Freesound Forums

Hello everyone,

on saturday 13th of september there will be a REALLY massive recording of a crowd (directed by a standup commedian), for freesound.
this recording is hosted at Odegand: (warning, REALLY crappy site)
http://www.festivalgent.be/Programma/1001nachtenfeest/OdeGand/tabid/116/language/nl-BE/Default.aspx

We expect between 6000 and 10000 people.

So, here's the question. If you were directing THAT many people what sounds would you want them to make?

- Bram

Besides the typical crowd sounds like cheering, clapping, booing, laughing and yelling I would let them also do things like:

*Imitation of Birds
*Breathing in sync - needs to be conducted
*clapping in sync with accelerando and ritardando - needs to be conducted
*singing on one note for 2 minutes
*stomping with their feet in sync and non sync
*long ahhhhhhssssss/uhhhhs/ohhhhs with a glissando - like a sigh of relief - in sync

#one or two claps / ...
#one or two footprints / ...
#and everyone calls once "we love freesound" // ...cya

<2°TRo²³

To quote myself from http://www.freesound.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=835&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=51:

Do this with balloons:

1. Give each person two large balloons (deflated) and a thumbtack or pin
2. Have them put the thumbtack in one pocket and one balloon in the other pocket
3. Start the recorders
3. Have them blow up a balloon simultaneously, but don't tie them off (balloon blowing sound + laughter)
4. Have everyone let go of their balloon simultaneously ("plllfffllltttt" sound)
5. Have everyone blow up their other balloon simultaneously (repeat of step 3), but tie it off this time
6. Ask everyone to throw their balloon into the air, and let people hit them back up, bouncing them around the crowd (sound of balloons being hit + laughter + a few balloon pops)
7. After they start to get tired of hitting the balloons (could take a while), ask each person to grab a balloon and pull the tack out of their pocket
8. Have everyone pop their balloon simultaneously

I was recently in a theater where they did this as a simple way to engage and relax the audience while they were waiting for the show to start (without the pllfffllttt or popping part). People really got a kick out of it.

- I would have them do riots, yells, precise people
- I would have them do small talking
- I would have them do cheers and applause...

just ideas... of a sound designer

Panic would be nice and you would place mics in distance as overheads or maybe even an INA5 compatible system or similar for surround. Then you would have several people running through the masses, equipped with mics for direct voices that fly by. This can then be used for so many nice things.

..another sound designers idea

I just love it

Ok hmmm

Consideering the ammount of people involved, there are some sounds from the past 2 massive recordings that would be worth repeating.

As in:

-screaming
-sheeps beeeeeee baaaaa beee
-kissing each other smuacksmuacksmuick
-zoo, as in each person chooses an animal and performs its sound
-military march singing "sound must be free"
-wargame , just tell them they have all kinds of guns and ask them to shoot each other... Fiuuuuuu BOOM, bang bang, baKoooM, ratatatatatat...
-zombies!!! (yes, THAT sound)
-each one sings his/her favourite song, everybody at the same time
-massive orgasm

Also:

-divide the audience in two (is it possible?) and make them yell at each other by turns to see who makes more noise (they'll love it)
-just ask them to stay in total silence (they can't, and it may not be a great sound, but it'll be fun for them)
-hysterical laughter (fake or not, isn't he a comedian?)
-conductor chooses a consonant as in Z, Breath in hhhaaaAAAA , and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz as much as they can
-alternatively conductor chooses a consant and a vowel (i.e. z and a), Breath in, then Zzzzzzzzzz (hand gesture) AAaaaaaa ZzAaaZaZAZAZA aaaaAAAAAAA
-Say things breathing in instead of breathing out (like Freesound) you know what i mean ?
-

On FX:

-You may ask them to do the wave, starting at the back of the room (room?) going all the way to the scenario and going back again. With "the wave" i mean rising both arms and screaming at the same time. They may need to turn around alltogether to see when the wave is coming, or you can just start at the front and go to the back instead. I don't know how microphones are placed, but this could make a nice moving sound...

And, btw, what kind of recording system is it going to be used ?

Rock on.

If it could be arranged get everyone to simultaneously receive a call on their mobiles. :?

Everyone gets a number on entering-1,2,3 or 4 (shared equally at random).......
1and 2 shout YES! 3and 4 reply NO!
1,2and 3 shout YES! 4 reply NO!
1 shouts YES! 2,3 and four reply NO!

......just make sure the stand-up comedian has some good jokes if this gets outta hand :lol:

By the way, this is the place where the recording will take place (might help in getting ideas):
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Gent_-_Graslei_Korenlei_1.jpg
It will be almost dark by then though.

Just made me think that it would be nice to also have it recorded through an underwater microphone.

How did this go? What happened? What is the Freesound link hmmmmm?

Sadly enough the recording went bad The guys doing the audio had set up only directional mikes, and -although I had hoped they would still give enough ambience- the overall recording sounded like "a few people making sounds and a LOT of background noise". Additionally 300 Spanish people seem to be able to produce more noise than 4000 Belgians, a fact which does not completely surprise me.

I think the very open space also spread the energy from the sounds too much.

After the freesound session there were a concert and then fireworks and those recorded much better. I'll be uploading the fireworks.

I'm quite sad that the recording didn't go that well, I had hoped for better.

- Bram

Yell:
POWER TO THE PEOPLE

ah, shame - oh well, live and learn. Next year can have better recording