LIstening to the World
May 12th 2007 08:45
Those who know the Google Earth program and all its additional features may (or may not) be interested to know that a company called Wild Sanctuary, based in California, is talking with Google over the possibility of adding relevant sounds to the vast range of pictures available on the program.
Wild Sanctuary has more than 3,500 hours of sounds from all over the world, and the idea is to layer these sounds over Google’s images to give the viewer an idea of what it sounds like to be in the area. Dr Bernie Krause has spent the last 40 years collecting sounds not just from the wild, but from
cities as well. His collection is claimed to be the largest sound library in existence.
I understand what Dr Krause means when he is quoted as saying, ‘A picture tells a thousand words, but a sound tells a thousand pictures,’ but I’m not sure that the latter part of his quote makes a lot of sense (!)
You don’t have to wait for Google Earth to get involved. You can listen to soundscapes from the Wild Sanctuary collection online now. There are some 3,500 hours worth of sounds (around 146 days’ worth) in their collection, though obviously only a few of these are readily available on the site. However, a variety of sounds will hit your ear, one way or the other, as you move around the site, and it’s interesting to learn that Krause also has a long career in music, as well as being a pioneer in the world of synthesised music used in pop and film.
When I first checked the site, the link to the Wildstore didn’t seem to be working, but it turned out that they weren’t all in their recording studio and couldn’t hear me knocking. Instead, it was my Firefox Mozilla that had crashed – unusually. A return trip to the site enabled me to sample a number of sounds from their store and even listen to a sample of their album tracks on streaming radio.
Wild Sanctuary has more than 3,500 hours of sounds from all over the world, and the idea is to layer these sounds over Google’s images to give the viewer an idea of what it sounds like to be in the area. Dr Bernie Krause has spent the last 40 years collecting sounds not just from the wild, but from
I understand what Dr Krause means when he is quoted as saying, ‘A picture tells a thousand words, but a sound tells a thousand pictures,’ but I’m not sure that the latter part of his quote makes a lot of sense (!)
You don’t have to wait for Google Earth to get involved. You can listen to soundscapes from the Wild Sanctuary collection online now. There are some 3,500 hours worth of sounds (around 146 days’ worth) in their collection, though obviously only a few of these are readily available on the site. However, a variety of sounds will hit your ear, one way or the other, as you move around the site, and it’s interesting to learn that Krause also has a long career in music, as well as being a pioneer in the world of synthesised music used in pop and film.
When I first checked the site, the link to the Wildstore didn’t seem to be working, but it turned out that they weren’t all in their recording studio and couldn’t hear me knocking. Instead, it was my Firefox Mozilla that had crashed – unusually. A return trip to the site enabled me to sample a number of sounds from their store and even listen to a sample of their album tracks on streaming radio.
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