HHB FlashMic Records Soundscape For Inner City Arts Project

The FlashMic from professional audio equipment supplier HHB has been used to compile an urban London soundtrack for an arts project executed by members of the public.
The Sonic Garden was commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Arts Service as an aural and visual oasis in the urban landscape of World's End Palace, a public square off Chelsea's Kings Road.
The soundscape for the Sonic Garden was created by 25 members of the public on the Sonic Walk which took place in June. Armed with HHB FlashMics, the world's first professional digital recording microphone, the participants were sent forth to capture the sounds of Chelsea and Kensington. This included bus stops, theatres, launderettes, sports facilities, places of worships, fire stations, fountains, galleries and museums as well as the sounds of traffic, parks, tube stations and riverboats. After the walk, the sounds were 'planted' in the Sonic Garden sound installation, which was then opened to the public.
Miriam Nelken, Arts Development officer from Kensington and Chelsea Arts Service, said: "Participants on the Sonic Walk ranged in age from four to 84, but all found the FlashMics extremely easy to use. As well as enabling the collection of sounds for this project, the results were of fantastic quality, thanks to the HHB FlashMic."
The FlashMic DRM85 is the world's firs professional Digital Recording Microphone, combining a studio-quality condenser capsule with 1GB of flash recording memory to create a convenient, durable and portable recording device that's extremely easy to operate.
Either .Wav linear or MPEG 2 encoded audio files can be transferred quickly and easily via USB to Macintosh or PC computers for editing and onward transmission. The FlashMic is powered for more than eight hours by a pair of standard AA batteries. Users can operate the FlashMic using default settings, or create and store nine custom configurations using the Mac/PC GUI software supplied.
In addition, an 'Expert Mode' allows all variable parameters to be accessed directly from the FlashMic body. The FlashMic range comprises the DRM85 (omni-directional), DRM85-C (cardioid), DRM85LI (omni-directional, line input equipped) and DRM85-CLI (cardioid, line-input-equipped).
Created by sound sculptor Dody Nash, sonic instrument composer Will Turner-Duffin, writer Jane Buckler, the pupils of Ashburnham Community School and the residents of World's End Place, the Sonic Garden runs until the end of July at World's End Place, Chelsea.
Further information is available at: www.hhb.co.uk.
(KMcA)