Taiwan Soundscape-Environmental sounds

The Voice of Taipei Railway Station

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:58:12 +0800

Happy New Year!

I saw a news about the voice of Taipei Railway Station today. I am talking about the voice of the staff, Chu-Wei, who was in charge of the public announcement. Surprisingly, she had been doing this job for 22 years! I guess more or less you all have some impression of her voice, right? What I don't understand through all these years is that why she always pronunced the term 'zei-chia' (means 'taking a train' in Taiwanese) as 'zuei-chia'. It sounds very strange to me, Haha!

I wonder if you guys have recorded her voice? I have! If the number of people is high, perhaps we can release an album based on her voice! ^_^

Noise Pollution in Taiwan

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:42:35 +0800

The old website of Taiwan Soundscape can no longer be edited due to the technical problem of the website host Yam. It is therefore shifted to the current web address. What surprised me is that there are still many people leaving messages in this old website. Most of the messages are about protesting and complaining the noise pollution around their living environment. From the words they used, I can feel their anger and frustration about the aweful experiences. I fell very sorry for these victims.
Taiwan should establish a group, such as 'Taiwan Sound Quality Foundation', to work for and with the citizens to claim for justice of good quality of sonic environment! I sincerely hope that people do not get frustrated. Together, we can work it out!

p.s. As I mentioend before, in Britain, there is an organisation called Environmental Protection UK (formerly NSCA). It can be a very good example to look into.

The origin of bell sounds in schools in Taiwan-- Big Ben

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:49:21 +0800

BigBen.mp3

Until 2 days ago when I was recording Big Ben at 12am, I've been forgetting to share this report with you. Here I enclose the link and the sound I recorded!

Hope you are going to enjoy it!

ps. In order to have it available online, the sound is compressed and the quality is negotiated. Please accept my apologies.

The recording site: At the south bank opposite to the Parliament.

Every job has its sounds

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:34:51 +0800

Mr Lin is a crocodile farmer. When it's the third day before little crocodiles are born, he would go to the egg room and talk to the eggy crocodile: 'nnnn'. The eggies would respond to him with 'nnnn'!

Lets have a think, what sound has been a part of your job? What sound can represent the (sonic) image of your professional? Yes, every job has its sounds!

Manual air-raid siren

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:11:55 +0800

At the 2-28 Memorial Museum, there is currently a special exhibition-- Taipei's air raid during the WW2. There are quite a few interesting artifects presented, including the fire-alarming bell, the gas mask and so on. The staff can also assist visitors to experience the 'horrific' atmosphere of air raid by operating a manual air-raid siren.

This is exactly the interesting thing about sound-- in different era and environment, people's recognition of sounds are different. Taking this air-raid siren as an example, people in the past time would be scared to death while people nowadays simply whisk the machine with curiosity!

I wonder if there are sonic artifects exhibited in this show...

Mind the volume of your headphones

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:02:09 +0800

Mr Yang kindly reminds us that when listening to music with headphones, do not turn it too loudly. Otherwise, it might affect the sensibility of our body or even damage our eardrums!

For details, please visit this link.

Here I would like to remind people something slightly relating to the subject... when listening to music with headphones, please do not sing aloud-- it does not sound nice as you think!

When I was 13 years old, I enjoyed doing it very much. Until one day, my dear brother came to my face and said to me: 'Sis, do you know that singing with the headphones on can cause very unpleasant sounds?'.... Since then, I have never done it again to make myself stupid! haha!

Noise and health

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:34:00 +0800

Noise makes people upset and anxious. Recently, a newspaper also mentioned about a survey that noise can cause troubles to those people whose hearts are not well.

I went to Notting Hill Carnival yesterday and experienced Caribbean party styled music-- big scaled speakers were overlapped to form a wall and the volume was turned to the maximum. The sound shook my body organs as the way the washing machine does my laundy... up and down, spin and spin and spin... It was sometimes quite scary to me as I could really feel my heart getting weak! Nevertheless, there were many people enjoying dancing in front of the speaker wall. They did not seem to be affected at all!

p.s. Thank Mr Yang for kindly providing the information about noise.

Frog croaks

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:57:08 +0800

A woman in our neighbourhood complained to my mum about the noises of frog singing. They caused her insomnia. However, I think that she talked to the wrong person, because my mum loves to listen to frog sounds since she was born in the countryside.

In today's Liberty Times, there is a report about people's views (1, 2) about frog croaking. Please have a look.

Also, there is an interesting website about frog sounds made in different languages-- here.

Taiwan's Noise Map has a start!

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:07:50 +0800

Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration has finally generated a simple version of the noise map. Although it includes only 3 districts of Taipei, covering 25 square kms, there is a start. It is definitely a good news!

What interests me is that Taiwanese don't seem to appreciate this outcome. They consider that it cannot improve the surrounding noise pollution immediately. I personally think that the EPA should declair its planned usages when it announced the production of this map in order to gain people's understanding and support. For example, in order to improve Taiwan's noise environment, we need to consider the strategic approach instead of keeping ticketing whoever makes noises. To do so, the noise map is a very important guidance-- the governmental policy makers, architects, interior designers etc can all use it to plan cities, buildings and houses. For example, with a noisy road, they can consider expanding the area of trees, building noise barriers, making waterfalls or fountains or making the traffic go underground etc.

Many people in Taiwan have taken the installation of air tight windows for certain. It is a frustrating phenomenon. People are used to give up their right of listening to non-pressure natural sounds. They either close windows or play music. People, please wake up your ears! Have you heard birds chirping today? Were you waken up by the alarm clocks again rather than the birds? Have you heard cicadas of this summer ni-niing yet? Do you know they have come out of the earth?

Hopefully people have the awareness of the sonic-environmental protection. Please don't give up your right of listening to good sounds!

In the past, I introduced London's noise map in the blog of Taiwanese Soundscape. I also mentioned the connections between sound design and city planning. If you want to know more about these two aspects, please visit the archive of this blog.

Fu-Long Lunch Box

Thu, 24 May 2007 09:52:23 +0800

According to the news of ETtoday, because of Taiwan Railway's failaure of the bid, the vendor of the Fu-Long Lunch Box will no longer do his business at the platform of Fu-Long Train Station.

Won't be able to do his business? That's right. It will be a big problem!

Because the cry of 'Ben-Dong'-- the sonic hallucination that commuters enjoy before arriving the station, the sound that makes passengers' bellies hum-- is going to dissappear soon! This cry is so affective to Taiwanese life!

Is anyone going to visit Fu-Long soon? Could you record this sound? Preserving sounds that carry the value of Taiwan is everyone's responsibility!

The bell chime of the campus

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:07:09 +0800

Do you like the chime of the bell in the (Taiwanese) campus? Dan-Dan-Dan-Dan~~ Dan-Dan-Dan-Dan~~
As the time is changing, some school's 'taste' of the bell chime have changed, too!
Apart from changing the bell chime to music, there are schools inviting famous people (the mayor and entertainers) to voice the time (e.g. Classmate, where are you? Return to your seat soon to enjoy the delicious lunch!). It has been quite interesting!
However, there are schools considering the bell chime or music noisy. They thus let teachers decide the time for individual classes. Without such a chime, the campus does become quieter.
Nevertheless, once the traditional bell chime is replaced, our memories of the school days would not be the same. We can no longer receive some comfort from the chimes of the bells. Sometimes, I feel that the chime of the bell is the only 'person' that remembers my time during the school days!
To judge the chime of the bell is noisy or interesting depends on our individual taste. But what we can forsee now is that if we lost it, it would be too late to miss it. For the sounds that reflect the value of Taiwanese culture should be considered as a cultural property of Taiwan and being kept properly!

The enclosed photo is a hand-hold bell taken in a primary school in London. It is popularly used in the schools of Britain.

Noise Action Week

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:10:11 +0800

There is a national activity Noise Action Week in the UK. It is co-ordinated by NSCA (National Society for Clear Air and Environmental Protection; a society, not a governmental unit). Through this activity, they join local groups and organisations to let the public and the media to understand the noise problem in the environemnt of communities, schools, working places, leisure and so on. If there is such an opportunity, Taiwan should have a go, too! ^_^

Taiwanese Natural Recording of Yahoo! Club

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:21:21 +0800

A group of Taiwanese who share the interest of natrual recording has registered with Yahoo! Club.
Their 'Cool Links' and 'Database' have many good stuff for you to listen and see. Don't miss it!

New noise regulations in Taiwan

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:54:25 +0800

From 1 March, some Taiwanese noise regulations are modified. Between11pm and 6am, the complained noises of karakok, building construction, public annoucement from parades and neighbour's flat reburshment will be fined between NT$3,000 and NT$30,000, no volume measurement is required. Also, for building site noise during the day-time, the distance of measuring the volume has be reduced from 15 meters to 1 meter, from 8 mintues to 2 mintues. For more information, please visit here and there. For noise regulations in detail, please visit the Environmental Protection Administration.

Noise from the Taiwan High Speed Rail

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:35:28 +0800

The newly built High Speed Rail is something that makes Taiwanese proud! However, since it started to operate, people living along the route have been complaining the once-an-hour noise it produces. The company claims that the noise level that they've measured is 84dB, which is under the limit of the environmental bureau's regulation. However, this statement does not convince the local residents. Nevertheless, the company has promised to built a wall (for the Toa-Fen section) to reduce the noise level. It is expected to be completed in 6-month time. For more information (in Chinese), please visit here and there.

A database of sounds

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:43:50 +0800

Macaulay Library's website was mentioned once in Taiwan Soundscape website. Nevertheless, there is a page that is worthy of pointing out particularly. On the left side of the page, there is a recording of a harp seal. The sound is really unexpected!

32 subwoofers are played together!

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 04:38:16 +0800

The headquater of anti-Presedent-Chen has prepared 32 subwoofers and placed them in front of the president office for protest. After the test, the effect seems to be very impressive. It would be interesting to experience it in person. However, in order to hear more great sounds in the future, it is better to cherish ears and avoid going there. ^_^

Suing the noisy neighbour-- a successful case

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:51:19 +0800

Asking your bad neighbour to be responsible to his noise is not easy. Nevertheless, Mr Lin has made it!

Blogs that contains audio and pictures

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:59:21 +0800

Ollie Hall and Justin Hardison's My Fun are both blogs that presents experiences with sound and photos. The blogs are very accessible. Perhaps you can keep your diary in this way, too!
In Ollie blog, although he says that sounds were recorded in binaural. However, please listen carefully, they seem to be in mono! ^_^

The hotline for reporting noises of Taipei

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 19:12:19 +0800

More and more residents living in Taipei are not happy with the noisy
environment. Can people do nothing but take it? Of course not! You can
call the Department of Environmental Protection to complain about it.
The hotline is: 02-27206301.
(繼續閱讀...)

A joke

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 06:03:38 +0800

A friend sent me a very Taiwanese joke that has the rarely mentioned element in it-- sound:
------------------------------
I have a colleague called Mi-Cu-Hwai. After more than 3 years of marriage, a sudden accident took this loving couple apart.
This colleage took medicine to commit suicide once. Luckily he was discovered soon and no regret was made.
After being rescued, he was absent-minded all day long and almost got his job lost. Several friends wanted to help him but without a success. Later on people had an idea, that was to persuade him to hold a calling-spirit ritural. Although it was a bit superstitious, it is a kind of psychological treatment.
People thus donated some money and hired a pretty alrigh Toaist monk (at least someone who did not make a fraud). The retural was hold in the evening. A few colleagues came to company Ku-Haui.
Two little monks set up the alter.
The old monk adjusted the mic hung on his chin and burn a few pieces of ghost paper. He started to rang the calling-spirit bell with 'lin-lin-lin' sounds.
After just a moment, the old monk suddenly grabed the table very tightly and shivered with his whole body.
The little monk standing next to him said to us with axiety: 'it's alright, it should be the ghost mounting his body...' The old monk started to shout out: 'Mi...Mi... Micu...Micu...'
Having heard his late wife calling his own name, Ku-Hwai wanted to run forward. His colleagues hold him and Ku-Hwai shouted out loudly with tears: 'Shiao-Fan... Shiao-Fan... I am here... I...'
The old monk was shivering even more seriously, he shouted out all the time: 'Mi...Mi..Mi...Mi..Micu..Micu.....Micu... Micu is leaking...' (the electricity of microphone is leaking)
------------------------------
Ha-ha, sorry, it is not a very funny joke... However, with this example, I would like to ask you:
1. Who would record that 'lin-lin-lin' sounds? Would you think about recording while family and relatives holding a funeral ceremony? (In fact, I ....)
2. Is it possible to have an electric leakage from the microphone?

Kuan-Hwah Business Plaza

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 05:51:51 +0800

Kuan-Hwah Business Plaza was demolished on 15 Jan 2006. I wonder if anybody recorded its environmental sounds in January. The social environment of Taiwn changes very quickly. While new sounds are generating, many sounds are disappearing at the same time. Hope everyone can cherish every opportunity of listening. If you have noticed any sound that has a social or listorical value, please record it and turn yourself as a sonic-cultural volunteer of Taiwan! Everyone Go Go Go!

Listening back sounds of 2005

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 09:15:13 +0800

2005 is coming to an end. I wonder what impressive sounds you have heard this year? In the land of Taiwan, have you discovered some new sounds that you have never heard before? For you personally, what sounds are worthy of remembering?
Wish you all happy listening, happy New Year!

Call for recorded sounds for Sound Walk , again!

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 09:01:17 +0800

The album of sound walk that is planned to post out in Jan is editing at the moment. In the CD disk, there are still some space available. Please come to join us!
The recordings you would like to submit has to be recorded within the last 2 months. All kinds of daily life sounds are welcomed. The length of the the sounds work is limited to 5 min max. Please save the files as .wav, .aif or mp3.
Please upload the sound file to http://www.yousendit.com/. If the file is samller than 10MB, you can send the file directly to wei224@hotmaill.com.
Please also send another e-mail to explain the time, place, events, recording facility and motivation of the submitted sound.
Thank you! Hope we can use this opportunity to learn from each other and make friends!

The explosion of oil fields in Britain

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 08:47:47 +0800

The oil field explosion happened on 11st Dec in Hertfordshire, UK is considered as the largest scale of explosion in the peace time of Europe. Believe it or not, there were people being in Holland and Belgium, which was 200 miles (321.8688Km) way, claimed that they could hear the explosion!
The environmental consultant Tim Wilton said, it was because that at that time, there was a layer of hot air (generated by the explorsion and the direction of the east wind) that surpressed sounds not being able to move upward. Instead, sounds return to the ground and spread out.
The changes of sounds of the nature are waiting for you to explore!

The design of a funeral director's voice message

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 07:19:46 +0800

How do you design a professional voice message for yourself or a company? For sure, it depends on WHO is your customers! Have a listen to this anonymous version made for a funeral director. It's very amusing!

Listen to the dance

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 04:35:30 +0800

Dance does not give the audience only the visual information, but also the auditory! Tap dance, river dance and the opera Stomp are good examples. Next time when you see a performance, try to listen carefully!
(繼續閱讀...)

The Sound Tracker: Gordon Hempton

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 19:37:59 +0800

The Sound Tracker is the official website of Gordon Hempton, who is a winner of Emmy Award for field recording. Check it out!

Sound Walk

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 22:53:25 +0800

It's November. What a cool and nice autumn! Lets take a sound walk! It is about taking a walk and at the same time, listening to surrounding sounds such as sounds of nature, traffic, people, machines, etc. The aim of this activity is to awaken peoples' awareness of the relationships between human beings and their daily-life environmental sounds. Also, the aesthetics of daily-life environmental sounds will be asserted. You are encouraged to bring any kind of audio recorder to collect sounds that are going to attract you along the walk. After the event, there will be an expert to guide you how to transfer the collected sounds into digital audio files via a computer. After people sending the files to wei224@mac.com (please do so before 10 Dec), we will produce a CD and send it to all the participants as a souvenior and an expereince-exchanger (Will be post before 10 Jan 2006). All are welcome!
Meeting Time: 2pm, 26th Nov 2005
Place: we will meet in front of Hon-Shu-Lin station (MRT red line) and stroll from Hon-Shu-Lin station via the bicycle path to the skating rink in Damsui MRT Park. The duration is no more than 30 min.
Equipment: 1) A mind and a pair of ears that enjoy listening! 2) Any kind of audio reocrder such as MD, MP3, cassette, mobile phone, pen recorder, digital audio recorder, video recorder, digital camema etc.
Note: If you cannot come to Damsui to walk with us, you can record sounds on the same day in the place where is convenient for you.
For further details, please contact: Miss Chen Tsai-Wei (wei224@mac.com) of Taiwan Soundscape (http://blog.roodo.com/taiwansoundscape)

Unsounded Sounds

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 20:58:57 +0800

Although these articles are a bit cliche, they mention about the idea that sounds do not only include the audible, but also the unsounded sounds such as the imaginary, moral, personality-related... etc. Have you every thought about some sounds in your mind and resulted in noisy thinkings?

The biggest organisation in the world for animal sound collections

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 20:48:08 +0800

Macaulay Library of Cornell Lab of Omithology claims itself as the biggest organisation that collects animal sounds (I wonder if Sound Archive in Britain is competative?). In its website, how sounds are recorded and archived are mentioned. It's worthy of visiting!

Sound Walk

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 20:40:41 +0800

Should we have a sound walk in November? It is to exchange our listening experiences. You are welcome to propose a route for walking, no matter it is in the urban or suburb area. Since it is the first time we orgniase it, should we have the walk for no more than 30 min? Are most of you living in Taipei? Men and woman, young and old are all welcome!

a blog-- Shien-Chang-Quo-Shen-Yen-Jio-Suo

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 03:06:29 +0800

O-Yan-Chao-Chao's blog Shien-Chang-Quo-Shen-Yen-Jio-Suo (means 'Live Recording Research Centre' in Chinese) introduces books about field recordings from time to time. It also talks about techniques. Please have a look!

Natural Recordist

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 02:26:23 +0800

For those who are interested in recording natural sounds, the discussion group in Yahoo-- Natural Recordist should be of help to you! I have added it in the column of [Communities and Organisations].

Sound diary-- sounds heard when waiting for the tube

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 19:55:21 +0800

I was waiting for the Circle Line (London) at the platform.
I heard the rail tracks in front of me vibrating...
The wind started to blow...
It blew a coca cola can and made it rolling on the platform...
The drink was not finished, sounds of rolling were reverberating inside the can...
... PON!! PonPon, PonPon,PonPon... (the body of the train shook forcefully on the rail track)
The train ran out of the tunnel
I marched to the left for a few more steps, chose a position that was near home, be ready to get on the train...

What sounds did you hear when you were returning home today? You are very welcome to write about it and give us a listen!

The Noise Map of London

Sat, 15 Oct 2005 09:05:05 +0800

There are many ways to represent a city, such as altitute, temperature or the tensity of population. Can you imagine how a city is represented through noises? The city of London uses traffic noises to form a map. It enables us to learn how 'noisy' the famous Oxford street is even if we are in Taiwan! However, if you wonder what sounds made the noises, I am afraid that you have to take the plane and make a long trip!

Sounds of time passing

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 06:11:09 +0800

From today's Libertytimes's e-news, I realised that there is profound knowledge in the sounds of watches (in Chinese). I personally cannot bear with the ticking sounds of watches. After buying a watch from Swatch, I suffered from its ticks for a long while. The watches of Swatch make really loud sounds!
In the article, it mentions about 'the bell sounds of Westminster'... Ha-ha, sorry, I have no impression of them despite of my six-year time living in London! I shall go for a good listen soon!
What sounds would you use to describe the existence and passing of time? ^_^

Sounds of Typhoon

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 23:33:25 +0800

The typhoon LongWang just left Taiwan. Have you be impressed by any sounds caused by the thyphoon? I am now in London and did not experience the typhoon. Hope you can share some experiences with me!^_^
There is a big glass window in my room in Taiwan. Every time when a typhoon came, strong wind and rain hit and shook the glass which caused loud noises. It made me worried about the strength of the glass window and I thus could not sleep well... Now, the more I think about it, for some reason, I start missing home...

Korean TV drama

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 23:18:00 +0800

Recently I have been watching DVDs of Bae Yong Jing's Winter's Sonata. There are 6 discs in total and each disc contains 4 hours of drama. It is pretty tiring to watch them all. I wonder if you have noticed that there are only 2 songs played in turns in the whole drama. The cost is extremely low! Nevertheless, because only these two songs are playing all the time, my brain has been loaded with the rhythms of the songs after watching 2 discs! Since then, when I wake up, I hunger for watching the next episode... I am basically poisoned!

The Experience of Nature is not only visual

Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:45:23 +0800

The Executive Summary of the 1994 NPS Report to Congress provides the results of a system-wide visitor survey. 15,000
visitors were surveyed during the busiest 2 months of the season at 39 parks across the country. Approximately 91 per cent of the visitors reported that their reason for the park visit was to enjoy the “natural quiet. (National Park Service.1994)

When you... see something you don't like, you can ask the brain to close eyes to avoid it

But you listen to some irritating sounds, can you ask the brain to close your ears?

Posted by Water

Tennessee fainting goats

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:52:12 +0800

The news on TV today mentioned about Tennessee fainting goats. The TV presenter said that the goats fall over when they are shocked by noises. The motion is very amusing. You can see it from a video in this website! It's a shame that the video does no include the noise that scared the funny goat.

Sounds of Taiwan

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 21:29:20 +0800

The definition of 'sounds of Taiwan' in this blog includes nature-made and man-made sounds available in Taiwan. Perhaps you have a different point of view? ^_^