Soundscape designer Mitch Allen explains the role your physical surroundings play in improving your listening

Today, I have a conversation with acoustic engineer and soundscape designer Mitch Allen. He has over 10 years experience as an acoustic engineer and is currently spearheading the business offering of Soundscape Design for Arup within the Australasian region. He is also the founder of One Two Studios a music production company that specializes in bespoke royalty free music. Mitch has been commissioned for various local and International soundscape installations, and he is passionate about sound design in urban environments.

In this episode, he takes us to the jungles of Bali to illustrate that listening is not something we just do with our ears, it is a multi-sensory experience. Mitch shares the dimensions of the role of a soundscape designer. He talks about the differences between creating soundscapes in modern industrial environments and yoga studios. This is an amazing show, not only because of what Mitch says, but how he says it.

Today's Topics:

• Acoustic engineers solve acoustic challenges of a place or area.
• Mitch solves problems such as mitigating noise or vibration.
• Mitch likes to create a desirable sound experience and that is why he started calling what he actually does as soundscape design.
• Restaurants are often challenging environments for communication.
• These areas need to have a positive soundscape, but it is hard to satisfy everyone's desires.
• A desirable soundscape is attached to the intent of the purpose of the area.
• For the Vivid Sydney project Mitch took sounds from the Harbor and transformed them into sounds of the future.
• Mitch shares how the yoga studio sound he designed needed a hum and he used a 40 hertz sound of a crystal himalayan
• Mitch had a challenging yoga studio soundscape design where the owners wanted a 40 hertz hum playing throughout the area, but it didn't sound right.
• Mitch solved the problem by using a recording from a crystal Himalayan singing bowl and adjusting the frequency.
• Sound is just a form of energy in a vibrational frequency in a range that we can hear.
• The frequencies are the oscillating waves or vibration in the air.
• Our ears pick up the vibration and it is converted to sound energy.
• Noise is unwanted sound. Sound is something that you can choose to hear or ignore.
• Using natural soundscapes as opposed to sound masking in an office environment to minimize the distractions.
• To prepare for listening it is a good idea to remove or be aware of the internal dialogue.
• Embracing the full body experience of listening or the sounds that Mitch feels as he experiences the world.

Links and Resources:

• One Two Studios
• Mitch Allen LinkedIn
• Mitch Allen Blog
• Loftus Precinct
• Vivid Sydney

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