radio aporee ::: maps

• about the project
• how it works
• find places
• add recording
• edit your recordings
• play recordings
• share your sounds
• about content
• project maps
• tech & tips
• the radio aporee ::: app
• privacy statement
• contact

about the project

The project radio aporee ::: maps has started 2006. it is a global soundmap dedicated to phonography, field recording (and related practices) and the art of listening. it connects sound recordings and places, in order to create a sonic cartography, open to the public as a collaborative project. It contains recordings from numerous urban, rural and natural environments, showing their audible complexity, as well as the different perceptions, practices and artistic perspectives of its many contributors, related to sound, public and private spaces, listening and sense of place. (more about aporee.org ...)

important: before uploading, read this...

how it works

find places

move the map with the mouse or the arrow keys at the upper left corner. the slider or your mouse wheel zooms in & out. search provides a basic interface for searching places, sounds, contributors or addresses. hit aporee ::: maps for a search within the aporee database, or google places for an address based search. the buttons on the upper right corner of the map let you choose between different map types provided by google, as well as an Open Street Map layer. click places for the most recent contributions and this month's favourites choosen by listeners.

add recording

a click on the map opens a bubble with a link to the upload interface. before sending anything, read the posting guidelines! click add a new location. you will be asked for a place and recording title, your email address (see privacy statement), a short description and the recording date and time. select a licence under which the recording should be published, or choose PUBLIC DOMAIN.
if you choose to upload a sound, there's a button for selecting the file from your hard drive, if you want to fetch an already existing recording from your website, give the full url to the file in the corresponding form field, including http:// at the beginning! soundcloud users see below.

• address, placename, title should be a short term describing the location. the website suggests a title based on the geographic location, change that as you like, but please keep it short and significant. this label shows up in navigation bars, search results etc.
• title of recording should be a short term describing this recording, since there may be more than one recordings at the same location.
• recording date & time is self-explanatory, the date and time when you've made the recording. if you don't know the exact date/time, make a reasonable guess.
• licence is one of 6 creative commons licences, and public domain. if you're not sure which licence to choose, read about it at the Creative Commons website.
• description should be whatever you think is important to know about your recording, the place or circumstances. tell us what you've experienced there, what's special about this place, what gear you're using, the weather conditions, and so on. the search engine utilizes this info, along with titles and addresses, so please take a second a provide some descriptive words.
• choose file: for file uploads, the browse button opens a window to your hard drive. here you can select the soundfile to send to radio aporee. files can be mp3 or wav, see specs below.
• download sound from URL: if your recording is already online somewhere, you can fetch it from there. please give the full URL to the sound including http:// at the beginning, e.g. http://www.yoursite.com/yoursound.mp3. fetching sounds from existing URLs is usually pretty quick.
  if your files are at soundcloud.com and if you've enabled downloads, you can fetch it from there too. since soundcloud doesn't provide direct links to a sound, please give the URL for your specific soundcloud page, e.g. http://soundcloud.com/my-favourite-fieldrecording/. radio aporee takes care of the rest. if things don't work the first time, try again. this feature relies on propper behaviour of the remote site. see also specs below. please be patient while uploading, don't hit reload or back on your browser until the site has returned. depending on your connection, this may take a while. you can continue using the map while uploading.
• file specs:
  • files must be mp3 or wav
  • sample rate must be 44.1 or 48khz
  • mp3 bitrates must be 128 - 320 kbit/s
  • wav resolution must be 16 or 24bit
  • wav files will be converted to mp3 256kbit/s
  • max. file size is 50mbyte
  • all other formats will be rejected. see also tech tips below.
• send starts uploading to radio aporee. all necessary information to activate your sound, in order to make it audible / visible on the map, will be send to your email address, as well as some instructions how to access the editor. it obviously makes no sense to enter an invalid email address... if something goes wrong, you should get an error message explaining the problem briefly. almost all known problems are related to wrong file formats. if you cannot resolve the problem yourself, drop me an email.
  
• if you want to add a sound to an existing place, just click the red blinking marker or more details... at the lower right corner, which opens the info window for this sound. choose add recording, then proceed as described above. if there's more than one sound at a place, they will be played consecutively in chronological order. some use this feature for examining a place's sounds over time, personal sound diaries etc. it is also interesting to see how different persons approach the same place, sound-wise.
• there are some other options available in the info window. if you click on the title of the recording, it starts to download the file. link & embed lets you include a little map of this place on your blog or website, the envelope icon opens a comment form which sends an email directly to the contributor of this sound. if you expect a answer, provide an email address. it's only used for sending and won't be saved permanently.
  click the yellow star in front of the recording title, to add this location to the current month's favourite sounds, selected by listeners. these will be played on a monthly aporee streaming radio show. things to come...

edit your recordings

you don't need a login or account in order to participate in the project, however, after uploading your first sound, you have access to an editor for your contributions. there you can edit titles, locations, descriptions and other info. it also provides a possibility to create your own projects. imagine it as the radio aporee ::: maps with only your selected recordings, under a dedicated URL, see also project maps below. there are links in the confirmation emails you receive after uploading, about how to get/set a password and access the editor.

play recordings

when the map loads initially, it jumps to the most recent recording and plays it. the currently playing sound is indicated by a blinking red marker. click it to get more information about this sound. play on the menue bar has several options for playing random selections, the radio aporee ::: stream or the currently visible sounds on the map. previous mix & multiplayer-modes are now on a dedicated page.
geo-mixing mode lets you play different places around the world simultaneously in up to 5 channels. playtime, give it a try... note: these functions may put some load on our computer, esp. if it's an older one. things may become slow or hang.

share your sounds

the tools section on the menu bar has some options for sharing sounds with others and embedding links and selected maps on external websites, blogs etc. link visible map creates copy&paste html code for he currently visible map area. with map selection it's possible to select an arbitrary part of the visible map for embedding. press <shift> and drag/select the desired area on the map. for a specific location, use the share & embed function in the details infowindow (e.g. opened when you click the blinking red marker, or the more details... link in the sound info bar at the bottom).

about content

this project is about sound, space and places, origin of place is important. the sounds we want to hear are field recordings, and sounds from actual sites and situations. check the many recordings to get an idea. please don't fake locations or "create" them in postproduction. think about phonography, get yourself a recorder, listen to the sounds of your surroundings, record & share them with others here on radio aporee. if you want to add comments, spoken words etc., please record it on-site and not in post production. the project relies on your contributions, please be conscious and responsible.
please!!! do not send music, songs, your greatest hits collection, recordings of concerts and the like. heavy editing, mixing, composing or sound manipulations are also not welcome. take care about sound quality, do not send noisy mobile phone recordings unless you have good reasons. in case of doubt, send an email and ask before you send something. spam, tests, jokes and trash audio will be deleted without comment, as well as obviously copyright protected or illegal material. beware: even if you sing a popular song by yourself, it may be under ©opyright in some countries. if you want to send sounds from others, implicitly ask for permission first and give propper credits. your recordings will be published under the Creative Commons License you've choosen during uploading. if you don't agree, please don't send your recording.

project maps

each contributor to this project can create personal or project soundmaps. this function is available in the edit section, see above. a project map is a selection of the global aporee soundmap, accessible under a dedicated URL. to get an idea, check the currently available projects. authors of a project map may decide to open it up for contributions from others, so that one can directly upload to a specific project. however, sounds will always be visible on the radio aporee ::: maps too.

tech & tips

• read the the quiet american's great notes on field recording
• get familiar with your recorder and basic concepts of recording.
• record in 24bit resolution, at 44 or 48kHz, uncompressed.
• be careful with levels and gain. clipping ruins your recording and tortures the listener. don't record TOO LOUD!
• use windscreens, windjammers, fake fur, deat kittens or your socks for wind protection!
• be patient, listen carefully. make long recordings rather then short snippets.
• if you want to edit your recordings (e.g. fade in/out, adjust levels), try audacity
• for mp3-encoding, use the LAME encoder. use joint stereo mode and high bitrates (e.g. 256 or 320kbit/s) for best audio quality.
• keep the original WAV, you never know...
• ...

the radio aporee ::: app

if you have an android mobile phone, you may want to check the radio aporee app. it's a location-aware browser for the soundmap, a basic player for the radio aporee ::: stream and an exciting interface for the miniatures for mobiles augmented aur(e)ality project.

privacy statement

your email address is the only personal information needed in order to contribute to the radio aporee ::: maps project. it's used for the confirmation of sound uploads and related actions, and for the daily news about new contributions, which you can unsubscribe at any time of course. once in a while you may get an email about interesting activities going on at radio aporee or related sites. that's all. we don't mess around with your data.

contact

in case of questions, problems etc., please send me an email

idea, realisation & housekeeping: udo noll 2006 - 2012