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Hey there.

I'm pondering on the best way to record soundscapes for general research.
I'm not a researcher, I don't actually know what people today or future may want/need.

I could imagine a few things curious people or researchers could want, like comparing city soundscapes with electric cars vs fuel cars, how frequent drone usage was thought the years and how it affects the soundscape, the progression of wildlife, crowds getting bigger or moving from rural to cities or inversely.

Ideally, id record a location none stop all the time. But that's not practical for data storage nor IRL practical reasons.

So far I record stuff kind of at random.
But I presume there could be some theory to set a effective net of recordings.

For example, work days probably ressemble themselves, A monday is probably really similar to thursday. And within those days, 10am is probably similar ish to 11am, but 8 o clock would be rush hour and maybe a drastically different to 10am.

So if one had 12h of recording time in a week. Probably best to record a work day, and the weekend. Recording 1h of night, rush hour, dinner time, afternoon work, evening rush hour, late evening.
Then the week after do the same thing but on other days, maybe shifting the recordings by half an hour.

For a nature soundscape, it's probably easier. Night, early morning, afternoon, dusk. Will probably capture the most varied wildlife. Week days wouldn't matter but maybe a sunny day vs a cloudy day would be a thing to keep an eye for. Repeat once a month. to have that rough idea of wildlife soundscape throughout the year.

There's probably a balance of overlapping cycles, (does a monday rush hour sound the same as a tuesday rush hour etc...) but also needing to vary where we are in the cycle (recording the very start of people going to work vs the end of rush hour.)
While also keeping in mind special events/times.
Also recording 10-20min takes regularly is probably better than one 24h recording once a year.

I know this is overthinking, and ideally just record more, I'm going to do this on my freetime and willingness anyway But I'm still curious if there's some official theory or study behind something like this.

Similar thread, for mic setup https://freesound.org/forum/production-techniques-music-gear-tips-and-tricks/44901/?page=1#post104083

People who wake up early usually wake up around 7:30 PM (Morning, during this time my family is asleep.) And go to sleep at 10:00 PM I think, people who like to wake up late get more rest, and usually wake up around 1 AM, and go to sleep at 12 AM, I think, and on weekends, most kids and people (Not including parents.) are probably doing their free time, stuff they want, but lately, parents have been afraid of their kids being kidnapped, so parents isolate their kids in the house and give them an electronic, I doubt most kids use this website, so it's pretty rare to find recordings of kids on this website, because also outside kids aren't really there, but most kids aren't homeschooled, so if you record near a school, you might get some recordings with kid sounds, it's mostly adults outside, parents don't go outside because they have to take care of their children. So it's more likely if you're recording outside in a crowded place, you'll mostly get recordings of adults, no parents, no kids.

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Also, there are a lot of different variations and factors in one's schedule, someone could be taking a day off on their work, some kid could be playing in the playground if their parents let them, so you can't always predict what happens in the recording and if two recordings outside sound the same successfully.

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hi @Sadiquecat @luamoon and others

You actually say it yourself; The world is unpredictable.

The most important thing for good sound recordings is first of all to enjoy your hobby of soundscaper.

What curious people, researchers or science wants now or in the future is not predictable. Still, like you perhaps, I try to serve science without knowing what its needs are.

If you want to serve science it is good to know that science needs facts. That which you record must be verifiable. That which you record must be repeatable.

I have a fanatical and structured tendency to record everything I can reasonably record. If that turns out to be of some use to science, that's great for me and great for them.

What do I record in the freesound file text;

The filename of my audio files always includes the date and sequence number of the audio recording; January 1, 2015 I record as 150101_0234. year, month, day and sequence number. This makes each file unique and retrievable.

For outdoor recordings, I also insert freesound's maps.

In a document on my phone I have saved the following data list which during the (usually long) sound recordings I fill in as much as possible. I send it to my e-mail so that I can update the list at home with missing data.

This is an example of the list I use by default;

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Link to a picture of the location. So it shows on freesound.
Link to all recordings of same filename.
Link to recordings at other times at same location.

Date/time: January 29th 2024, 1:05 pm

Weather: 6-8c, sun, wind E 2-10 km/h, 1023 hPa, humidity 69%, visibility 10 km, dew point 0c, cloud ceiling 1 km

Location; river dike near Sint Corneliusweg, village Bokhoven, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands (Holland), Europe GPS: 51.73883 5.23097

Gear chain: Sennheiser mkh30/50 MS, in Rycote cyclone small, windjammer > Sound Devices 302 >Tascam dr-100 Mk2. Audacity > Decoded Mid-side to STEREO, MID channel +3 dB.

Original MS-track 48/24 available for motivated pro's and artists.

If any of these sounds have been of help, and you are feeling charitable, please do consider donating to Freesound to help keep the site running (a link is also on the home page). Any donations are greatly appreciated!

YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO CREDIT/ATTRIBUTE me (klankbeeld) and freesound.org in your work if you use this sound.
Please do it like this if possible: https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/

This sound may NOT be used in (royalty free) stock material. Don't put my raw sounds/files on youtube or anywhere else. You can use them in creative way as a part of art-form, but not "re-distribute" as (royalty free) stock material.

Thank you.

------
END OF LIST

I often use the last digits of the GPS location as a search term for places where I have made earlier recordings. (Omit the first digits and the dot otherwise the search in freesound goes wrong).

Look for yourself with this search term: 40050 12307

And ...... the most important thing I do is make a unique document of each sound recording on my computer. Of course with the same date structure as the sound recordings (150101). The advantage is that you can easily cut and paste to new documents.

And find yourself a great way to tag the freesound recordings.

Try to ask yourself how someone is going to search and make that TAGS.

summarized
Is what I do perfect? No, of course not, but it is a (especially for me) searchable structure.
You see, you can make it as crazy as you want. But, if you work in a stuccoed way, after years people are going to naturally approach you with questions for science. Because of my structure, I can often help them quickly on their way. But often they send a message that they themselves have already used my years of data.

Nice anyway.

Good luck in your efforts to structure.

My mom doesn't let me spend money because I am 9

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@luamoon

Tell your mother it's good for your development to get involved in a hobby. Apparently you are interested in sound. You really don't have to start with expensive gear. If necessary, use an old smartphone to record sound. Any contribution from you may prove important later.

I would be happy to have a grandchild interested in recording sound. Better than playing games on tiktok all day.

Keep convincing your mother. Just say that grandpa klankbeeld says so
As a little boy, I was also defied with a simple tape recorder that my father bought for me.

https://nfor.nl/index.php?mode=thread&id=257313
Even with such an old tape recorder, you can make the first recordings.

Btw Your little voices have already been a nice start.

Keep on practicing girl. Never give up.

luamoon wrote:
My mom doesn't let me spend money because I am 9

Thanks for your input @klankbeeld!

@luamoon
One can do great recordings with even just a smartphone.
However, if you can get a Zoom H1e with wind shield and a small tripod or "magic arm" (small rig makes a good one), that would be a really fantastic and relatively cheap setup. Less than 150€ (I know 150 isn't in everyone's reach. But for audio gear, that's a great value for the quality you can get out of it)

I have a younger sister, around your age. And I for one would be thrilled as ever if she got into a creative hobby and knowing this one, Id instantly get her that kit if she showed interest. (Sadly haven't seen her for a long time, and haven't given her a proper introduction to the hobby :c)

I meant that I cannot donate to freesound

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Don't worry about that, each their own contributions
Positive vibes, cool recordings, monetary donations, helping out in the forum, moderation, website maintenance, spreading the word that Freesound exists, administration, other...
There's lots of ways to contribute to a community, and we need a bit of all but one doesn't have to do it all.

Focus on your hobbies, being curious about stuff you like, and having fun! That's already plenty

The Field Notes magazine is a great read for all lovers of sounds and their recordings. It also contains theoretical reflections on sound as well as the aesthetic and scientific study of sounds.

https://www.gruenrekorder.de/fieldnotes/?p=download&lang=en#fn5