22 June, 2007

The sound of speed

It's been ages since I've posted. The Sound Agency has been flat out for the last several weeks, creating some exciting projects for several household name brands - but I can't talk about them until the test periods are complete and the clients are happy to go public. It's wonderful to be putting some of the main principles in the book into practice for these huge companies, because we really have a chance to make the world sound better if these tests tuen out as they should.

Right now I'm on our stand at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. We have been commissioned by Lorn March, through our old friend, motor journalist Richard Bremner, to create and install a futuristic, peaceful soundscape in the FoS-Tech pavilion. We're using Future Acoustic's A3 software on a Mac mini, and the soundscape reacts with extra activity when anyone speaks into a mic we have on the front of the stand. It sounds lovely. Our only problem has been the intrusive thumping bas frequencies from the music stage about 200m away. The band is outstanding (and they have incredible stamina, playing today for about four hours) but the PA is way louder than it needs to be for this event. Why do so many live sound engineers have to use every last watt they possess? I believe that tomorrow His Lordship is going to ensure that the PA will be quieter so maybe the people in the pavilion won't be feeling as though they've been repeatedly punched in the head! If you're coming to the FoS do come by our stand and say hello.

I've been getting lovely messages from around the world about the book. Hanna Prage from Sweden has just blogged about it here, and has sent me her thesis on sound in design, which I am looking forward to reading.

In four weeks I'm visiting New York to talk about taking The Sound Agency to the USA. Now that is really exciting...