Short Descrip­tion: This Audio Scav­enger Hunt involves find­ing sounds from a list, report­ing on them, and dis­cussing what the sounds mean to you. Sounds are searched out and checked off a list. Then to report back, par­tic­i­pants use their own voice or body to repli­cate the sound. For a slight­ly tech heav­ier expe­ri­ence, sound cap­ture can be done on a phone or voice recorder, edit­ed, shared and discussed.

Exten­sion: Upload sounds to an edit­ing appli­ca­tion like Garage­band or Reaper and edit to make an archival piece cap­tur­ing your sound scav­enger hunt. Adapt­able up to sec­ondary school students.

Mate­ri­als: Audio Scav­enger Hunt Work­sheet, pen­cil 

(option­al mate­ri­als for audio edit­ing option: iPhone with Voice Memo or sim­i­lar, Garage­Band app, com­put­er, Reaper audio edit­ing software)

Tar­get Audi­ence: 5 years old +

Group Size: indi­vid­ual or pairs

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Intro­duc­tion (15 min.)

• Begin with a sim­ple lis­ten­ing exercise

  • Close your eyes and lis­ten for 1 minute with­out talking

  • Share what you heard (e.g. my heart­beat, a fan, foot­steps, cars)

• Watch R. Mur­ray Schafer’s short film “Lis­ten”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOlxuXHWfHw

• Dis­cus­sion:

  • How can lis­ten­ing care­ful­ly to the world make us feel? (e.g. you might feel calm, notice some­thing new, or notice a sound you don’t like and would like to change)

Step 1: Audio Scav­enger Hunt (30 – 60 min.) (for ages 5+)

• Read the Audio Scav­enger Hunt Worksheet

• Walk around your house, school and/or out­doors and try to locate the sounds on the checklist.

• When you find a sound, lis­ten for a few min­utes and then use your voice or body to copy the sound. Prac­tice a few times so you remem­ber how to do it lat­er when you report back.

• If you are using a phone or voice recorder, record the sound. For more info on that, watch this video.

Step 2: Report Back (30 – 60 min.)  (for ages 5+)

• Take turns pre­sent­ing your found sounds using your voice and body. Talk about what they made you think of and how they made you feel.

• Here is an exam­ple of par­tic­i­pants shar­ing their sounds.

• If you have record­ed sounds on a device, you can take turns play­ing them back.

• If you wish to edit your record­ings using Garage­band for ios, or a DAW (record­ing soft­ware) on a com­put­er, keep reading.

Tak­ing it Further

Editing/Mixing the Audio in Garage­band for ios devices (60 – 90 min.)  (for ages 10+, slight­ly advanced)

• For more infor­ma­tion on this, vis­it the Audio-Visu­al Mis­match les­son, anoth­er project on this site designed by me or refer to this video from 1:46 to 4:38

Editing/Mixing the Audio in Reaper on your com­put­er (60 – 90 min.)  (for ages 13+, advanced)

• This video shows how to install Reaper. Note that Reaper is free to use until you decide you would like to pur­chase a mem­ber­ship. You can use the free ver­sion for as long as you like.

• Now you will have to get your files off your phone and onto your com­put­er. There are many ways to do this. Here are a few:

  • Trans­fer files from your phone to the com­put­er using a USB cable.

  • Email your files to your­self, open the email on your com­put­er and save the files to a fold­er that you will remember.

  • Use Air Drop (for Apple Users) to send the files direct­ly to your computer.

• The fol­low­ing steps are illus­trat­ed in this video.

• Wear ear buds, air pods or head­phones and use your ears to edit the track until you are happy.

• Open Reaper.

• Drag your files into Reaper and begin editing.

• Trim your track to get rid of extra noise.

• Use fades at the begin­ning and the end to make it sound smoother.

• Use Pan­ning to send your audio sig­nal to the left or right.

• Use the Equal­iza­tion (EQ FX) to bring out the high, mid­dle and low fre­quen­cies of your audio track.

• Use Reverb to enhance your track.

• Once you are hap­py with your track, click File > Ren­der > Next to File name, rename your project to some­thing that makes sense (e.g. Guillaume-AudioScavengerHunt-2021).Then, next to Out­put For­mat, Choose MP3 (encoder by LAME project). Final­ly, click Ren­der 1 File.

• Then you can send the file in an email, save it to Google Dri­ve or sim­ply play it from your computer.

• To learn more about Reaper and fol­low their excel­lent video tuto­ri­als, click here.

Below are some exam­ples of pieces made by high school stu­dents dur­ing a sim­i­lar project

• Sounds only

• Audio Sto­ry­telling and Sound Art Project (ArtistsIn­spire Grants)

Hap­py sound hunt­ing and have fun!

More Son­ic Enjoyment

audio pieces made from repli­cat­ing sounds using voices:

• Once on a Windy Night by R. Mur­ray Schaeffer

• Bur­ble by Juli­et Palmer

audio pieces made from record­ed sounds:

• Mes­sage in a Bot­tle an ArtistsIn­spire Grants project designed by Louise Camp­bell, Jes­si­ca Hous­ton, Guil­laume Jab­bour and Paula Knowles

• Stuck in a Hail­storm Sec­ondary 4 high school stu­dents reflect on the pan­dem­ic, by Guil­laume Jabbour