Freesound Forums

Hey all. This site is awesome for sound effects, big thanks to all who upload stuff.
I was wondering though, why do people record things? There are some really random sounds on here, why do people whip out their mics for them!?

Well it's a question i've often had to answer. If you try to see it the other way around, and not only as recording sound. See it as if you capture a moment you can't capture once more. See it as a snapshot of what's around you in the present, just like a picture.

Why do we take pictures?
To preserve a moment, for one reason or another.

It's just interesting to capture the sound and be aware of the surrounding world. As time passes, it becomes something else too, i think. Just like photography, some take it further than to just taking a picture of a tree (or what ever) they like. That's the same with those weird people here on freesound It's just phonography we like instead, and to share the surroundings of our recordings with a picture is something a lot of us do also. Take a look over at flickr

But to put a long explanation into the short category; we record because we like it, whether it's field recordings, planned recordings, studio recordings or what have we. We just like to record the moment and share it!

(at least that's my side of the story )

I'm mildly RGB color blind and thusly feel I was cheated out of a life in film and painting.

No...

I couldn't have said it better than what Kyster for how it applies to myself.

Recently I was going through my sound archives, from recordings meant for music; consisting of takes/overdubs, instrument and vocal recordings, or whatever bit and bobs got laid down when I intentionally or accidently pressed record. Most of it is only there because I never bothered getting rid of it so long ago. The surprises are not in what I was trying to record, but in the pre and post-roll, and the scratched takes: funny mistakes, inopportune phone ring, voices from people I may not know anymore. Or just their guitar strum.

I don't know. I just live more in sound than vision. I always had trouble sleeping at night. I owned a Walkman.

I don't feel like I'm more focused on sound than should be normal. It's natural. Sound is the one sense always with us, even to sleep even when unwanted. It's vibration. Should we not feel it more?

I like the idea of reminding myself of the wonder of everyday sounds that usually one doesn't think much about. I like being able to think of an emotion and make an attempt to create that emotion through sound, sometimes by accident it becomes something totally different. I agree with Kyster that very often I think of recording (in particular field recording) as sound photography and I approach it in a similar way that I want to create a moment and frame the shot to exclude certain things and include others.
Before if found Freesound I didn't really think much about sound and to be honest this website totally changed my perceptions on how I look and listen to things and that really excites me and I hope to share that excitement with others.

Corsica_S wrote:
Before if found Freesound I didn't really think much about sound and to be honest this website totally changed my perceptions on how I look and listen to things and that really excites me and I hope to share that excitement with others.

I think there is great wisdom in these words. They probably apply to a great number of people here at Freesound (especially the ones recording and uploading sounds).

needsamplesplz, your question is a very personal one, as there are probably many reasons for recording and uploading.
I speak first of what I think is common about Freesound users (especially uploaders). These are people with an interest in sound. You could say it is wierd. But it is no wierder than an interest in painting, photography or sculpture, or many other activities and hobbies.
The internet allows people with similar interests to get connected, build communities and to a certain degree, share creations and experiences. We are fortunate that sound can easily be converted to files that can then be recorded and transmitted over the internet.
In simple terms, many people collect coins or stamps. Many Freesound users collect sounds.

From a personal perspective, Freesound has changed my perception of sound totally. Not overnight, but over the years.
True, I was alwys intersted in sound. Since a young age I attempted to create music with my various (ever more powerfull) computers. As a young kid, I experimented with recording to tape all sorts of experimental sounds I could come up with and also experimented with some electronics projects for 'noisemakers'. I also used to listen to non-conventional music...

But still Freesound has done a lot for me.
Although my interest is still mostly for musical purposes, I now am 'less afraid' to experiment. Try crazzy techniques, just for the fun of producing new sounds - whether or not useable...
I now see a purpose and a use to many sounds at Freesound that I used to think were totally useless rubish.
I have learned that even the noise in a sample can have a musical use, and it can in fact enhance the sound (under certain circumstances, of course).
I think the most amaxing thing is that I have now composed a few pieces of music solely inspired (or initiated) by a single sound - some of these sounds i heard at Freesound. Sometimes that sound itself will not even feature in the piece, but it gave me the idea to build the piece in the first place.

i upload a variety of things. Not a lot of field recordings. Often experimental sounds, sometimes demonstrating a technique on how they were created. Mostly just sounds I think are amazing or interesting or inspiring. Sometimes sounds I think will be useful for others.

Wow guys thanks for your explanations.

Kyster, your picture snapshot analogy makes a lot of sense!

AlienXXX, you said "Although my interest is still mostly for musical purposes, I now am 'less afraid' to experiment. Try crazzy techniques, just for the fun of producing new sounds - whether or not useable..." That's something I'm doing at the moment, I like taking sounds, even mundane ones and messing around with it until something interesting comes out and then incorporating it into music.

I had never really thought about people enjoying sounds outside of music before though (apart from birdsong and the likes) I suppose the sound in a way can be the music itself, and that's quite a beautiful thing actually.

I too thank Freesound's community for all sounds and knowledge shared, and for such interesting discussions.

To record and listen a recorded sound is to me an act of focusing.

I prefer field recording. I'm not a pro, just an hobby. I dislike collections, never thought to collect sounds - but, for fortune, here there are many sounds collectors.

Sounds sound more interesting when it is a recording that is played back. There's something so naughty and deceptive about it. It's like you hear something, without it being there to make the sound. Cheating baby. Yeah. You're wild if you record something and listen to it way away from the location or the source.

I once played back a lion roar on a hidden radio when my family was out camping. Scared them insane. See? Now I don't need a lion to make life horrible for people.

In my case the reasons are very pragmatic. I record sounds because I need them for my work (commercial or not) and in many cases there is a lot of material that doesn't get used. If it's good, it gets in my library and when I'm in good mood I upload something to freesound. It's mostly foley and atmospheres.

This is a way for me to help people who work with sound and sometimes there is no time (or possibility) for them to go to record specific sounds and freesound can save their day.

needsamplesplz wrote:
...
I had never really thought about people enjoying sounds outside of music before though (apart from birdsong and the likes) I suppose the sound in a way can be the music itself, and that's quite a beautiful thing actually.

I agree it's for the similar reasons that we take photographs (street photography or studio). A creative expression of sorts - created by capturing what is available around you. I also record to create an archive of various sounds that I am hearing today for posterity because I know in a few years these sounds won't sound like they do now. These sounds will change, especially the man made ones (for example a street hawker's calls or the chants of a million-strong pilgrims waiting to enter a temple).
There used to be many urban sounds associated with my childhood and growing up years that are not heard any more. I secretly wish my father had this hobby when I was small. I don't want my children to have similar regrets when they grow up.
By the way, as you perhaps can see from my name here - I come from a very noisy city in the world

I record sounds to get evil pleasure from torturing them: I stretch, delay, granularize, filter, distort, bitcrush, freeze, modulate, frequency-shift, compress, reverb and convolute all those poor sounds being incautious enough to be trapped in my well-masked recording device... Mwahahaha!

And seriously: For me recorded sounds are raw material to use in multiple processing steps,
resulting in drones, ambient pads, and other semi-products, used finally in my musical experiments.

Trebblofang

For me, recording and making weird sounds is like a fetish

I am not sure why people would record these sounds, but I'm sure glad they did. I'm working on a CGI movie. Once released I plan on donating sales of the film to charity. I went out and bought a semi-decent headset mic to record with, never thinking of all the nonverbal sounds I would need. So with DAZ Studio, ShareCG,freesound, a few friends,and a lot of patience; a poor man can fulfill his dreams of being a movie producer. Without this site for sound FX I would never have been able to complete this project.