Recordings of background atmospheres and incidental noises from all over London. Many form part of a sound grid series recorded at evenly-spaced points across the city, each marking the centre of a square on the map below.
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Above: graphic based on a daytime satellite image courtesy of the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. Each red grid square is 2.5 miles or 4 kilometers across.
File name: Thames at Rainham
Grid square: Rainham and Wennington Marshes
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 4 November 2009
Time of day: 3.30pm
Location: Path by the Thames, south of the Rainham marshes.
Description: Waves lapping the shore; loud, deep humming of machinery from a plant on the opposite side of the river at Jenningtree Point; faint cries of seagulls towards the end.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: TQ 5211 8067
Grid square: Rainham and Wennington Marshes
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 18 March 2009
Time of day: 1.45pm
Location: OS reference TQ 5211 8067, on the Rainham Marshes.
Description: A bird sings a rapid, warbling song in the foreground. Further away a brief clattering noise is made by an earth-mover, and there are distant sounds of traffic and a steady drone from a factory.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics. Olympus LS-10 digital recorder.
Additional notes: None
Sound map recordings fall into two kinds, shown by the filenames they're given.
A sound grid recording has a filename beginning with the letters 'TQ', followed by eight digits. These are the Ordnance Survey co-ordinates for where the recording ought to be made. Each is part of a regularly-spaced series of recordings covering London. More about them, including graphics showing the resulting city-wide patterns of sounds, can be found on this page.
Other recordings have more descriptive filenames and these are simply of curious or distinctive sounds heard in different places.
