Footsteps Station4
Having spent the past year recording sounds particular to rural and forested areas I was keen to find something a bit different while I was in the city of Melbourne. Melbourne is well-known for its bad weather, often jokingly referred to as having 4 seasons in 1 day. For the week that I was there it lived up to its reputation with extremely strong wind and rain making outdoor recording virtually impossible.
While the wind continued out on the streets I headed underground to Flinders Street Station and managed to record the morning peak hour of commuters exiting through one of its passageways. Flinders Street Station is Melbourne’s busiest train station with a daily average of 110,000 passengers on its 1,500 trains.
In this clip commuters march through the station’s turnstile-gates as they prepare to enter the cold windy streets above; their endless procession was mesmerising. Nearby a cafe busily prepared coffee for those who needed an extra boost to start the day.
SOUNDS LIKE NOISE 
I have expected to hear more harsh or just loud sounds on this recording but it sounds a bit sleepy, or even dreamy and I find it really pleasing.
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Yes, I think it was too early for anyone to be bothered making much noise. I stayed there for about 15 minutes listening to it’s hypnotic measured beat. The restrained sound helped reinforce the freedom I had in being on holiday, very satisfying!
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I like the sound of these high-heeled clutters, they creates nice stereo image.
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Yes, high-heels might be bad for the health of feet but they sound great! I like how they come out of the wall of noise and become prominent for a short moment near the recorder before fading away again.
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I really like this recording. It does what true urban field recording should do, it allows the listener to create their own images. Excellent!
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Thanks – I had to retrain my ears within the city’s sonic environment so I nearly overlooked this very obvious sound. I was happy with the end result, though I wondered what I missed that week due to being overwhelmed by the sounds of traffic etc.
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