The Project
The idea would be to create a new background noise simply made by people uttering the words 'I Love You' and create a giant chatter... made from love. Playing all the sliders would end up in THE Walla of Love - walla is the jargon for the murmur of a crowd in the background - while playing sliders individually, will reveal each voice clearly.
In practise
Most smartphones embark a decent microphone, and sound recording app. If you have access to a higher quality sound recorder that is even better. The idea is to record the three words, 'I Love You' - that's it - but covering the wides range of voices possible, with different intonations and varied accents. We'll stick to English for the moment, but it is OK if you are not-native, it is even better!
We need to make sure that all voices will blend perfectly, and we should give some guidelines for the intonation. DON'T pretend you are a rock star in a stadium, expressing his love to his fans and shouting I LOVE YOU in front of 40,000-seat audience. Not that one. Let's record our voices at quiet levels, and with emotions. We are not asking you say the words like you would say to your partner, but just to someone that is dear to you. Your best friend, for example. That kind of love. Be sincere when you make the recording - you are like sharing genuine love to the inhabitants of this planet - and the perfect intonation will come naturally.
The challenge will be to make a high quality sound generator. So, you will probably have to experiment with your recording setup, to minimize the hiss and interferences. There shouldn't be background noise present - don't do that in the street for example - and no hiss. Speak close to the microphone, but not too loud as to not distort the recording.
The recordings
Try to stick to the uncompressed .wav format, but most smartphones will probably use their own formats. I will try to deal with the variety of these formats. Don't worry. But always set your recorder to the highest quality settings. And just send the original file. I will make the editing. If you are unsure, you can always send a test file to me, and I will provide you feedback as soon as I can.
Files should be sent to me via WeTransfer. You don't need any account, and the files will be sent straight to me if you use the following address:
And a prize!
There will be a prize for the person comes with the highest number of I Love You recordings. I will be giving away a portable Olympus LS-12 (or something equivalent in price, if you don't care about recording). To make a valid count, the recording should be good enough to make the final selection and feature a voice that hasn't been sent yet. Ask your family or friends to collaborate. If you are a patron, I will add one credit to your account, for each recording sent to me. Make sure that you are using the same email as your patron account, when sending the files to me.
Deadline
Let's try finishing the raw recordings collection by Dec. 31th 2018.
Thank you! I love you too! ;-)