds need to exhibit more of the acoustic characteristics of their surroundings but cannot be so distant that they are swallowed up by, for example, urban roar.  

The litmus test with these type of FX is whether they still sound good played at low level (as they will be when used in atmospheres).  If there’s a surge of skyline noise when you fade the train sounds in and out then your chosen location is too noisy or the train is too distant.  

Also, does it still sound like a train when played at low level?  I guess you could call this the ‘What the f*%k is that?’ test!  Imagine people who haven’t heard your train recording before, such as a director or producer, hearing it mixed in with the dialogues, music and atmospheres at a dub.  If it is perceived as an indistinguishable clatter or hum rather than as a distant, evocative train pass, it is very likely to get dropped immediately – and quite possibly with the aforementioned expletive question given an airing too!  In short, try to be objective about what your recording can really add to an atmospheres tracklay.

Personally, I intend to visit various overground London transport locations where I’ve noticed interesting acoustics while travelling around over the last year or so.  For example, the train tracks in Acton station lie at the bottom of a deep embankment; a railway bridge I walked under in Chiswick made a great boomy sound as a train passed over and, just today in Richmond, I noticed a train crossing one of the rail bridges over the river that made a really interesting sound too.  

These are just a few London-based ideas I happen to have had.  However, trains are one of the most sonically diverse forms of transport that exist and rail tracks slice through virtually every different form of landscape in the world so the possibilities should be endless.  Good luck with your collecting!