The excellent architectural resource BLDGBLOG reports that the ruined husk of the recently-demolished Cabrini-Green in Chicago has been transformed into an eerie wind instrument of sorts. Geoff Manaugh writes about the image we see here:

The old tower blocks of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green, transformed by demolition into totem pole-like wind instruments, flute-ruins, a musically-active wasteland whistling to itself behind security fences.

Chicago’s Inner Flute-Ruins [BLDGBLOG]

You know what this means: who in Chicago has a good field recording setup and time to stop by on a windy day? (As a former resident of the area, I know the city can live up to its windy reputation.)

And anyone know of other acoustically-interesting architectural sites from your part of the world?

(Architecture and urban planning buffs will want to stop by the site for discussion of the fact that the buildings were entirely demolished rather than being salvaged, reused, and refurbished.)

Creative Commons advocate and sound designer/musician Marco continues a stream of useful links at his blog Melodiefabriek. The latest: sample libraries composed entirely of Creative Commons-licensed material:

ccMixStar Sample packs
The Freesound Project, CC-licensed sound
via ccMixStar Sample Packs [Melodiefabriek]

What’s great here is that the remix site (ccMixster) is teaming up with sample sound libraries (ccMixStar and Freesound) to create an entire community built around sound, resampling, remixing, and music creation. The Creative Commons license ensures that that community will continue to mix new sounds from its members, in a big, communal, sound sharing universe. I don’t really see these as competition for commercial soundware libraries; instead, they offer a chance to share your music, get your sounds into other people’s work, and take advantage of an alternative sound library that would never exist commercially. If you make music using this stuff, I’m sure we’d love to hear it. Let us know.

While on the topic of locating yourself using sound, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point to Freesound, the fantastic community sound library (currently pushing some 17,000+ Creative Commons-licensed samples). If you’re not yet familar with Freesound, you can broadcast your recordings to the planet, free for use in music worldwide, and pull recordings without attracting the attention of intellectual property lawyers.

Rather than dig through samples by abstract categories, you can use Freesound’s geotags to pull the exact ambience of certain parts of the world. It gives you the power to soak up the vibe of the beach at Playa del Medio without having to actually suffer through . . . erm . . . being at the beach. Okay, bad example. But while there’s the expected bias toward the U.S. and Europe, field recordings are slowly finding their way from other corners of the globe, too.

Aside from samples, it’s not hard to imagine geotags being used to help find musical collaborators near you . . . especially as latency increases over longer distances.

Follow your ears! Yes, there was a time when aural senses were vital to location and geography. In the spirit of resurrecting that spirit, Spencer Kiser’s projects look at new ways of mapping using sound. Full details on his thesis page, but in brief:

Sound maps: Field recordings in Forest Hills, Queens (outside Manhattan) are overlaid with an interactive map of the area. Upshot: drag with your mouse, and you can hear how the sound changes from one intersection to another, rather than just look at the usual visual representation.

Geo-tagging with a phone: This “participatory sound map” (shown below) lets you dial in the soundscape of different locations (here, again, NYC). Vocal representations get the emphasis here; I can see non-abstract applications, like different pizzerias explaining their handicraft, or finally a detailed map of how accents change in the five boroughs of New York. (And yes, locals can tell the difference between someone from downtown Brooklyn and Flatbush, let alone the Bronx and Queens. Now us outsiders can practice.)

Guided by Voices: Wireless headphones lead you through an installation . . . hmm, too bad this isn’t Halloween season, or this could’ve gotten a bit more macabre.

This should give some ammunition to those of you who like using field recordings in your music. Now remix your geo-tagged sound recordings, and you’ve got a musical application for GPS devices, Yahoo Maps, and cell phones . . . why not? And it’s a good reason to listen to where you are; that iPod battery was probably going to run out anyway.

In the ongoing quest for sounds from the hearts of space for use as digital music sources, I give you NASA’s SuitSat. The crew of the International Space Station has equipped the Russian Orlan spacesuit with batteries, a radio transmitter, and sensors; it’ll transmit power and temperature info Earthward. To pick it up, you just need a radio receiver that can be tuned to 145.990 MHz FM. February 3 is the launch, with tracking info posted to the SuitSat Tracking site.

Now this sounds like a sound source even more interesting than the dying hard drive. (More on the results of the latter from Gizmodo.com soon.) Anyone got a good FM receiver to pick this up? Let me know!

If we can get some audio, we can start the remixes. Disembodied space suit tumbling to Earth? There’s probably a whole concept album here.

I look forward to releases of sounds captured in outer space the way some people wait for new album releases. Don Gurnett, the University of Iowa physicist responsible for various space-bound audio instruments and the major advocate for space sound, is the Jagger of the genre. Even the Kronos Quartet has gotten in on the action.

The latest from this physics rockstar: Voyager 1 crossing the Termination Shock, part of the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. (Far out . . . literally.) 6 seconds of strange clicks and pops — and pure music. AFP has a full story on the sound. Via Electronic Musician Extra — keep it coming, Gino!

See Dr. Gurnett’s space audio page for lots more of this, and previous CDM coverage of sounds from Saturn and Titan. (I wound up working the sound of the spacecraft traversing Saturn’s rings, heavily processed in Logic, into a dance score recently. So there’s definitely musical potential.)

Still hungry for space-related sounds? Music Thing this week took a different angle, with music made in space (as in, by astronauts). Peter at MT links to an endless page that covers sounds made in space, sounds from space, and even sounds about space and music for space exploration.

More news from createdigitalmusic

The first Star Wars movie launched a golden age of cinematic design, but not just for visuals — it was sound design’s greatest moment, too. The technology that made all this possible? None other than the humble field recording. (By the way, this is on everyone’s mind — just as I was putting this together, Gino Robair linked from his excellent newsletter for Electronic Musician!)

Armed with a Nagra recorder, sound designer Ben Burtt built many of the now-familiar sounds of Star Wars from ingenious attention to real world sounds. Through masterful editing and enhancement, and the occasional electronic addition, he crafted the sounds we all know and love. Just a few examples:

Tie Fighter: Altered sound of an elephant call.

R2D2: A combination of an ARP 2600 synth and water pipes, whistles, and human vocalizations.

Lightsaber: When the humming idle of simplex projectors wasn’t sufficient, Burtt combined that sound with interference picked up by a microphone from a TV picture tube. For the movement of the blades, he waved his microphones through the air over a speaker. (see extended interview)

Laser gun blasts: Among others, a principle element of the laser blast is the sound of a hammered wire on a radio tower. (Not, as is commonly reported, the wires on the Golden Gate Bridge.) See the full story from Burtt’s chemist dad.

Darth Vader: Some of the effect of Darth Vader’s voice is acheived with a carefully modulated vocoder.

The second trilogy: Burtt has continued the organic sound design in the new movies. One example: the bubbling sound when Anakin sees Watto is boiling liquid nitrogen from Burtt’s father’s lab.

And that’s just the beginning: a motel air conditioner was added to Imperial ships to make the more menacing. The Ewok language was constructed out of layered, re-edited versions of Tibetan, Mongolian, and Nepali. Bears, walruses, dogs, and lions (but mostly bears) became the sound of Chewbacca. Freeway sounds recorded through a tube, electric guitars, electric toothbrushes and razors, dolphins, synthesized sounds (now employing newer synth systems like Kyma), and many others have become Star Wars sounds over the years. Burtt says he was inspired by classic foley work, too; fitting in the original trilogy, which took many cues from classic film.

It took a sound designer with a degree in physics and a lot of imagination to make it all work. Here’s where you can find out more (and if I’ve missed any links or anecdotes, please send them!):

Filmsound.org: Extensive list of stories and links, compiled by Sven E Carlsson

Interview transcribed from the LaserDisc set

Ben Burtt’s bio from StarWars.com

The real story behind the laser guns

Long Q&A with Ben from StarWars.com (covering all six movies).

Incidentally, I’m fairly certain R2D2 is an ARP 2600 but couldn’t find confirmation. And, surprisingly, I couldn’t find details on Darth. Anyone with more info? And what were your favorite sounds?

NASA's Cassini spacecraft was bomboarded with dust particles
that make up Saturn's rings, and the sound against its high-gain
antenna are included in a new video file. Meanwhile, as the ESA's Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument makes its descent to Titan, acoustic sensors pick up audio data posted by ESA as MP3s.

Load up your iPod and enjoy digital sound from space, while we wait for
NASA to try again on the Mars microphone idea. And by the way, the
government agencies' audio is typically public domain, so I expect to
hear your remixes soon. Via our friend Gina Robair of Electronic
Musician (check out their free email lists).