Sound-oriented sites we thought you might enjoy. Please email us to suggest other sites for addition to this list.

FindSounds.com - New search engine that specializes in finding sound files in several different formats, by word or "sounds like"; search results are imperfect (apparently not recognizing quotation marks and so returning results for any word in a multi-word search, such as "beaked whale"), but it's a start. The company also offers a Windows-only program to organize the sounds you collect. [GO THERE]

Mississauga Sound Map - First of several planned sound maps from the Canadian Society for Acosutic Ecology, this one focuses on a suburb of Toronto. Field recordings are indicated by ear-icons on a Google Maps image. [GO THERE]

Hudson Valley Sound and Story Project - Aural history of the Hudson Valley, from New York to Albany. Mostly verbal recollections so far, but the intent is to record more sounds themselves, including sounds nominated by residents. [GO THERE]

Specially for Commuters - The first of a planned several online sound journeys into subway systems of the world, beginning with the London Underground. Large Shockwave presentation, takes solid bandwidth. [GO THERE]

Radio Aporee - A wild and cool project, which collects sounds recorded by cell phone and plots them on a Google Maps interface; includes hundreds of recordings from all around the world. [WEBSITE]

Ear to the Earth - This network of sound artists is exploring the interface of sound art and environmetnal awareness, hosting annual symposia and this new website, featuring a modest collection of interesting field recordings, and a nice sound art blog. [WEBSITE]

Seattle Phonographers Union - Seattle's ear-minded folk come together with some regularity to share new work, and at times "jam" together, creating improvised performances of their field recordings. This page has excerpts from several events. [WEBPAGE]

Live Antarctic Ocean Streaming Audio - The Alfred Wegener Institute streams live audio from four solar and wind powered hydrophones off the Antarctic coast. [WEBSITE]

Marcus Coates' Dawn Chorus - Unlike the rest of these links, this isn't a full-fledged site, but a film clip that is part of a remarkable gallery installation by Marcus Coates. He recorded a dawn chorus of birdsong, then slowed down individual bird calls to a speed and pitch that is in the range of human hearing and singing. He then filmed 17 people imitating the slowed-down songs. Finally, he speeded up these human voice recordings, re-creating the original bird calls in remarkable detail. [WEBPAGE]

Neil Horne Music Spaces - A java-based soundscape composition/play environment, in which Horne has put together seven different sets of 20 sounds each: Sky Music (insects), Rock Platform (tidal pools), Urban Music, etc. In any "space," you can trigger any or all of the 20 sound files by clicking on a square of his folk-art grid; sounds toggle off with another click and rolling on. Very fun, though it can be addicting! Horne also has a blog, which includes sound, video, and philosophy. [MUSIC SPACES] [dotAtelier BLOG]

Listening to Birds - A two-year anthropological study based at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) is exploring the relationships that people have with bird songs and calls. The project's blog is off to a dynamic start, with many interesting posts, and they are actively soliciting contributions from anyone, worldwide. [WEBSITE] [BLOG]

90 Degrees South - New York-based sound artist Andrea Polli, whose work often centers around natural systems, is in Antarctica for much of December and January. She is posting regularly, with short notes and many sound files: some field recordings, many intereviews with scientists about their work, and about listening. The sound files take a little while to load, but it's worth the patience (let the page load while you read the posts or do something else); once loaded, you can click to listen on the page, or download the MP3s to listen at your leisure. [WEBSITE]

The Silence of the Lands - Interesting "acoustic cartography" project based in Boulder, with related projects underway in Devon and Plymouth, UK. Website includes background on the research approach, community engagement, academic papers, and maps with sound files (Firefox optimized). [WEBSITE]

Ocean Conservation Research Sound Library - A great set of ocean sound samples, in three categories: Fish, Mammals, Human, with songrams to better see the "shape" of the sound. [WEBSITE]

John Bullitt EarthSoundArt - Creator of the DeepEarthDome, a 3D immersive sound installation that puts the listener inside the earth, as earthquakes and other crustal seismic sounds resonate all around, and the CD EarthSounds, has a wonderfully diverse website that features not only sounds of the earth's interior, but a rich collection of other recordings and reflections. [GO THERE]

Xeno-Canto - Incredible colleciton of bird songs and calls from the tropics of the Americas. You can browse for particular birds, or peruse biodiversity maps that identify recording locations. Includes over a hundred hours of recordings, of close to three thousand species. [GO THERE]

Wildsong - Scottish recordist Geoff Sample offers up a generous selection of recordings, along with a large collection of bioacoustics links. [GO THERE]

The Big Ear - This project invites site visitors to participate in a global sound journal, in which people share whatever they are hearing in the moment. Largely text-based, with modest audio contributions. [GO THERE]

Archaeoacoustics Sites - Archaeoacoustics is the study of the acoustic properties in and around archaeological sites, including neolithic stone circles (which often exhibit sound focusing), underground chambers (where there are often amplification or attenuation effects), and rock art sites (where echoes may have evoked spirits). Example: Easter Aquorthies: The project sought to confirm the presence of a distinctive echo that seemed to originate from the recumbent stone. To test this a loudspeaker was positioned near to the recumbent block and set to emit 'pink noise' whilst a series of recordings were taken across the interior of the circle. The arrangement of stones act rather like a stage in a theatre. In addition to providing an impressive visual backdrop to activities within the circle, these megaliths reflect and enhance sound. Sounds could also be heard echoing between other stones, creating a peculiar effect which could easily be generated by clapping, using the voice or by simple musical instruments. Interestingly, people outside the circle would not have been able to hear these sound effects. Aaron Watson Neolithic UK site studies [WEBSITE] [ANOTHER WATSON SITE] Steven J. Waller's Rock Art Site, US [WEBSITE] Victor Reijes recordings analysis [WEBSITE] Archaeoacoustics Yahoo Group [WEBSITE]

Memoryscapes - Enjoy two of the most dramatic riverside walks in London and hear the voices of people whose lives have been entwined with the Thames. These sound walks take place at two of the most contrasting stretches of river in London. DRIFTING begins in the peaceful surroundings of Hampton Court Palace and DOCKERS ends up in the rarely explored industrial landscape of the Greenwich peninsula. [WEBSITE] [INTERVIEW WITH TOBY BUTLER, MEMORYSCAPES CREATOR]

Sounds of New York - Collection of short sound recordings from ferries, subways, streets. [WEBSITE]

Soundseeker - GoogleMaps-based collection of sound recordings made around greater New York; includes dozens of recordings, 30-120 seconds each. [WEBSITE]

Sound Sense of Place - A collaboration between the Detroit Zoo and the Canbrook Academy of Art, this site contains two collections of recordings by David Dunn, all of which are available for download and use in compositions. [WEBSITE]

Scripps Institute Whale Acoustics Center - From the Marine Physical Laboratory, a library of whale vocalizations, presented beautifully with spectrograms. [WEBSITE]

Voices in the Sea - A beautiful Flash presentation of information on several families of cetaceans, including dolphins, beaked whales, blue whales, and humpbacks. Includes short videos of Scripps researchers introducing each family, and sound files. [WEBSITE]

Space Audio - Favorite sounds from Don Gurnett, a long-time academic researcher, presented as sonograms, sound files, and java-based animations tracking the sounds across the sonogram. Features all the classics, from earth-based ionospheric VLF recordings to Cassini at Saturn and Voyager at the termination shock of the solar wind on the extremities of the solar system. [WEBSITE]
SunRings, Kronos/Riley Multimedia Extravaganza - Gurnett worked with NASA, which commissioned Terry Riley to compose a work based on his recordings. As performed by the Kronos Quartet since 2002, this evening-length piece is accompanied by dramatic imagery, and serves as a meditation on our planet's place in the cosmos. Includes links to a pre-performance lecture featuring all the scientific and creative participants. [WEBSITE]

SpaceSounds, DinosaurSounds, StormSounds - For the developers of this series of nicely designed sites, it all started with the sounds of space. Online navigation around the cosmos and globe triggers samples of pieces based on space probe radio frequency data, paleontology evidence, and good old fashioned field recording. CDs are also available. [SPACESOUNDS WEBSITE] [DINOSAURSOUNDS WEBSITE] [STORMSOUNDS WEBSITE]

Macaulay Library Animal Sound Visualizer - A nifty QuickTime plug in allows visitors to explore the world of animal sound in stunning new ways. While listening to an animal call or song (and often watching an accompanying video), you can watch in real time as a curser moves across the spectrogram showing the structure of the sounds. You can even slow down or speed up the playback from .25x to 8x! From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, home of one of the most comprehensive collections of bioacoustics recordings. [WEBSITE]

Binaural Media Survey of Location and Context-Based Media - A series of interviews with sound artists, including Chris Watson, Francisco Lopez, and Yannick Dauby [WEBSITE]

New Adventures in Sound Art - Toronto-based organization sponsoring events and web resources covering sound installations, radio art, soundwalking, and other sound arts [WEBSITE]

Steve Peters Sound Art Blog - Photos, descriptions, and sounds from a wide array of Steve's work. [WEBSITE]

SoundAsArt: Blurring the Boundaries - UK conference planned for November 2006. Website includes detailed abstracts of a slew of interesting papers. [WEBSITE]

Santa Fe Sound - An ocassional audio journal from Jason Goodyear, a recordist, musician, and audio teacher (as well as AEI's resident web coding guru/savior). [WEBSITE]

The Sonic Memorial Project - An incredible Flash-based site that gathers oral histories and personal reflections on the WTC collapse into an online sound art presentation and archive. [WEBSITE]

Taiwan Soundscapes - Two blogs from Tsai-Wei Chen, a Taiwanese student at Goldsmiths College, University of London [BLOGSPOT] [BLOGROODO]

Brood X - A collection of photos and recordings of the great cicada swarms of 2004. [WEBSITE]

Windows Sounds Symphony Orchestra - A Flash project that orchestrates Windows alert sounds into a musical piece; you watch multiple audio controllers create the piece. [ARTICLE ABOUT IT] [THE FLASH PRESENTATION]

Library of Vanished Sounds - Part of a great "turn of the millenium" Soundscapes (be)for(e) 2000 Festival in the Netherlands, this extensive library of RealAudio and WAV files includes everything from old letterpresses to horse-pulled street cars and vintage radio broadcasts of historic events. Follow the link on the left side of the main page. [WEBSITE]

Sound and Society - Travel journal by Paul Roquet, during a Watson Fellowship devoted to exploring the acoustic dimensions of culture in the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia & Canada. [WEBSITE]

Acoustic Environments in Change - In 1975, some of the pioneers of soundscape studies visited and documented the acoustic environment in five European villages; in 2000, a new crop of students re-visted the same towns. This well-designed site shares what they found, in words and sound clips. [WEBSITE]

One Square Inch of Silence - On Earth Day 2005, recordist and soundscape champion Gordon Hempton initiated a private research project, designating one of the quietest corners of the US's most quiet National Park as the first "One Square Inch of Silence." By protecting one tiny spot from any human noise, a much larger area will share the benefit. The spot was chosen due to the lack of human noise, and will be monitored, with the intention of encouraging voluntary cessation of any new human noise intrusions. [WEBSITE]

Campaign to Protect Rural England Tranquility Program - The CPRE Tranquility program has pulled together an impressive array of data and public input into a series of "tranquility maps" and publications aimed at promoting the value of tranquility and the need to protect it before it's over run. The work being done by these folks deserves extended study by anyone working with public responses to noise. [WEBSITE] [BROCHURE] [MAPPING TRANQUILITY REPORT(60p. PDF)] [SAVING TRANQUIL PLACES (12p PDF)]

Pulse of the Planet - One of the longest-standing projects in America relating to soundscapes, Jim Metzner's daily NPR sound capsule has brought the joy of listening into millions of lives. In addition to the daily 2 minute piece, Jim does regular stories and features on Weekend Edition, and his book/CD by the same name celebrates the extraordinary range of sounds on our living planet. Most stories are available online [WEBSITE]
NEW: Digital downloads of favorite themed programs - The Pulse of the Planet website is now offering large collections of mp3 versions of shows, grouped in popular themes. The first three sets (23-49 shoes each, priced at $5-9) focus on hurricanes and tornadoes, whales, and global warming. [WEBPAGE]

The River - An online "show" of new sound works from 11 soundscape artists, curated by EarthEar. Pieces range from concrete to abstract; all can be heard in their entirety as moderate quality streams, or purchased as high-quality MP3s. [WEBSITE]

WorldTune - This website is an ongoing interactive soundsource, with speakers in several locations worldwide playing whichever sound samples have been recently chosen by intrepid internet surfers. A sound library includes submissions from around the world, and is being constantly expanded. Surf on over and change the sound of the world! [WEBSITE]

Phonography.org - A loose collection of field recordists, with sounds of human habitats having equal billing with nature. [WEBSITE]

Quiet American - Web site of Aaron Thieme, a Bay Area producer. Features "One Minute Vacations", updated weekly. [WEBSITE]
Quiet, Please - A radio documentary by Aaron Thieme on field recording and sound art, featuring four hours of interviews and original pieces from 17 artists. [WEBSITE]

WhaleSong.net - Broadcasts live humpback whale songs from off the coast of Maui. [WEBSITE]

Orca Live.net - Broadcasts live orca sounds from British Columbia, courtesy of Paul Spong's hydrophone system. [WEBSITE]

Underwater Acoustics - Researcher and musician Lisa Walker has created a wonderful web tutorial on underwater acoustics. [WEBSITE]

Echo-Locator - A roving community catalyst project that creates live radio and performances inspired by the unique soundscapes of individual communities. [WEBSITE]

Sound References in Literature - A World Soundscape Project collection of great quotes relating to sound and listening. [WEBSITE]

Scripps Institute Whale Acoustics Center - From the Marine Physical Laboratory, includes descriptions of studies underway, and a library of whale vocalizations, presented beautifully with spectrograms. [WEBSITE]

Silophone - Canadian grain silo turned sound art resonating chamber. Anyone can submit sounds to the online archive (ten thousand files so far), and site visitors trigger these files to be played into the silo and re-broadcast online. [WEBSITE] [HEAR NPR STORY]

Soundwalks Online - A collection of online soundwalks hosted by Andra McCartney. [WEBSITE] Related: Andra McCartney's personal site [WEBSITE]

Sounding Places with Hildegard Westerkamp - Online monograph by Andra McCartney. [WEBSITE]

Chris DeLaurenti - Seattle-based writer and recordist; site features essays and sound pieces relating to his "aural safaris". [WEBSITE]

Audible Frequency - A simple, nicely annotated collection of field recordings, easily accessed via MP3; mostly urban ambiences, recorded around Chicago. [WEBSITE]

Audio Hyperspace Radio Art Online - A monthly collection of interesting radio art pieces presented online by German producer Sabine Breitsameter [WEBSITE]

A Sound Walk Across Natural California - Nicely designed Flash-based presentation of California's diverse habitats, including sound, pictures, and text, from the Oakland Museum. [WEBSITE]

Interspecies Communication - For the past 25 years, Jim Nollman has been using improvised music as a doorway to communication with orcas, dolphins, belugas, turkeys, monkeys, and his fellow humans. [WEBSITE]

MSA Design - Web site of Acoustic Designer and researcher Michael Stocker. Includes many essays and articles on the role of sound in architecture, nature, and perception. [WEBSITE]

Atlas Musicalis Project - Electroacoustic bioregionalism from Minas Gerais, Brazil. Paulo Motta weaves field recordings, geographical data, and historical context into a sound suite that gives voice to the landscape of the earth and time. [WEBSITE]

Australian Sound Design Project - Consortium of Aussie sound artists. [WEBSITE]

London Musicians Collective - A great revolving collection of live streams and archived presentations. [WEBSITE]

Kalerne - Website of sound artist Yannick Dauby. [WEBSITE]

Lost and Found Sound - Archives of a year-long NPR series, each one exploring personal experiences of sound. [WEBSITE]

Swarm Music - Tim Blackwell's site, on which he offers up a digitized model of music based on swarming and flocking relationships as seen in insects or birds. [WEBSITE]

Audio Recordings of Great Works of Art - This is an odd site that gets stellar marks for both concept and execution. Hear recordings made in galleries, in front of masterpieces of the art world. Includes the Mona Lisa, The Kiss, Tower of Babel, Van Gogh's Self Portrait with Hat, Venus de Millo, and more. [WEBSITE]

The Sounds of Earth - Sound files of the LP sent with the Voyager space probe, containing a sonic overview of 20th century life on Earth. [WEBSITE]