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Glasgow Subway: Field Recording Project

  • Writer: Umut Yelbaşı
    Umut Yelbaşı
  • Feb 22
  • 5 min read
You can listen to the final audio track from the player, and read my critical commentary below.

Technical details: Stereo, 48 kHz, 24 bits per sample 


RESEARCH AND PLANNING

I started my process by researching previous examples of field recordings. During my research, I came across “The Best Field Recordings of 2023” by Matthew Blackwell, published on Bandcamp as a blog article, which mentioned Philip Jeck and Chris Watson’s Oxmardyke. Utilising freight train sounds around the Oxmardyke rail crossing to create a contrast between nature sounds the piece opens with. (Blackwell, 2023) In her review, journalist Vanessa Ague defines Oxmardyke as a piece that creates “impressions of the place through tactile sound,” meaning the space isn’t being represented exactly, the result is an interpretation of that space through the ears of the creator. (Ague, 2023)


To convey places only through sound, some similar interpretations had to be made. Any changes or movement within a scene were signified through minimal use of panning and EQ to modify the space, adjusting sound sources’ intended distance and direction from the listener.


In his book Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life, Brandon Labelle, although in the context of overground transportation (cars, buses), says “Though drivers, passengers, and the vehicle remain deep within the structures of city life, they flirt with the phantasmic energy of the open road,” which I take to mean that the sounds of public transport cannot be separated from the people that use them.


Trains and the subway are a major part of Glasgow’s everyday travel, so the focus was always on a journey within the circular subway.


PROCESS

I started by making a recording of a complete journey between four subway stations, which allowed me to capture the entry and exit to the subway, various train noises like opening doors or announcements, recorded in different stations with different acoustics, and the sounds of people either having conversations or going about their day. I used another recording from inside Queen Street Station for additional human sounds, which had to be slightly deadened to fit the very open, reverberant acoustics of the Queen Street Station within the closed acoustics of the subway. 


In her article “Soundwalking,” Hildegard Westerkamp suggests that “(…) we desensitize our aural faculties by shutting out sounds and thereby not allowing our ears to exercise their natural function.” (Westerkamp, 1974) I wanted to be efficient in my soundwalks so to combat this self-limiting aspect, I took two sound recorders with me, a Zoom H4n Pro as my main recorder and a TASCAM DR-05X linear PCM recorder as a more mobile recorder. I left the H4n Pro running for longer times as I was more familiar with its output, and I used the TASCAM as a close mic to record any additional sounds I wanted to use, such as the sounds of boots walking on mud (which ended up being excluded from the final product). Instead of approaching the recording process by aiming to capture specific noises, what I recorded was lengthy soundscapes to capture the atmosphere of locations.  

 

I then listened to the recordings and brought out details that could be used or enhanced to express the intended feelings and/or locations optimally. This approach allowed me to use the same long, uncut recording to build custom soundscapes, like a 40-minute recording made through my flat window, capturing the passing trains as well as general outdoor noise, which was used only as additional elements throughout the piece.  

 

Westerkamp suggests an exercise where the listener is continuously asked what they hear, and again, and again, to “isolate individual sounds that make up the environment’s soundscape”, like “a piece of music played by multiple instruments of an orchestra” (Westerkamp, 1974). 

 

There was a need to begin the journey, which came in the shape of a “preparation and waiting for transportation” section right before the piece transitions into the inside of a train. This gave me the contrast I was aiming to create – like Oxmardyke, I wanted a distinct contrast between the “chaotic” and mechanic sounds of trains and stations and the natural, more subdued sounds of humans going about their day. 

 

The piece opens in a kitchen with the sounds of meal preparation, recorded using a TASCAM DR-05X linear PCM recorder placed inside a fridge.  

 

This worked as a live low-pass filter, and gave the resulting recording a distinct space, allowing me to use these clips almost as is, with just a few edits due to digital clipping caused by the fridge door. Also captured were the noises of the fridge motor, which also provided an abstract, industrial ambience, setting the tone for the train that followed it. Below are snapshots of the frequency graph of different points in the recording, which clearly show the absence of high frequencies. 

Snapshots of the frequency graph of different points in the recording, which clearly show the absence of high frequencies. 

The next item recorded in the same kitchen was a running microwave. This was done by placing the recorder on top of the microwave to capture the lower frequencies of the sound the microwave makes during its rotation, and it is one of the rare close-miked individual sounds in the final product, with the intention of having more control over its use. In hindsight, in the case of the microwave, it was more beneficial for audio clarity rather than specific control, but other sounds like the lock and handle of a door provided texture to an otherwise monotone recording of the inside of a bus – this starts around 1:10.  

 

From the microwave the piece goes into a bus, which acts as a transition to the trains. A very soft music track with a low-cut filter emphasizes the human element, and after the setting is established through the sounds from the station, the subway journey begins. 

 

The ride between stations and the opening/closing of doors have been used with no effects - the stereo recording made by the Zoom H4n Pro provided a recording that was raw but usable. The announcements were from the Queen Street Station, and these have been added with an automated high-cut filter to simulate the subway doors opening (specifically between 03:33 and 03:55).

The announcements were from the Queen Street Station, and these have been added with an automated high-cut filter to simulate the subway doors opening (specifically between 03:33 and 03:55).

After passing a few stations, the piece ends with the escalators out of Hillhead station and into a coffee house, within which the sounds of people having conversations can be heard, along with background music and coffee machines. These two sections have the least post-recording edits but also have the densest sound variety of the whole piece. However, because the microphone is placed relatively far away from these sound sources, nothing takes priority and instead a homogenous field is created. 

REFLECTION

The main challenge I faced was the distinction between field recording and sound design. I decided not to stick to a strictly single-piece, single-location recording and instead used multiple recordings from seemingly unrelated locations to create a piece that feels continuous, but I still wanted to avoid recording “in order”, and tried to get longer field recordings that complement each other to create a larger world.  

 

I would have liked to experiment with using objects to apply effects that would normally be applied in post-production, like the filtering effect achieved through putting the recorder inside the fridge. With that in mind, the project has been experimental and I have achieved what I set out to achieve.  



REFERENCES
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