Listen

Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
Recordist's notes
As the lockdown has changed our soundscapes I have begun to return to the locations of the recordings I made for my grassroots football project Get Rid! One of the categories of recording I made for these was 'football not happening' - the sound of parish council pitches and village recreation grounds sounding in the absence of football. The first recording I made was at Brightwell Recreation Ground having headed there to listen to Didcot Eagles playing in the North Berks League I found that the game had been postponed and I could only record the absence of football rather than its presence. The recordings I am now making on Saturday afternoons are a way of marking our changed soundscape and noting the similarities and differences. This recording, however, was made on a Sunday morning to coincide with the game time of the Upper Thames Vally Sunday League in which Checkendon play. The drone of tyres on asphalt has gone, as has the majority of the air-traffic. There are fewer vibrations in the air although there's a lot of lawnmowing. This recording was made using a Sound Devices 722 and an AT BP4025. I wasn't sure whether to upload a normalised version of the track but assuming listeners will use headphones I have gone for the straight bounce on this occasion as it seems more comparable with the original recording that I made.
About the place
Reading is a city of about 318,014 people in England, United Kingdom. OttoAnna lists 153 field recordings from here.
Equipment mentioned: Sound Devices recorders and Audio-Technica microphones. Professional location recorders (702, 722, MixPre series) with very quiet preamps.
Recorded nearby
Listening beside the fence at the end of the path
Reading, United Kingdom
Listening next to the playground near the road
Reading, United Kingdom
Listening while sitting in the bus shelter
Reading, United Kingdom
Listening on the bench half-way between the carpark and the swings
Reading, United Kingdom
Listening on the bench next to the carpark
Reading, United Kingdom
Listening on the edge of the carpark
Reading, United Kingdom
More by Paul Whitty
Hydrophones on the riverbed
Exeter, United Kingdom
Standing on the mud amongst the trees in rough marsh
Exeter, United Kingdom
Standing at the seven-bar gate beside the River Exe
Exeter, United Kingdom
Aeolian gate in third marsh
Exeter, United Kingdom
Listening to the swallows in the farmyard
Exeter, United Kingdom
Listening to the masts in the creek
Clacton-on-Sea, United Kingdom
More streets & traffic recordings
Rarefied night air
Poznań, Poland
Essen. kasteienstraße, garbage truck
Essen, Germany
Marienborn: gedenkstätte deutsche teilung - borderline: memorial of…
Helmstedt, Germany
Hoscheid, sheeps on a meadow
0 Geisseck, Belgium
Hoscheid, geisseck, tractor on the street
29 Geisseck, Belgium
Hoscheid, valley sound
Arlon, Belgium
Sources & credits
- “Checkendon Playing field, Checkendon, Reading RG8 0TU, UK - Listening to the sound of football not happening at Checkendon Playing Field” by Paul Whitty – CC BY-ND 3.0 · radio aporee ::: maps via Internet Archive
- Reverse geocoding: GeoNames – CC BY 4.0